SPORTS
Four athletes medal at state track meet
The area sent 17 athletes to compete at the state track meet last week and four brought back medals competing against the best.
Nocona’s Graci Brown earned a gold medal, Forestburg’s Brenna Briles earned a silver medal, Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard and Saint Jo’s Damon Byrd won bronze medals.
Lightning on Friday afternoon pushed 2A/5A running events to Saturday morning where runners was competing at the same time 1A/6A field events were going on. Despite that the weather, while being a bit humid, was perfect during Thursday and Saturday.
The Lady Indian’s Brown was making her third and last appearance at the state meet. She won two gold medals and a bronze medal in her past two trips, but was disappointed by her performance last year.
She rededicated herself this season and it paid off. She came into state with the fastest qualifying time in the 2A girl’s 400 meters event. She improved on her time, running a personal best 57.33 seconds, winning by more than a second to earn her third gold medal. She leaves Nocona as the most decorated track athlete in program history.
For Forestburg’s Briles, the sophomore leaves state a bit disappointed at not defending her gold medal from the year before in the 1A girl’s high jump event. Both she and the girl from Silverton ended up jumping the highest at 5-2.
After both failed to jump 5-3, the gold was figured by who had fewer faults up to that point. Briles had taken three tries to make 5-0 height earlier, which was one more than the other girl.
Briles then immediately went to compete in the 1A girls triple jump where she jumped 34-3.75 on her final attempt and finished in fifth place.
Saint Jo’s Byrd, a sophomore, had an up and down day at the jumping pit. It was his second year competing at state after competing last year as a freshman and earning a bronze in the triple jump.
Competing first in the 1A boy’s long jump, he was well out of medal contention after faulting on three of his five jumps heading into his final attempt. He jumped 22-1.75, which moved him up to third place where he finished to earn his second bronze medal.
Unfortunately, Byrd could not replicate that success when he competed in the 1A boy’s triple jump later. He faulted on his first three attempts. Without a successful jump, he was not allowed his final three attempts. Still, Byrd was pleased with getting a medal on his second trip back to state.
For Bellevue freshman Mattie Broussard, everything was new for her competing at the state track meet. Not only that, but she had three races to compete in and was not a favorite to medal in any of them based on qualifying times.
In the 1A girl’s 3200 meter race in the morning, she finished in fifth place with a time of 12:02, improving her time by 52 seconds and setting the tone for the day despite not getting a medal.
Later she ran the 1A girl’s 800 meters. Coming down the final straightaway, she was sitting in third place with a runner from Borden County who had been drafting behind her the whole final lap. She made a play to pass Broussard, but Mattie held on to finish third and earn the bronze medal. Her time of 2:22 was eight seconds faster than her qualifying time.
Broussard then finished her busy day by running in the 1A girl’s 1600 meter race near the end of the meet. Broussard could not slip up into medal contention again, finishing in seventh place with her time of 5:32 being a 13 second improvement from her qualifying time.
Broussard had little expectations coming in and leaving with Bellevue’s first medal at the state track meet, according to Athletic Director Colby Broussard, along with three new personal records is more than she could have imagined.
Those were the athletes who left Austin with a medal, but the area still sent 12 more athletes to state who did their best competing against the best.
From Bowie, sophomore Tyler Richey competed in the 3A boy’s pole vault. He jumped 14 feet and finished in eighth place. Competing later in the day, senior Russell Anderson competed in the 3A boy’s 400 meter race. He ran 50.58 and got seventh place.
Saint Jo brought 11 more athletes who competed. Individually Devin Stewart nearly medaled, finishing fourth in the 1A boy’s 300 meter hurdles with a time of 41.17. Savannah Hill got sixth place in the 1A girl’s 300 meter hurdles with a time of 49.75. Lee Yeley got seventh place in the boy’s 1A high jump, completing 6-0.
Maxey Johnson competed in the 1A girl’s discus where she got eighth place, her best throw being 98-6. Trent Gaston competed in the 1A boy’s 110 meter hurdles where got ninth place with a time of 16.27.
Saint Jo also had two relay teams for both the boy’s and girl’s teams get through and competed, with many athletes competing in other events as well.
The Lady Panthers 4×100 relay team, made up of Hill, Abigail Carter, Aubrey Morman and Jordyn O’Neal got fourth place with a time of 51.21. Their 4×200 girl’s relay team, consisting of Taylor Patrick, Olivia Johnson, Carter and O’Neal got seventh place with a time of 1:50.
Saint Jo’s 4×200 boy’s relay team, made up of Barrett Johnson, Stewart, Byrd and Yeley got seventh place with a time of 1:32. Later the boy’s 4×400 relay team, consisting of Gaston, Stewart, Yeley and Johson, got eighth place with a time of 3:34.
To see results for all area athletes, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the state meet, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6874863&T=1
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.
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