SPORTS
My favorite memories from the Olympics

Like everyone I’ve had fun watching the Olympics so far in its first few days.
A little less than a week into them starting, I have tried my best to keep up with the big news either for USA athletes or teams along with great stories from foreign athletes who have won.
With it set in the time when it is the slowest time in sports for me every year, it is a welcome relief to be able to put on some sort of sport every night like I am used to doing for most of the year.
It’s too early for me to recall my favorite moments of these games so I will instead share some of my favorite memories from watching the Olympics.
1996 Atlanta
I was not a sports fan yet when I was six years old, but these games made a big mark on me as a kid thanks to my sister Carla.
She did gymnastics up until her early teens which meant she was consumed by the “Magnificent Seven” girls gymnastics team, the first U.S. team to win the team finals.
Before TiVo or being able to find streams online, the only way to save something from television was to record it with a blank VHS tape. My family made big use of these, recording mostly TV movies and various things to watch later.
My sister recorded the Olympic gymnastic performances from these games and must have watched them literally a thousand times growing up. Through osmosis, it means I picked up the big beats of what happened at these games before I ever appreciated it.
Kerri Strug’s gold medal clinching vault is still one of the sports most famous moments 25 years later.
All I knew was I thought Dominique Moceanu was one of the few girls at the time I could admit to myself was cute since girls were icky to me.
2004 Athens
I just missed out caring enough to watch the 2000 Olympics with the sports bug infecting me a year later in 2001 so I do not have any memories from that one.
The 2004 Olympics was my first time watching and I found several sports I still have fun watching every four or five years.
Watching the sprint track and field races were fun, especially since both my parents were into it since they both did it in high school. Handball is still one of most entertaining foreign sports, so much so it now seems cliché for new people every four years make the same conclusion.
So much gymnastics watching as a kid still gets me invested in watching it in the Olympics since I now know how hardcore it is when contrasted with the image of smiling teenage girls doing gracefully athletic skills and flips.
Swimming is always fun to watch the first week since there always seems to be an American to cheer for in every race.
Weirdly, my most memorable moment was watching beach volleyball, specifically the duo of Misty May-Trainor and Kerri Walsh-Jennings.
I didn’t realize at the time I was watching the best team in beach volleyball history in a sport that was so fun to watch.
They made playing it look so deceptively easy that only after covering high school indoor volleyball I now know is not true.
It became a thing for me to watch them the next two Olympics as they went on to win the gold medals in both of them as well to leave no doubt they were the best ever.
This is the first Olympics I will watch without either one playing and I have found myself less invested without having both or one of them to root for.
I didn’t realize back then I was getting spoiled.
2008 Beijing
This Olympics is one of my favorites since it made so many great stars for me as a high schooler. Still, it was the Micheal Phelps show from start to finish. He earned eight medals in Athens, but only six were gold.
The record was seven and he had another chance to break that record at this one.
It seemed every swim race you saw people were breaking world records left and right. Phelps was living up to the hype and things just seemed to be going his way even when he did not dominate. He won the 100 meter butterfly race by 0.01 seconds.
Still the most famous race of those games was the 4×100 relay. Even watching it now tells you everything you need to know.
France was supposed to win and the U.S team were big underdogs. The France team rubbed it in as its anchor leg and world record holder in the event Alain Bernard said his team was going to smash the Americans.
Going into the final leg the veteran anchor for the U.S. Jason Lezak was behind Bernard and only barely caught him at the wall to win. The celebration from Phelps and his teammates is iconic and showed he would not be denied his record even if he had to get some help along the way.
I remember being at my high school football team retreat at the time when Phelps won his final gold medal with little drama. There was a pool at the retreat and all of us were inspired to have a swimming race relay that we never would have been interested in doing if not for the fever Phelps had on us.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Bowie track runs at Peaster in final meet before district

The Bowie track team competed in its final meet before district last week on March 27 at Peaster.
The boy’s team finished fourth overall while the girl’s team got seventh place.
The boy’s team had three athletes who won their events.
Russell Anderson won the 400 meter race, Braden Rhyne won the triple jump and Tyler Richey won the pole vault events.
Some other highlights for the team included Cody West getting second in the shot put, the 4×400 relay team getting second place, Richey getting fourth in the 110 meter hurdles, Rhyne getting third in the 300 meter hurdles and Jorge De Leon getting fourth in both the discus and shot put.
Brayden Willett got second place in the 3200 meters, third place in the 1600 meters and fourth place in the 800 meter race.
The Lady Rabbit highlights included Dallie Monroe getting fourth in the shot put, Laney Segura getting fifth in the 800 meters and Olivia Richey getting sixth in the 100 meters.
The 4×200 relay got fifth place and the 4×100 relay got sixth place to earn points.
Bowie competes in the district rack meet this week at Iowa Park. The running finals are scheduled for 5 p.m. on April 4.
Results for all Bowie varsity athletes who finished sixth or better are in the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Montague County has nine named all-region basketball players

Nocona’s Meg Meekins (above) not only earned all-region honors, she also earned all-state honors and was named the Texas Girls Coaches Association 1A-4A Player of the Year.
Other Montague County basketball athletes who were named to all-region teams including Rayder Mann from Bowie and Reagan Phipps from Nocona. From Saint Jo, Payzlie Cervantes, Taylor Patrick and Barrett Johnson were named to the all-region team. From Forestburg, Jesus Sanchez, Brenna Briles and Kyler Willett were named to the all-region team.
For pictures of all nine athletes, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Baseball Roundup

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers lost a close game at home against Perrin-Whitt on March 28.
The Pirates won 8-3, only taking the lead in the seventh inning after the Panthers had come back to tie up the game.
Saint Jo was coming into the game after a close one-run loss in extra innings against Perrin-Whitt earlier last week.
The second game started with two scoreless innings before the Pirates got on the board in the third inning. A line drive into left field resulted in a fielding error that allowed one run to score. A double followed that drove in another run as Perrin-Whitt went up 2-0.
The Pirates added to the lead in the fourth inning, driving in a run on a single to extend its lead to 3-0.
Saint Jo answered back in the same inning. Charlie Evans drove in one run with a single. Later in the inning, with a runners on second on third base, the Perrin-Whitt pitcher balked twice, an illegal pitching motion, that allowed both runners to advance to home plate. The Panthers had tied the score at 3-3.
After a scoreless fifth and sixth inning, the Pirates had the pressure on in the seventh inning.
With the bases loaded, a hit batter and later a walk scored two runs for Perrin-Whitt. Then a bases clearing double scored three more runs to break the game open in the final inning.
Saint Jo tried to answer in its final at-bats, getting two singles and drawing a walk but could not get enough things going to score.
The Pirates won 8-3.
Evans led the team with one RBI and two hits as the team finished with five hits and drew six walks.
Sam Martin allowed eight runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out six and walking three batters in 6.2 innings of work. The defense committed three fielding errors overall.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians had a tough start to district last week, losing both games in their series against Lindsay.
The Knights won 11-4 and 7-3 against the Indians last week as Nocona hopes to get back into the playoffs.
Nocona was coming off a string of good wins the previous week against smaller schools, but knew Lindsay would be tough.
The first game saw Lindsay continually score runs in the first four innings, building a 9-0 lead before the Indians could get on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with two runs.
Nocona added two more runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 9-4 and get some momentum heading into the final two innings.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Knights scored two runs in the seventh inning to extend their lead and eventually win 11-4.
Miller Jentry led the team with two RBIs while RJ Walker also drove in two runs. The team had only two hits, but drew nine walks in the game.
Brody Langford allowed six runs (two earned) on five hits while striking out three in three innings pitches. Landon Fatheree allowed five runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out one and walking four. The defense committed five fielding errors.
Nocona knew it could play better and tried to in the second game later in the week while playing on the road at Lindsay.
The Knights again took the early lead, scoring in three of the first four innings and going up 6-0. The Indians scored two runs in the fifth inning and one in the top of the sixth inning to initially cut the lead to 6-3. Lindsay answered with one run in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on to win 7-3.
Walker Murphey led the team with two RBIs after hit a double. Kutter Cabrera drove in the other run for Nocona. The Indians finished with three hits and drew only two walks, making the most of their limited opportunities.
Walker got the start on the mound and allowed seven runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out six batters and walking two in six innings of work. The defense committed six fielding errors overall.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles started district last week playing a series against fellow 1A team Bryson.
Unfortunately, the Cowboys won both games handily 11-1 and 10-1.
Bellevue was coming off a tough week where it hung tough playing 2A teams Nocona and Chico, not getting wins but competing well against the more experienced and bigger schools.
Unfortunately against Bryson in the first game, a few bad defensive innings threw away a good start to the game. Bryce Ramsey drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and stole his way around to second base, third base before eventually coming home on a steal.
Bellevue led 1-0 after the first inning.
That was the highlight as the Cowboys scored four runs in both the third and fourth inning to take control of the game. Bryson eventually added three more in the sixth inning.
The Eagles needed to score at least one run to avoid getting run-ruled and play the seventh inning, but could not do it. The Cowboys won 11-1.
Walker Strahan, Ryan Jones and Ramsey each had one hit to lead the team. With the Eagles drawing only one walk, it was a tough day swinging the bats for Bellevue.
Defensively, the Eagles allowed 12 hits and walked four batters, though avoided committing any fielding errors.
The second game on the road was not much better.
Bryson built up a 6-0 lead before Bellevue scored in the fifth inning. Cam Blaylock scored on the base paths to cut the lead to 6-1. The Cowboys responded in the same inning scoring four runs to go up 10-1.
The game cuts off on the Game Changer app from there.
Ramsey led the team with three hits in the game and Strahan was behind him with two hits as the team finished with six total and drew one walk.
Defensively, Bryson had nine hits and drew eight walks, but Bellevue did not commit any fielding errors.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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