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.