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Climbing documentary awes me

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I recently bought the documentary “Free Solo” and have been thinking about it for more than a month now.
The documentary, which won the Oscar for best documentary last month, features rock climber Alex Honnold as he looks to become the first human to free solo climb El Capitan, a 3,000 foot granite monolith in Yosemite National Park.
For those who do not know rock climbing terms, free solo is a climb where the person uses no safety ropes and is done alone. The only thing they usually have is a bag of chalk to help for grip.
If that sounds crazy, it’s because it is. Less than one percent of all rock climbers regularly make a habit of free soloing. You learn many of the ones who have are dead.
This fact weirdly does not bother Honnold who is the focus of the documentary. The 33-year-old is not what you would expect the Michael Jordan of rock climbing and free soloing to look like.
Long limbed, lean and baby-faced, he usually wears the same blank expression he has climbing without a rope into his every day life. It serves him well in climbing when he is thousands of feet up to stay relaxed. As he puts it, getting scared up there does him no good, so he learned to not worry about it.
I first came across Honnold in 2012 when “60 Minutes” did a feature on him. It seems like climbing is about the only thing he has been interested in since he was a pre-teen. Despite being the most well known climber in the world for his feats free-soloing, he lived in his van for 10 years so he could go climbing around the country depending on good weather conditions.
His attitude towards the risk of death is just another level of the challenge, it’s not because he is a thrill seeker with a death wish. As he explains in interviews, people are likely to die every day driving to work more randomly than he is rock climbing without a rope.
What he means is the amount of prep he usually puts into free soloing a route makes it so when he eventually climbs it without a rope, it no longer feels dangerous to him.
In the documentary, we see Honnold keep a detailed climbing journal of every sequence he will have to do in his climb up El Capitan and notes to himself on how to execute each one. He knows free soloing is more about the mental part of himself than the physical.
The documentary takes place from place from some time in 2016 until June 3 2017, when he completed the climb. It has been a goal of his for eight years since there are no other “holy grail” routes he hasn’t free soloed.
He talks the viewer through the difficult sections he is worried about and what each will take to complete. We see him in the beginning fail as he falls off on these sections as he practices them with a rope.
Also different in his life is for the first time he has a serious girl friend, who is obviously worried about the consequences; but knows there is no way she can keep him from his dream.
Honnold suffers two separate minor injuries while climbing with his new girlfriend after years of avoiding injuries and wonders if she is a distraction while he is preparing for his ultimate climb.
Another factor are the documentary filmmakers, most of whom are professional climbers themselves and are friends of Honnold. The stress of possibly seeing their friend die while they are filming, or worse possibly distracting him and causing him to fall, weighs on all their minds.
Honnold makes an attempt halfway through the film, but bails early enough in the climb to get back down. It is the first time he says he has ever quit a climb and says it just did not seem right with all the cameras around.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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Bowie track runs at Peaster in final meet before district

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The Bowie track team competed in its final meet before district last week on March 27 at Peaster.
The boy’s team finished fourth overall while the girl’s team got seventh place.
The boy’s team had three athletes who won their events.
Russell Anderson won the 400 meter race, Braden Rhyne won the triple jump and Tyler Richey won the pole vault events.
Some other highlights for the team included Cody West getting second in the shot put, the 4×400 relay team getting second place, Richey getting fourth in the 110 meter hurdles, Rhyne getting third in the 300 meter hurdles and Jorge De Leon getting fourth in both the discus and shot put.
Brayden Willett got second place in the 3200 meters, third place in the 1600 meters and fourth place in the 800 meter race.
The Lady Rabbit highlights included Dallie Monroe getting fourth in the shot put, Laney Segura getting fifth in the 800 meters and Olivia Richey getting sixth in the 100 meters.
The 4×200 relay got fifth place and the 4×100 relay got sixth place to earn points.
Bowie competes in the district rack meet this week at Iowa Park. The running finals are scheduled for 5 p.m. on April 4.

Results for all Bowie varsity athletes who finished sixth or better are in the weekly edition of the Bowie News.

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Montague County has nine named all-region basketball players

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Nocona’s Meg Meekins (above) not only earned all-region honors, she also earned all-state honors and was named the Texas Girls Coaches Association 1A-4A Player of the Year.

Other Montague County basketball athletes who were named to all-region teams including Rayder Mann from Bowie and Reagan Phipps from Nocona. From Saint Jo, Payzlie Cervantes, Taylor Patrick and Barrett Johnson were named to the all-region team. From Forestburg, Jesus Sanchez, Brenna Briles and Kyler Willett were named to the all-region team.

For pictures of all nine athletes, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.

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Baseball Roundup

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Logan Hoover dives head first into home plate, beating the tag to score one of Saint Jo’s three runs in the game. (Photo by Jennifer Gaston)

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers lost a close game at home against Perrin-Whitt on March 28.
The Pirates won 8-3, only taking the lead in the seventh inning after the Panthers had come back to tie up the game.
Saint Jo was coming into the game after a close one-run loss in extra innings against Perrin-Whitt earlier last week.
The second game started with two scoreless innings before the Pirates got on the board in the third inning. A line drive into left field resulted in a fielding error that allowed one run to score. A double followed that drove in another run as Perrin-Whitt went up 2-0.
The Pirates added to the lead in the fourth inning, driving in a run on a single to extend its lead to 3-0.
Saint Jo answered back in the same inning. Charlie Evans drove in one run with a single. Later in the inning, with a runners on second on third base, the Perrin-Whitt pitcher balked twice, an illegal pitching motion, that allowed both runners to advance to home plate. The Panthers had tied the score at 3-3.
After a scoreless fifth and sixth inning, the Pirates had the pressure on in the seventh inning.
With the bases loaded, a hit batter and later a walk scored two runs for Perrin-Whitt. Then a bases clearing double scored three more runs to break the game open in the final inning.
Saint Jo tried to answer in its final at-bats, getting two singles and drawing a walk but could not get enough things going to score.
The Pirates won 8-3.
Evans led the team with one RBI and two hits as the team finished with five hits and drew six walks.
Sam Martin allowed eight runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out six and walking three batters in 6.2 innings of work. The defense committed three fielding errors overall.

Nocona
The Nocona Indians had a tough start to district last week, losing both games in their series against Lindsay.
The Knights won 11-4 and 7-3 against the Indians last week as Nocona hopes to get back into the playoffs.
Nocona was coming off a string of good wins the previous week against smaller schools, but knew Lindsay would be tough.
The first game saw Lindsay continually score runs in the first four innings, building a 9-0 lead before the Indians could get on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with two runs.
Nocona added two more runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 9-4 and get some momentum heading into the final two innings.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Knights scored two runs in the seventh inning to extend their lead and eventually win 11-4.
Miller Jentry led the team with two RBIs while RJ Walker also drove in two runs. The team had only two hits, but drew nine walks in the game.
Brody Langford allowed six runs (two earned) on five hits while striking out three in three innings pitches. Landon Fatheree allowed five runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out one and walking four. The defense committed five fielding errors.
Nocona knew it could play better and tried to in the second game later in the week while playing on the road at Lindsay.
The Knights again took the early lead, scoring in three of the first four innings and going up 6-0. The Indians scored two runs in the fifth inning and one in the top of the sixth inning to initially cut the lead to 6-3. Lindsay answered with one run in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on to win 7-3.
Walker Murphey led the team with two RBIs after hit a double. Kutter Cabrera drove in the other run for Nocona. The Indians finished with three hits and drew only two walks, making the most of their limited opportunities.
Walker got the start on the mound and allowed seven runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out six batters and walking two in six innings of work. The defense committed six fielding errors overall.

Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles started district last week playing a series against fellow 1A team Bryson.
Unfortunately, the Cowboys won both games handily 11-1 and 10-1.
Bellevue was coming off a tough week where it hung tough playing 2A teams Nocona and Chico, not getting wins but competing well against the more experienced and bigger schools.
Unfortunately against Bryson in the first game, a few bad defensive innings threw away a good start to the game. Bryce Ramsey drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and stole his way around to second base, third base before eventually coming home on a steal.
Bellevue led 1-0 after the first inning.
That was the highlight as the Cowboys scored four runs in both the third and fourth inning to take control of the game. Bryson eventually added three more in the sixth inning.
The Eagles needed to score at least one run to avoid getting run-ruled and play the seventh inning, but could not do it. The Cowboys won 11-1.
Walker Strahan, Ryan Jones and Ramsey each had one hit to lead the team. With the Eagles drawing only one walk, it was a tough day swinging the bats for Bellevue.
Defensively, the Eagles allowed 12 hits and walked four batters, though avoided committing any fielding errors.
The second game on the road was not much better.
Bryson built up a 6-0 lead before Bellevue scored in the fifth inning. Cam Blaylock scored on the base paths to cut the lead to 6-1. The Cowboys responded in the same inning scoring four runs to go up 10-1.
The game cuts off on the Game Changer app from there.
Ramsey led the team with three hits in the game and Strahan was behind him with two hits as the team finished with six total and drew one walk.
Defensively, Bryson had nine hits and drew eight walks, but Bellevue did not commit any fielding errors.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.

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