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 Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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