SPORTS
16 athletes qualify for state track meet
After competing at the regional track meet this past weekend, five area schools are sending athletes to the state meet.
The highlight was Saint Jo as the program had 11 athletes qualify for state, with the boy’s team winning the overall team title and the girl’s team finishing second at regionals. Other schools saw Bowie qualify two athletes in the wildcard position while Nocona, Forestburg and Bellevue each qualified one athlete.
Bowie competed in the 3A Region I meet at Abilene Christian University. Tyler Richey finished third in the pole vault jumping 14-6. Usually only the top two finishers qualify for state, but the third place athlete who posts the best time, jump, ect is offered a wildcard spot at state, which is what Richey got.
His teammate Russell Anderson also got it as he finished third in the 400 meters. His career best time of 49 seconds was good enough to earn him the wildcard spot as well.
Nocona competed at Springtown High School in the 2A Region II meet. Graci Brown, who had made appearances the previous two seasons at state, was trying to make it back for her final attempt.
Brown made it look easy in the 400 meters, getting first with a time that is fastest in her classification at 57.86 seconds. Unfortunately, her attempts to qualify in the 200 meters and in the 4×400 meter relay came up just short, finishing fourth in both races.
The rest of the schools competed at the 1A Region III meet at Waco Midway High School.
Saint Jo had a big day. The boy’s team qualified its 4×200 and 4×400 meter relays which included Devin Stewart, Damon Byrd, Barrett Johnson, Lee Yeley and Trent Gaston.
Individually, Stewart qualified in the 300 meter hurdles as well where he finished first. Gaston got second in the 110 meter hurdles and qualified for state as well. Yeley got second in the high jump to qualify individually.
Byrd, who won a bronze medal at state the previous year in the triple jump, finished third in both the triple and long jump events. Thankfully, his jumps were good enough to earn him the wildcard position to return to state in both events.
The girl’s team qualified both its 4×100 and 4×200 meter relay teams consisting of Abby Carter, Aubrey Morman, Jordyn O’Neal, Taylor Patrick and Savannah Hill. Hill also qualified in the 300 meter hurdles where she finished second. The final qualifier was Maxey Johnson who finished second in the discus.
For Bellevue, Mattie Broussard swept the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter races to finish as regional champ in each race and qualify for state.
For Forestburg, defending state champion in the high jump Brenna Briles was able to qualify for state in the event as she finished second. She also qualified in the triple jump where she finished second as well.
The state track meet is scheduled for May 1-3 at Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin.
Results for all area athletes are in the weekly edition of the Bowie News. Pictures of all state qualifiers are in the paper as well.
The Red River High School Bass Club competed this past weekend, May 31 – June 1, at the State Tournament on Lake Conroe for the two-day tournament.
Two of the teams from Montague County traveled south to try their best at the culmination of the year for the state title. Teams were able to pre-fish on Friday before the Saturday and Sunday competition. On Friday, there was a flipping contest for the youth and Cooper Johnson won third overall and won a $500 scholarship and an Academy gift card.
The club’s two teams who competed were Lane Smith/Colt Henry with boat captain Jimmy Smith. The team placed 63rd with a total of 16.22 pounds. The second team of Cooper Johnson/Corbyn Patton and boat captain Jayson Toerck placed 169th with a total weight of 2.29 pounds.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
The Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl is this week on June 6-7 and graduating athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo are confirmed to be playing.
In total, seven athletes from Bowie, five from Nocona and three from Saint Jo are planning to play in the all-star games this week. Nocona also will have a pair of coaches participating as well.
The girl’s basketball game kicks off events on June 6, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Falls Memorial High School. In the game, the east team will have Nocona players Avery Crutsinger, Meg Meekins and Reagan Phipps playing while Kyler Spitzer and Clayton Brown coach them one last time.
On the west team, Saint Jo’s Payzlie Cervantes is confirmed to be playing.
The boy’s basketball game is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. On the east team, Bowie’s Boston Farris and Nocona’s Jose Gomez Jr. will be playing.
On June 7, the volleyball games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the small school game. On the west team, Nocona’s Kaygan Stone and Saint Jo’s Taylor Patrick are confirmed to play. On the east team, Saint Jo’s Aubrey Morman will get to play her teammate.
There are no local athletes confirmed to be playing in the big school volleyball game.
The final event is the football game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. It is an all Bowie affair with six players confirmed to be playing for the east team: Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Hunter Fluitt and Braden Rhyne, Preacher Chambers and Moh Azouak.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona Independent School District officials looked inward for a new athletic director/head football coach, selecting Jeff Hill for the position.
Hill, who served last year as Nocona football’s offensive coordinator and also led the softball program to the playoffs for the first time in a while as its head coach, was upgraded to the role.
This came on the heels of former Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger, who served in the role the last four years, resigned in May.
For Hill, the choice to apply for the position was a no brainer. His one year in Nocona had impressed upon him and his wife that it was the place they would like to be long term.
“I’m looking for a town to raise my kids in and Nocona has treated my family really well,” Hill said. “There are some really good people. The kids work hard. Everything I am looking for in a hometown is right here in Nocona and I want to try and make it as best as it can be, especially through athletics.”
Before Nocona, Hill served as the athletic director at S&S Consolidated while also spending time at Hebron and Whitewright in his coaching career.
Hill expresses great respect for the departing Crutsinger and besides changing a few small things in how he personally wants to do things, he is not trying to come in with a sweeping restructuring of the whole athletic department.
The program had five of its six team sports make the playoffs, with volleyball playing in the regional final and the girl’s basketball team winning the state championship.
That along with two athletes competing at the state championship in cross country and track with one earning a gold medal, it was one of the more successful school years in athletic program history.
“Coach Crutsinger was awesome and did a great job so honestly just little tweaks, a little bit of structure and cohesion amongst the coaching staff between boys and girls,” Hill said. “I hope to keep the winning tradition going overall in the athletic department.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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