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.
It was announced last week Nocona Athletic director/football coach Blake Crutsinger is resigning from his position at the school after serving four years.
Crutsinger said now is the time for his family to make the move, with his daughter Avery graduating after spending four years at Nocona and with his son Kellar about to enter high school and wanting the same for him at another school.
“With her going off to college, she had a really good four years here and just looking at Keller heading into high school and exploring some opportunities that might be better for him, it is just time,” Crutsinger said.
Crutsinger went 19-22 overall, helping the Indians to two playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023. The team’s best season was 2023, when it went 8-2 and won the district title, the first one in 11 years for the program.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Saint Jo senior Payzlie Cervantes signed her letter of intent to play college basketball last week at Highland College in Kansas. She also played volleyball, softball and ran track at Saint Jo. “After talking with Coach Tana Coleman, I really connected with her and loved the campus vibe and direction she wants for the team,” Cervantes said. “I’m looking forward to continuing my basketball career while getting my associates degree in nursing to become a registered nurse.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Last week Montague County had five girls from Bowie and Saint Jo compete at the state tennis tournament, and one team brought back some hardware.
Sisters from Bowie, junior Heidi and freshman Willow Siebert brought back a bronze medal competing in the 3A girl’s doubles bracket.
The pair were the first people from the program to make it back to state since their half sisters, Meagan and Myah Russell, advanced nine years previously.
The Sieberts came into state as a two-seed, having finished second at the regional tournament the previous week.
The duo was ready as they blew through their first two matches. They beat a team from Hondo in the first round with the scores being 6-1, 6-1 and dominated even more in the second round against a team from Tatum, winning 6-0, 6-1.
That got them through to the second day of the tournament, but Coach Dayna Boothe was worried they had had it too easy on day one.
Playing in the semifinals, the Lady Rabbits faced a familiar foe, a team from Peaster they had beaten in the regional tournament the previous week. Unfortunately, near the end of the first set, with the Sieberts fighting to stay alive, Heidi went after a high lob and slammed into the fence. She hurt her right arm and had to play through it for the rest of the match.
They lost the match with the scores being 6-3, 6-3.
It was an all Peaster final, with the other side of the bracket producing the team that both beat the Sieberts at the regional tournament and won their second straight state title.
Still, despite the disappointment, Bowie is bringing back a bronze medal. According to Boothe, after contacting people who would know dating back to the late 1970s, it could possibly be the program’s first medals from the state tournament in tennis.
Of course, Bowie was not the only school represented. Saint Jo had Taylor Patrick competing in girl’s singles and the team of Bailie Nobile and Maxey Johnson competing in girl’s doubles in the 1A classification.
Senior Patrick was making her third appearance at the state tournament, but her first in the singles competition.
She finished third at the regional meet which meant she had a tough first round matchup against a second seed from Fort Davis.
It took everything from Patrick in a match that lasted two and a half hours. She went down in the first set 6-2, but rebounded in a tight second set to win 6-4 to force a third and final set. She had the momentum and won 6-2 to move on.
She had to summon the energy to play later that day against a fresh one-seed player from Utopia. Patrick lost 6-1, 6-1 to end her Saint Jo career. Her opponent would go on to finish second.
Juniors Johnson and Nobile were making their first appearances at the state meet after finishing second at the regional tournament. In the first round they played a tough match against a team from Marathon. It seemed evenly matched throughout, but small mistakes at inopportune times cost them throughout the match. In the end, the team lost by the scores of 6-3, 6-3.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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