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.
A solid day was had by Montague county high school tracksters at the State Track and Field Meet May 16 in Austin.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard had a pair of second place finishes in both the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.41 and the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:31.33. Broussard also was 4th in the 1,600-meters with a time of 5:22.18.
Her teammate Brylie Hager was 9th in the 110-meter hurdles in 19.93.
Forestburg’s Brenna Briles was 4th in the triple jump with a 35’9 1’2” leap. Her teammate Jocelyn Rich was 4th in the pole vault with a 9’ leap.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie had a pair of top four finishes at the State Track and Field Meet May 14.
Sophomore Brayden Willett made it onto the medal stand, finishing 3rd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:17.89. Bowie junior Tyler Richey finished 4th in the pole vault after a 14’6” effort.
The top two finishers from Holliday, also in Bowie’s district, celebrated with him after he crossed the finish line.
“It was kind of surprising,” Willett said about Ryder and Noah Stroman embracing him in a celebratory hug. “They’re good guys, so it was kind of cool.”
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
This past week found your outdoor scribe doing some rather mundane things such as yard work, vegetable gardening and repairs around the old cabin. Oh, I also wrapped up a couple of magazine articles. I always enjoy sharing my adventures with all of you in this column but to be perfectly honest, not nearly as much as my ‘field work’ hunting and fishing which is an iatrical part of any good outdoor column. If you’re like me, you much prefer reading about an adventure that you can also partake.
I am far more comfortable telling you about an outdoor experience I had firsthand knowledge of rather than the reporting part of my job as an outdoor communicator. So, this week, I’d do a bit of ‘reporting’ and share some planned adventures I have scheduled for the next couple weeks. By the time you’re reading this, I will have already been in the woods in quest of a fat ‘eater’ hog and probably have some freshly caught blue catfish fillets in the freezer, details will follow in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll kick things off early in the week heading down to my friend Jeff Rice’s Buck and Bass Ranch located on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff produces our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV and YouTube. Our plan is to film a segment of our show on stalking wild hogs. It will be a challenge to capture the shot with all the thick grown spring vegetation. It could happen fast and require a fast shot. We will be breaking in my CVA Cascade scout rifle in 308 caliber. This short barrel little rifle is light and easy to handle in thick cover, ideal for this type of hunting. Our plan is to hit the woods during the last couple hours of daylight and ease along the trails, watching and especially listening for hogs. Wild porkers are vocal critters and it’s common to hear them before seeing them. We will play the wind and attempt to get downwind and then close the distance for a shot but you can never guess how a hog hunt will unfold. Wild pork or not, Jeff and I always have a great time together and I plan to bring a side of wild pork ribs already slow smoked and covered in brown sugar and BBQ sauce with a side of camp baked beans!
After a tasty dinner we plan to get a good night’s sleep and head out the next morning for a planned fishing trip with guide David Hanson at Lake Tawakoni. Both channel and blue catfish are on a very good bite right but it’s hard to pass up those snow white blue catfish fillets when the bite is good. David is, to my knowledge, the most veteran catfish guide on the lake and became friends close to a quarter-century ago when we first began fishing
together. The plan is to use freshy cut shad in shallow water and target eater size blues weighing between 2 and about 10 pounds but as every catfish angler knows, it’s always possible to connect with a big trophy size blue when fishing Tawakoni.
Next week, I plan to join my long-time friend J.C. McCollough on the Red River below the Texoma dam. I’ve been fishing and hunting with J.C. for many years and look forward to getting with him again. I would describe this to catching big catfish in a barrel but in this case the deep holes in the river are comprised of several acres. The water level in the river below Texoma are dictated by the water release at the dam by the Corp of Engineers. When there is a current in the river, fish move upstream to feed on baitfish coming through the dam. When the water recedes, they fish move into the deeper holes where baitfish also seek refuge from the falling water. Catching will be fast paced with the chance to connect with some big fish as well as limits of “eater” size fish. We’ll be rigging with big live gizzard shad fished weightless on a free line, using medium spinning gear. The bigger fish will often nail the frisky live shad and the fresh cut bait is a sure way to connect with lots of smaller fish. There is something very exciting about fishing big live baits on a slack line. One minute your bait will be darting around and you will occasionally feel it taking up slack and the next when a big blue catfish grabs the bait, the rod will bow and the fight will be on. There is usually no ‘setting the hook’, by the time you feel the fish, it will already be hooked and making a strong run to the nearest submerged brush. Your job will be to keep the drag set just enough to keep pressure on the fish but not so much as to cause the line to break.
J.C. uses his airboat to access these deeper holes because of the very shallow water. While it’s not impossible to portage a kayak or small boat in the river, it often requires a few miles travel to get to these deep holes, this is best accomplished by experienced kayakers with plenty of endurance. There was a time when I was game for this type fishing but I much prefer to do my river fishing these days from a boat designed to negotiate the shallow waters.
Squirrel season is underway in many of the east Texas counties and there’s some pretty good fox squirrel hunting here close to home in Kaufman county and I’ve been thinking about how tasty a big skillet of smothered squirrel with rice, gravy and biscuits would be. Bream are on the beds now and my friend Edgar Cotton invited me to come do some ‘perch jerking’ with him and his son David-it’s in the plans! Well, hopefully next week I will have a ‘sure nuff’ adventure of two to relate you you-I’m ready to get some relief from all this work around the homeplace! LC
You can contact Tawakoni/Fork catfish guide David Hanson at 902-268-7391. Contact J.C. McCollough at 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s podcast, “Catfish Radio” just about everywhere podcast are found.
-
NEWS3 years agoSuspect indicted, jailed in Tia Hutson murder
-
NEWS4 years ago2 hurt, 1 jailed after shooting incident north of Nocona
-
NEWS3 years agoSO investigating possible murder/suicide
-
NEWS3 years agoWreck takes the life of BHS teen, 16
-
NEWS3 years agoMurder unsolved – 1 year later Tia Hutson’s family angry, frustrated with no arrest
-
Show us something good9 years agoCountry music star children perform in Bowie
-
NEWS3 years ago
Sheriff’s office called out to infant’s death
-
100th Birthday4 years agoLooking back at the 1958 Centennial edition of The Bowie News