SPORTS
Athletes earn medals at the state track meet
The state track meet wrapped up on Saturday and Montague County has three athletes bringing back hardware.
Forestburg’s freshman Brenna Briles is coming back with a gold medal while Nocona junior Graci Brown and Saint Jo freshman Damon Byrd are bringing home bronze medals.
Briles won the 1A girl’s high jump with a jump of 5-2 to give the freshman the state championship.
For Brown from Nocona competing in the 2A classification, she was feeling the pressure of trying to defend her two state titles she got in the 400 and 800 meters last year. In a tough field she finished fifth in the 400 meters with a time of 59.42, which was less than a second off from first place. It was not all disappointment though as she earned a bronze medal earlier in the 800 meters with a time of 2:19.
Brown later joined Ava Johnson, Ayden Patton and Meg Meekins as the 4×400 relay team competed at state for the second straight year as well. The team finished fifth with a time of 4:06.
From Saint Jo competing in the 1A classification, Damon Byrd also competed in three events. Byrd earned a bronze medal in the triple jump with a length of 43-7½. In the long jump, he came up just short of winning another medal as he finished in fourth place with a jump of 20-9¼ which was five inches short of third place.
Finally, he also was a part of a relay team. He joined Blaine Penaluna, Devin Stewart and Lee Yeley in the 4×200 relay. The Panthers placed seventh with a time of 1:33.
That was it for the medals, but that is not what all state track is about. Sometimes the journey there is just as important.
Bowie senior Tucker Jones made it to state in the 3A boy’s 110 meter hurdles for the second straight year. Jones had won the wildcard spot, getting the last qualification despite getting third with his career best time at regionals.
Even if Jones could repeat the feat, a medal was probably out of reach with the field he was racing against.
Jones ran well, but not his best as he finished 14.99 seconds and got eighth place. Both were better results than last year at state, where he was just happy to make it to the big dance.
It was a similar story last year, where Jones ran the best time he had ever run at regionals to qualify, getting second that time.
Despite not earning a medal in two tries at state, just getting there for Jones was a trip. His sophomore year he fell on the first hurdle in the regional final.
To come back the next two years and run his best races shows what type of athlete he is.
Gold-Burg junior Isaac Renteria also was returning to state for the second straight year, but had plenty of experience on the big stage having competed at state in cross country three times as well.
Competing in the 1A boy’s 3200 meter race, Renteria just missed out on medaling for the second straight year as he finished in fourth place again, despite his time being nearly 10 seconds faster as he ran 10:06.
Some other athletes were soaking in their first times at the state track meet.
Forestburg senior Reagan Ladewig competed for the Lady Horns for the last time, competing in 1A girl’s shot put. She finished in ninth place with her best throw being 31-2¾.
It finishes a career for Ladewig who started high school competing in five different events before honing in on certain ones which paid off as she got to state in her final attempt this year.
From Prairie Valley, junior Linzie Priddy was competing at the state track meet for the first time. However, it was her third time to represent the Lady Bulldogs at the state level, having qualified for state in cross country her freshman and junior years.
Competing in the 1A girl’s 800 meters, Priddy finished in ninth place with a time of 2:39.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Jackrabbits
A day after football season ended and the Bowie boy’s basketball team played its first game of the season and is working towards a new goal this season.
The Jackrabbits lost that first game against Sanger on Nov. 9, 70-36 before bouncing back a few days later after some practice to beat Bridgeport on Nov. 12, 56-51.
Bowie comes into this season after falling just short of making the playoffs last season.
The team graduated two of its three double-digit scorers along with an experienced post player from its starting rotation last season.
Rayder Mann is the team’s most proven scorer from last season, but other players will be counted on to step up according to Coach Ryan Dykes, who enters his second season at Bowie.
“Rayder Mann and Bradly Horton will need to be the floor generals for us to be successful,” Dykes said. “Boston Farris will be counted on to be a productive player and Gaige Goodman will need to be a factor in the paint on both the offensive and defensive end.”
In the first game against Sanger, Mann led the team with 13 points while Goodman was second with eight points.
The offense was much better overall against Bridgeport. Horton had 15 points, Mann had 14 points and Farris had nine points as Bowie scored in double-digits in every quarter of the game.
Lady Rabbits
In the second week of the season the Bowie Lady Rabbits had up and down performances.
The Lady Rabbits lost at Bridgeport on Nov. 9, 68-30 but bounced back to win at home on Nov. 12 against Boyd 55-42.
Against Bridgeport, Bowie gave up too many three-pointers on defense as the Sissies made 12 in the game.
It was too much for the Lady Rabbits to keep up with.
Parker Riddle led the team with 14 points while Payton Holt was second with five points.
The offense was more successful overall and balanced against Boyd, pulling away in the second half. Hanna Bell led the team with 13 points while Holt was second with eight points and Lanie Moore had seven points.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Lady Indians won a tough match in the regional semi-finals against Forsan on Tuesday night in Breckenridge.
The Lady Indians won 3-1, but had to come back big time in the fourth set to close out the match and prevent it going to five.
Nocona came in as slight favorites against a 28 win Lady Buffaloes team that had an up and down pre-district schedule before sweeping through 10 district matches and dropping only two sets.
The first two playoff matches for Forsan were won with little trouble against McCamey and Highland Park, not losing a single set.
The Lady Indians were coming off a 3-0 win against Seymour and 3-1 win against Hawley in its first two playoff rounds. Their tougher district and pre-district schedule while having a similar record made them the favorites in the match.
In the first set, the Lady Buffaloes proved those thoughts on paper meant nothing as it went down to the wire. It could have gone either way and dipped into extra-points, but it was Forsan that came out on top 26-24 to take the early lead 1-0.
Nocona rebounded and easily took set two 25-14 to tie the match at 1-1. Set three was competitive, but the Lady Indians had the lead and some wiggle room as they held on to win 25-20 to take the lead 2-1.
The fourth set the Lady Buffaloes were not going away as they got the lead early and were able to keep it throughout most of the set.
It looked like the match was heading towards a fifth set, where anything could happen at that point. Forsan led 23-17 and just needed to win two more points.
Somehow, some way Nocona grinded back. A couple of won points caused a time out from the Lady Buffaloes to try and quell the small momentum. It did not and every point won exponentially grew that momentum until it was a surge.
The Lady Indians eventually tied the score up at 23-23 before winning the final two points Forsan had been unable to win in the last eight serves. Nocona won 25-23 in a much more emotional celebration for a 3-1 victory because of how the last set was won.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers secured their third straight trip to the regional tournament on Tuesday with an easy win against Woodson.
The Lady Panthers won in straight sets 3-0 against the Cowgirls as they moved on to the next phase in their plan.
Saint Jo came into the match as favorites, with expectations to get back to the regional tournament before the season even started.
Woodson had some good front court players and had picked up steam during district play to win its district. That didn’t mean the Cowgirls didn’t struggle through its first two playoff matches, taking Richland Springs and Crowell to five sets in their victory.
Also, the teams played earlier in the season during a tournament and the Lady Panthers won 2-0. The fact it was more than two months ago indicated little besides both teams knowing what the other brought to the table.
Saint Jo had only stumbled in its previous match against Perrin-Whitt in the first set, with a lot of uncharacteristic errors.
It was important for Coach Kelly Skidmore to get her team’s mindset right to not give up anything easy since Woodson has proven itself to be feisty in its two five-set playoff wins.
The team took her words to heart and led 5-0 to cool off a hot Woodson crowd that was hoping to root its team to an upset win in a playoff run that was full of excitement so far.
Even with the Cowgirls eventually fighting back, Saint Jo was able to attack Woodson’s serve-receive and win more times at the net with its own impressive front court play.
Knowing also where to hit the ball, avoiding too many dump attacks where Woodson was ready and looking to hit it near the sidelines, also played a factor in the Lady Panthers making it look easy.
Saint Jo won 25-17 to take a 1-0 lead.
The second set proved to be the most competitive of the match. The first 10 points were even, but then the Cowgirls had a 4-1 run to open up a 12-8 lead.
The Lady Panthers battled back and quickly tied the score at 15-15 and then 20-20.
Down the stretch, Woodson had trouble landing its serves while Saint Jo made the Cowgirls work for every point. The execution led to the Lady Panthers winning the close set 25-23 as they took a 2-0 lead.
Even with the lead, it was emphasized to Saint Jo players to not give up an inch since Woodson had shown it could take a mile. While the Cowgirls had not come back from 2-0 in the previous two matches, the fact both went five sets and they would need to do it again if they wanted a chance to win meant the Lady Panthers could not take a breath.
With that in mind, Saint Jo started set three and quickly got out to a 5-0 lead thanks to a string of good serves. That seemed to put Woodson’s energy down, even as the Cowgirls clawed back to within one point relatively quickly 8-7.
Then the Lady Panthers went on a 7-3 run to open their lead to 15-10 and there was no fight left for Woodson. Saint Jo’s lead continued to grow as the end of the match proved near.
The Lady Panthers won the set easily 25-14 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870517&T=1
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