SPORTS
Runners compete well at state cross country
Area athletes competed at the state cross country meet on Friday and Saturday at Old Settler’s Park in Round Rock.
Six individuals and one team from the area ran against the best in the state to finish out their season on top, but one came back with a medal.
Medals are given to the top 10 individual runners in each classification and the top three teams.
Bellevue freshman Mattie Broussard finished fifth overall with a time of 12:17.
She is the first runner from Bellevue to medal since 2009, but her fifth place is the highest ever for the program, boys or girls.
The next best result was from Bowie senior Isaac Renteria. He finished 25th with a time of 16:46. It was his fourth straight year running at the state meet, but his first time competing in the 3A race.
The previous three years, Renteria ran at Gold-Burg in 1A, where he finished 48th, 41st and then came back with a medal last year in ninth place.
Upping the challenge for himself may not have resulted in a medal this year, but it was his fastest time at the state meet out of all four trips.
Nocona junior Bayler Smith represented her program at state for the third year in a row in the 2A girl’s race, but it was her first time running alone and not with a team. She finished 46th with a time of 13:04.
Prairie Valley had two individual runners competing in the 1A races.
For sophomore Josh Stout, he improved upon his performance as a freshman at state last year, shaving off almost a minute and half as he got 29th with a time of 18:19.
Senior Linzie Priddy ran her final race for the Lady Bulldogs and made her third appearance at the state meet. She got 84th place with a time of 14:07.
Saint Jo had one individual runner and one team compete at the state meet.
Sophomore Savannah Hill ran at state for the first time and finished 55th with a time of 13:48.
The Saint Jo boy’s team finished ninth overall out of 16 teams in the 1A race. Elijah Young was the team’s top runner, getting 45th with a time 18:39.
The Panthers top five runners that scored points also included Barrett Johnson (54th), Jayden Curry (82nd), Julian Luna (91st) and Trent Gaston (117th).
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the runners, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1
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