SPORTS
Montague County sending 14 to state meet
The regional track meets started on Friday and ended on Monday due to bad weather on day two. Montague County has 14 athletes who qualified for the state meet from six different schools.
Bowie competed at the 3A region I meet at Abilene Christian University. Nocona competed at the 2A region II meet at Springtown High School. All of the 1A schools competed in the region III meet at the University of North Texas.
The Jackrabbits have Tucker Jones heading back to the state meet for the second straight year in the 110 meter hurdles. He did it dramatic fashion.
Only the top two finishers in each event automatically qualify for the state meet. The one wildcard qualifier is the best of all third place finishers in the four regions.
Jones ran a personal best time of 14.73 seconds, which was not only the fastest time out of all the third place finishers, but was just six hundredths of a second faster than fourth place runner from Peaster in his race.
At Nocona, Graci Brown qualified in three of the four events she competed at state last year. Brown won the 400 meters, finished second in the 800 meters and elected to skip the long jump this year.
She anchored the 4×400 relay along with Ava Johnson, Ayden Patton and Meg Meekins. The team finished in third place, but like Jones got the wildcard spot with its time of 4:05 to qualify for state again.
At the 1A meet, there were several athletes who qualified for state after the first day of competition due to scheduling.
From Forestburg, Brenna Briles won the high jump by clearing 5-1. Reagan Ladewig finished second in the shot put with a throw of 32-10.
From Gold-Burg, Isaac Renteria qualified for the 3200 meter race for the second straight year. He finished third with a time of 10:19, also getting the wildcard position.
From Saint Jo, Damon Byrd won the long jump and got second in the triple jump. He jumped 21-3 in the long jump and 42-5 in the triple jump.
A few days later during the the running finals, Byrd would join the 4×200 meter relay team along with Blaine Penaluna, Devin Stewart and Lee Yeley that finished second with a time 1:33 to qualify for state.
From Prairie Valley, Linzie Priddy would earn her first state track appearance by finishing second in the 800 meter race with a time of 2:33, less than a second ahead of third place from Blum.
To read the full story and also see results for all area athletes who competed at the regional meets, 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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