Athletes from the surrounding areas competed at the regional track meets on Friday and Saturday for a chance to qualify for the state meet in Austin.
When the smoke cleared on Saturday, five athletes in The Bowie News coverage zone qualified for the state meet.
Daniel Mosley and Logan Lawhorn qualified from Bowie, Tyler Richards qualified from Nocona, Zach Bradley qualified from Forestburg and FreeDom Morris qualified from Bellevue.
The athletes from Bowie and Nocona competed at Abilene Christian University. Mosley won the shot put event, throwing 49-10.
Lawhorn had a career best jump at 6-5 in the high jump. It was equal to the top two jumpers, but because they made the jump in less attempts, Lawhorn finished third.
While he missed out on the automatic state qualification from not finishing in the top two, Lawhorn’s jump was the highest of all third place finishers across the state to earn the wild card spot.
Richards barley edged out his competition to finish second in the 400 meter race. His personal best time of 49.66 was only seven hundredths of a second faster than third place.
The 1A schools competed at Whitney High School. Bradley earned his second straight state appearance by winning the regional title in the shot put again with a best throw of 47-9¼. Morris finished second in the high jump with a jump of 4-10 qualifying for the state meet.
A few athletes also earned third place finishes, but were unlucky in not earning the wild card position to qualify for state. Abby Zamzow from Bowie finished third in the 300-meter hurdles and was just nine one hundredths of a second behind second place.
Mark Gill from Bellevue finished third in the high jump with a jump of 5-10. William Winkler from Prairie Valley also finished third despite tying with second place vaulting 11-6. Unfortunately, it took him more attempts to clear the height.
With competition from the best athletes in the region, just making the finals at certain events were accomplishments for some athletes involved. Zamzow and Mosley each earned points for their schools in other events by finishing in the top six. Mosley finished sixth in the discus and Zamzow fifth in the triple jump. Bannon Osteen from Forestburg also scored points by finishing sixth in the discus.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.