SPORTS
Lady Indians fall in the regional final to Crawford
The Nocona Lady Indians ride stopped one game short of the state tournament as they lost to Crawford in the regional tournament final at Princeton.
The Lady Indians first beat Rosebud-Lott on Friday in straight sets 3-0 before losing to the Lady Pirates 3-1 in the regional final on Saturday.
Nocona was making its first appearance at the regional tournament since 2013 and was hoping to also make it back to state after a long program absence in that as well.
The Lady Indians first match in the regional tournament was against a Rosebud-Lott team with 30 wins. Still Nocona was favored heading into the match, ranked among the top five teams in the state in 2A while the Lady Cougars were less heralded.
The Lady Indians played like it on Friday night. After the last two playoff matches against Como-Pickton and Lindsay had pushed Nocona and tested its resolve in five and four-set matches, the Lady Indians won with relatively little trouble.
Nocona won in straight sets with set scores being 25-12, 25-13 and 25-19. Skyler Smith led the team with 15 kills and 19 assists. Meg Meekins was second with 14 kills and 17 assists.
Bren Fenoglio had a team high three blocks while Grace Brown led the team with 14 digs.
The win set up a match against a Crawford program that was looking to get back to the state tournament for the seventh time in the last 10 years and had two state titles in that time.
The teams looked evenly matched on paper and it would come down to which team performed better that day.
Nocona played great in the first set, breaking out of an even 20 points to take control up 14-11. While the Lady Pirates were always close enough to try and steal the lead back, they never did as the Lady Indians closed the set well, winning 25-21 and playing with a lot of fire up 1-0 early.
The second set saw Nocona carry that momentum into the start of the second set, up 9-6 and looking in control in a competitive set.
Then Crawford came back to tie the set up at 10-10 and it was one or two-point leads for the next 20 points.
Some bad signs started to come up for Nocona. Double-hit errors and other hitting errors the team had avoided in the first set seemed to come up more in the second set and it seemed to take any of the momentum away.
Still, the Lady Indians looked like they might close out the set again up 21-19. Crawford tied the score at 22-22 and it was back-and-forth for the next 10 points.
Nocona fought back from set-point once and then had a chance to put it away up one point 26-25 and needing to win one more to win. The Lady Pirates came back to win the next three points to take set two 28-26 and tie the score at 1-1.
Mistakes seemed to pile up in the third set for the Lady Indians as Crawford took the early lead and control. Down 12-8, Nocona got itself back into the set and tied the score up at 17-17 and 20-20 before taking the lead for the first time late 21-20 and later 23-22.
The Lady Pirates tied the score on a block/kill, the Lady Indians lost the lead on the next point when they had a hitting error and then lost the set when another double-hit set was called. Crawford won 25-23 and now led the match 2-1.
With two close winnable sets slipping away from Nocona, the emotional toll seemed to catch up with the team in the fourth set.
While every set in the match up to that point had been close, no team had fallen behind by more than four points at any time.
Crawford improved its early 9-6 lead to 13-7 and it looked like it was only a matter of time before the match would end.
Nocona was trying, but the sharpness it was playing with earlier in the match was gone while the Lady Pirates seemed to have everything cooking. The Lady Indians were still giving great effort as the lead grew and grew.
Even with the match looking hopeless, the team was not giving up and no girls showed premature tears in their eyes. Still, it never turned around as Crawford closed out the set strong to win 25-14 and the match 3-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Red River High School Bass Club competed on Saturday at Eagle Mount Lake as the club finished fifth overall out of 28 clubs.
The club had two teams that brought in fish at the end of the day, but one also finished highly.
The team of Carson Caudle and Hunter Blackburn got fourth overall out of more than 100 teams. The pair caught three fish that weighed in at 7.99 pounds.
The club had one more pair that brought in fish. Walker Strahan and Bryce Ramsey got one fish that weighed in a 1.95 pounds that was good for 33rd place.
Only 37 out of the 126 teams were fortunate enough to bring fish to the weigh-in.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Bowie
Superlatives
Offensive most valuable player: Rayder Mann
First team
Gaige Goodman
Second team
Boston Farris
Honorable mention
Adam Pickett, Bradly Horton, Braden Rhyne
Academic all-district
Hayden Sutton, Keller Dosch, Anthony Jaraleno, Finn Riddle, Tyler Richey, Adam Pickett, Bradly Horton, Hayden Heugatter, Boston Farris, Rayder Mann
Nocona
Superlatives
Co-newcomer of the year: Landon Fatheree
Fighting heart award: Jose Gomez Jr.
First team
Karson Kleinhans, Oscar Salomon-Gomez
Second team
Zyrus Moreno, Walker Murphey
Honorable mention
Adrian Gutierrez
Academic all-district
Jose Gomez Jr., Kyle Waters, Kasch Johnson, RJ Walker, William Henley, Skye Kirby, Landon Fatheree, Karson Kleinhans, Oscar Salomon-Gomez, Zyrus Moreno, Walker Murphey, Adrian Gutierrez
1A
Superlatives: Jesus Sanchez, Forestburg, most valuable player; Barrett Johnson, Saint Jo, offensive MVP; Evan Chavez, Bellevue, sixth man of the year; Camden Dreyer, Gold-Burg, co-newcomer of the year; Josiah Wadsworth, Forestburg, co-newcomer of the year; Curtis Enis, Forestburg, coach of the year
First team
Ryan Jones, Bellevue; Jesse Wadsworth, Forestburg; Kyler Willett, Forestburg; Lee Yeley, Saint Jo; Trent Gaston, Saint Jo
Second team
Aaron Allison, Bellevue; Brycen Bancroft, Bellevue; River Trail, Bellevue; Jayton Epperson, Gold-Burg; Trae Campbell, Prairie Valley; Zeke Bonn, Saint Jo; Landon Shannon, Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Bryce Ramsey, Bellevue; Brenna Criswell, Bellevue; Eli White-Freeland, Gold-Burg; Keelyn Case, Gold-Burg; Barrett Allen, Gold-Burg; Angel Cruz, Forestburg; Hayden Halliburton, Forestburg; John Carranza, Forestburg; Hunter Camden, Prairie Valley; Jarrett Horton, Prairie Valley; Landen Williams, Saint Jo; Jayden Curry, Saint Jo; Colton Curry, Saint Jo
Academic all-district
Bellevue: Walker Strahan, Brycen Bancroft, Bryce Ramsey, Will Bonds, Cowyn Langford
Forestburg: Rafeal Sanchez, Josiah Wadsworth, Tristan Cumby, Hayden Halliburton, Jesse Wadsworth
Prairie Valley: Hunter Camden, Jarrett Horton, Josh Stout, Dayne Sadler, Kasey Caruthers
Saint Jo: Jayden Curry, Colton Curry, Landon Shannon, Barrett Johnson, Trent Gaston, Zeke Bonn, Lee Yeley
Gold-Burg: Levi Hellinger, Brady Allen, Barrett Allen
For pictures from players from every team, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians’ softball team had a great first week as a full team, winning all of their games and going 4-0 at their hosted tournament against a Seymour program.
The Lady Indians were able to add some players from basketball, which only ended the previous week after winning the state title.
Nocona kicked off the week with a blowout win against Perrin-Whitt on March 4. The Lady Indians scored 12 runs in the first inning and seven in the second as the game ended after three innings due to run-rule, Nocona winning 19-1.
Skye Kirby led the team with four RBIs while Kylea Wallace and Heidi Atteberry were second with two RBIs each. The team drew 12 walks.
Reagan Phipps, fresh from the basketball court, allowed one run (zero earned) on two hits while striking out seven batters.
Nocona on March 6-7 played double-headers on each day against Seymour and its JV team.
The first game against the Lady Panthers varsity team saw the Lady Indians win 14-6 after four and half innings. Gwyndelyn Forsyth led the team with three RBIs while Tinley Cable, Kirby and Phipps each drove in two runs. Phipps hit a home run as well.
On the mound, Phipps allowed six runs on nine hits while striking out nine batters.
The next game against the JV team from Seymour was strangely closer, but Nocona came out on top, winning 10-7 after four innings played.
Forsyth led the team with two RBIs as five different players drove in one run each. Atteberry got the start on the mound and allowed seven runs on six hits while striking out six batters and walking seven.
The next day Nocona dominated the Seymour varsity team again, winning 11-2 after five innings played. Evelyn Marquez led the team with two RBIs while four other players had one in a balanced approach. Phipps allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits while striking out seven batters.
The Lady Indians made sure not to let up against the Seymour JV team in the next game. Nocona won 16-3 after four innings played to end the week off right.
Kaitlyn Tiffner led the team with four RBIs while Marquez drove in three, Kirby and Cable drove in two. Atteberry allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits while striking out two batters.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers had tough games last week against 2A team Chico and Muenster.
The Lady Panthers lost by the scores 21-2 and 22-0 as they try to look for the positive while playing against mostly bigger schools.
Saint Jo played Chico on March 7. Most of the damage was done in the second inning, with the Lady Dragons scored 13 runs. The Lady Panthers did score runs in two of the three innings played, but the game ended after three due to run-rule as Chico won 21-2.
Reagan Wilson led the team with one RBI. On defense, the team had 17 walks and allowed 10 hits, though the team committed zero fielding errors.
It did not get any easier hosting Muenster on March 10. The Lady Hornets scored 10 runs in the first inning before Saint Jo could come up to bat and had dug itself a big hole. The Lady Panthers had little success with their bats in the game, with Maxey Johnson being the sole base runner as she got a hit.
Muenster won 22-0 as the Lady Hornets had 14 hits and drew 16 walks.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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