SPORTS
Montague County had eight athletes compete at state track
The state track meet in Austin was last week and Montague County had eight athletes competing against the best in the state in their particular events.
At the end of three days, Nocona sophomore Graci Brown was the only athlete who stood on the podium as she won two gold medals, but all athletes did a good job of competing on the biggest stage.
On the first day on Thursday, only Bowie junior Tucker Jones was competing.
Running the 3A 110 meter hurdles event, Jones finished ninth with a time of 15.40 seconds.
It was not his best time and with one more year of high school, Jones is going to use it as motivation for next season.
On the second day of the meet on Friday, Nocona’s Brown was competing in four events.
In the morning she started the day competing in the 2A long jump. She was sitting in third place after the second jump which ended up being her best jump of 17 feet 9 inches.
It was only on the final jump that a girl from San Augustine came out of nowhere, improving her best jump by nearly 10 inches and finished half an inch ahead of Brown. She finished fourth and did not get a medal.
Brown was devastated, but was determined the result was not going to negatively affect her next three events later in the day.
She first ran the 800 meter race. Brown was sitting in third place after the first lap and made her move with about 200 meters left in the race, going outside on the curve to turn on the jets.
She ran away from the two girls who were leading throughout the race and won by nearly two seconds with her time of 2:15.84.
Brown did not have long to celebrate one of her goals. With the rainy weather coming in, the meet was on a rolling schedule, meaning her rest time until her next race would be shorter than usual.
Less than an hour later Brown had to then run the equally grueling 400 meter race.
Brown finished first with a time of 57.69 and beat second place by .35 seconds. It was her second gold in less than an hour’s time.
Despite that, Brown’s day still was not done as she anchored the 4×400 relay at the end of the meet.
The team of Ava Johnson, Ayden Patton, Megyn Meekins and Brown came in sixth place with a time of 4:06.72.
The third day on Saturday was the most rainy day that featured delays throughout, which is what the three boys from Gold-Burg and Saint Jo got to compete in.
Sophomore Devin Stewart from Saint Jo competed in the 1A high jump.
Stewart did not jump his best on the day, finishing at 5 feet 10 inches in fifth place. He felt he could have done better, but was not dismayed by the result.
Fellow sophomore Isaac Renteria from Gold-Burg also competed in the morning running in the 1A 3200 meter race.
Renteria just missed earning a medal, finishing fourth with a time of 10:16 and was just three seconds off from third place.
Renteria was not pleased with the result, but knew he had one more chance later that day running in the 1600 meter race along with a familiar competitor.
Saint Jo senior Collin Thomas was making his second appearance at the state track meet.
He made it last year in the 800 meters and was also a leg in the 4×400 team. He finished in ninth last year in the 800 meters and wanted to run better with it being his last chance.
He did as he finished fourth with a time of 2:00.84. Although he was half a second behind the third place finisher, he jokingly gestured after the finish how close he was to the third place runner and earning a medal.
He would have his chance later as both Thomas and Renteria ran in the 1600 meter race.
It was a close race for the mile with only 12 seconds separating first place from last place.
Thomas again was kept off the podium as he finished in fourth place again with a time of 4:43.
Renteria only finished two seconds behind with a time of 4:45, but finished in seventh place.
To read the full story with quotes and see more pictures, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Lady Indians beat Saint Jo at home on Saturday morning.
The Lady Indians won 16-1 after four innings due to run-rule against the smaller school.
Nocona was coming off a competitive loss at Collinsville earlier in the week while the Lady Panthers were hoping to compete after a busy week of their athletes doing everything else besides just softball.
The Lady Indians easily won the first matchup between the teams in March, 19-2 and it was more of the same on Saturday.
Saint Jo struck first to start the game off well. Jordyn O’Neal hit a one out single. Krista Reeves followed with a walk after O’Neal had stolen second base and had advanced to third thanks to an error trying to throw her out. A wild pitch then allowed her to score to put the Lady Panthers up 1-0.
The lead did not last long. Nocona’s first two batters drew walks which set up Abby Hill to drive them both in with a single to right field.
Despite giving up a single and a walk later in the inning, Saint Jo’s defense did not allow another run. A line out and groundout to the shortstop while picking off a runner attempting to steal got the Lady Panthers out of the inning unscarred.
The Lady Indians led 2-1.
That was about as competitive as it got. In the second inning, Nocona’s bats got going. Two singles and a hit batter loaded the bases up with no outs.
Reagan Phipps drew a walk that drove in a run. Hill hit another two RBI single. Skye Kirby followed with a two RBI double.
After the first out, Allie Sutton drove in one run with a single. There was a fly out for out two, before a runner came in to score after a passed ball. Finally, an error allowed two more runs to score on the base paths.
Nocona had scored nine runs and led 11-1 to break the game open heading into the third inning.
Taylor Patrick hit a double, with O’Neal and Reeves following with singles. Unfortunately for Saint Jo, Patrick was thrown out before the hits attempting to steal a base so the Lady Panthers scored no runs from this.
The Lady Indians kept pouring on the runs. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases up with no outs. Tinley Cable then hit an RBI single. Shelby Swell was hit by a pitch that drove in another run.
After two strikeouts, Evelyn Marquez drove in two more runs on a double to put Nocona up 15-1, coming up one run short of ending the game early.
The Lady Indians scored that one run in the fourth inning. After Phipps drew a leadoff walk, Hill hit a triple that drove her in to end the game.
Nocona won 16-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Both Bowie and Nocona track teams competed at the area meets on Thursday, with the Jackrabbits running at Breckenridge and the Indians at Graham.
As a team, the Bowie boys placed sixth overall, the Lady Rabbits finished 14th overall, the Indians got seventh overall and the Lady Indians earned sixth overall.
The Bowie boy’s team had four athletes finish fourth or better to qualify for the regional meet while the Nocona teams had 10 athletes move on.
The Jackrabbits had Case Curry and Tyler Richey gets second and fourth place in the pole vault to move on.
Tucker Jones finished third in the 110 meter hurdles to qualify along with Russell Anderson who also finished third in the 400 meters.
The Lady Rabbits did not have anyone move on, with Harlei Hudson getting sixth in the 100 meters and the 4×200 relay team finishing in eighth place.
From Nocona, both teams had athletes qualify in several events. Defending state champion Graci Brown won both the 400 and 800 meter races. She also anchored the 4×400 relay to second place and earned second in the long jump.
On the boy’s team, Caden Gaston finished first in the long jump, second in the 100 meters and third in the 200 meters. Kyle Waters finished fourth in the 400 meters and third in the 800 meters.
Individual qualifiers included Meg Meekins placing fourth in the 200 meters, Cooper Waldrip placing second in the 300 meter hurdles and the boys 4×400 relay team finishing in fourth place.
The regional meets are both scheduled for April 19-20 if weather permits. The Bowie team will compete at Elmer Gray Stadium at Abilene Christian University. The Nocona team will compete at Springtown High School.
Results for all Bowie and Nocona athletes are in the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Lady Rabbits won their senior night on Friday against Vernon.
The Lady Rabbits won 10-4 against the Lady Lions.
Bowie was hoping it could play well after a couple of losses where one bad defensive inning had really set the team back. The Lady Rabbits knew it would be a good opportunity as they had beaten Vernon a few weeks back 14-3.
The first two innings saw Bowie’s bats fail to go off and challenge the Lady Lions much. In the second inning, Vernon hit a leadoff single and two fielding errors later allowed one run to score.
Down 1-0 heading into the third inning, the Lady Rabbits started to get hot with their bats following a flawless defensive inning.
After two singles, Serenity Klump drove in two runs with a double to help Bowie take the lead. After getting on third base, she eventually was able to score thanks to a passed ball.
Following a walk and a double hit by Sadie Britt, Kaylie Kinney followed with a double that drove in two more runs to make it 5-1 for the Lady Rabbits.
After a scoreless fourth inning, Vernon answered back in the fifth inning. After hitting a batter and walking another, a Lady Lion hitter drove the ball into the gap. An error trying to field the ball allowed not just both base runners to score, but the batter to get all the way around to score. Vernon cut the lead to one run 5-4.
Bowie got one of the runs back. Klump led off with a walk and Laci Goodwin then drove her in with a triple to make it 6-4.
After another flawless defensive inning, the Lady Rabbits added to their lead in the sixth inning to put the game away.
After three straight singles from Victoria Cox, Chloe Kinney and Rhyan Carle led off the inning, Klump cleared the bases with a double to drive in three runs.
Three batters later, she was able to score from third base after an error at catcher to make it 10-4.
The Lady Lions needed to come alive in the final inning, but besides a one out single, the Bowie defense was able to shut them down for the final two outs with no issue.
The Lady Rabbits won 10-4.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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