SPORTS
Nocona moving down to 2A
On Wednesday the University Interscholastic League released the conference cutoff numbers for the 2022-2024 school years.
The big news for Montague County is Nocona will drop down from 3A classification to 2A for the first time since 2014.
The Indians turned in a 249 enrollment number back on Oct. 29. It turned out to be one student short of the 250 barrier that would have required Nocona to stay in 3A.
This will make the Indians one of if not the largest 2A school in the state for the next two years which has coaches, fans and athletes alike excited for the future.
“This is really big for the town of Nocona,” Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger said. “I know people have been wanting this for a long time and it just helps us be a lot more competitive in everything. We are no longer one of the smallest schools in 3A. Being on the top end of 2A will really help our kids be a lot more competitive.”
Crutsinger also mentioned that besides helping compete better in athletics, this also will help Nocona UIL academics and band.
Outside of the Indians, no other schools in The Bowie News coverage zone are reclassifying. Bowie turned in 497, a good 47 kids away from threatening to go up to 4A. The Jackrabbits will stay in division I when it comes to football.
Among the 1A schools, Saint Jo was the closest to having to reclassify.
The Panthers turned in 99, with the cutoff number being 105 to move up to 2A.
The move up to 2A also would mean transitioning from six-man football to 11-man, which would have caused a whole host of logistical changes Saint Jo avoided.
All of the other 1A schools did not have to worry about going to 2A, but some did have to worry about going up from division II to division I in football. The cutoff number for division I was 59.
Forestburg (52) and Gold-Burg (47) were thankful to be short of that number.
Prairie Valley and Bellevue did not have to worry about that since neither school plays football. The Prairie Valley Bulldogs turned in the second highest number (56) out of the 1A schools in the area while the Eagles turned in the lowest with 40.
You can look up the conference cutoff numbers and enrollment numbers for all of the schools in the state at www.uiltexas.org.
The official district realignments will be released at 9 a.m. on Feb. 3.
Nocona got its new press box into place this week at Jack Crane Stadium. The old press box, which was in place for more than 60 years, was taken out in early June and moved to Indian Valley Raceway. The new press box was by the Southern Bleacher Company out of Graham. Athletic Director Black Crutsinger said they looked at a lot of press boxes and decided they liked the one at Lindsay High School and went with that model. Sean Hutson operated the crane from the Hurd Crane Service that put the press box up for Nocona.
Sunset native Cason Richey (right) and his team roping partner Beldon Cox from Weatherford repeated as the International Finals Youth Rodeo champions last weekend at Shawnee, OK. Richey and Cox won the previous year and were able to complete the repeat by catching three steers in a combined time of 16.6 seconds. Richey is expected to compete attend Texas Tech University this fall and compete on the rodeo team.
The Chisholm Trail Youth Rodeo had its awards ceremony this week, giving out plaques and buckles to the top competitors throughout the summer season.
There were four age categories with five events to compete in for the young athletes.
Along with the best results in each event, at the end the overall best cowboy and cowgirl in each age division was awarded as well.
The lead line division, in which an adult helps the young competitors, saw Rylee Stewart win the first in poles, barrel racing and mystery event on her way to win top cowgirl.
Hattie Snow got the fastest time in the flags event and Lany Shupak got the fastest goat time. Riggin Bishop got named the top cowboy in the division.
In the eight-and-under division, Whitley Goins won the top cowgirl and Trell Carpenter won top cowboy. Goins got the fastest times in barrel racing, flags and mystery event. Carpenter got the fastest time in poles and goats.
In the 9-12 age division, Sage Keck won the top cowgirl while Chisum Carpenter won the top cowboy. Keck got the fastest times in four of the five divisions. Only Layna Taylor getting the fastest goat time prevented her from winning in a clean sweep.
In the 13-18 age division, Tess Egenbacher won the top overall cowgirl award.
Kiley McCracken won both the barrel racing and flags event. Emma Strahan won the poles and mystery event. Hadlee Bryan won the goats event.
There was no top overall cowboy in the age division.
To see the times for the winners of each event in all four age categories along with pictures of all of the top cowboys and cowgirls, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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