Cartwright Leads Pack of Loboes to Austin
   By Craig Craker, Odessa American, April 30, 2006

Monahans’ Chelsea Cartwright does not like to let people down.

In fact, it makes her downright nervous to think about it.

On Saturday, she shouldn’t have worried so much.

In both the 400- and 800-meter relays, the senior made sure her Loboes teammates would be joining her at the 3A state track and field meet.  Monahans qualified two relay teams and Cartwright in the 100-meter hurdles for the state meet May 12-13 in Austin.

In the 400 relay Saturday at the Region I-3A meet at Ratliff Stadium, Cartwright was handed the baton with her team in fifth place.

But facing one of her last runs ever in Odessa, the senior took off and quickly passed the field to win the gold.

“I wasn’t nervous,” said Monahans’ Jordan Latham, who ran the first leg, “because Chelsea is really fast and competitive and will do anything to win.”  The Loboes won the race in a time of 49.87 seconds. 

Crystal Madrid and Amanda Hernandez joined Latham and Cartwright in the relay. All four also ran to second place in the 800-meter relay.

Once again, Cartwright was handed the baton trailing, this time in third place. The senior couldn’t rally her team all the way to first, but she made sure they qualified for state.

“I almost ran out of gas, but I couldn’t let up or we wouldn’t have gotten second,” Cartwright said. “I had keep pushing and pushing.”
The Loboes took second in a time of 1 minute, 44.45 seconds.

Cartwright also won the 100-meter hurdles in a time of 14.49.

“Every day I go over at least one set of hurdles,” she said. “I didn’t struggle with any of them.”

With the two wins and the second-place finish in the relay, Monahans was able to claim second place in the team race by a point. The Loboes finished with 54 points, behind only Abilene Wylie’s 77 and barely ahead of Graham’s 53 points.