The state track meet wrapped up on Saturday and Montague County has three athletes bringing back hardware.
Forestburg’s freshman Brenna Briles is coming back with a gold medal while Nocona junior Graci Brown and Saint Jo freshman Damon Byrd are bringing home bronze medals.
Briles won the 1A girl’s high jump with a jump of 5-2 to give the freshman the state championship.

For Brown from Nocona competing in the 2A classification, she was feeling the pressure of trying to defend her two state titles she got in the 400 and 800 meters last year. In a tough field she finished fifth in the 400 meters with a time of 59.42, which was less than a second off from first place. It was not all disappointment though as she earned a bronze medal earlier in the 800 meters with a time of 2:19.
Brown later joined Ava Johnson, Ayden Patton and Meg Meekins as the 4×400 relay team competed at state for the second straight year as well. The team finished fifth with a time of 4:06.

From Saint Jo competing in the 1A classification, Damon Byrd also competed in three events. Byrd earned a bronze medal in the triple jump with a length of 43-7½. In the long jump, he came up just short of winning another medal as he finished in fourth place with a jump of 20-9¼ which was five inches short of third place.
Finally, he also was a part of a relay team. He joined Blaine Penaluna, Devin Stewart and Lee Yeley in the 4×200 relay. The Panthers placed seventh with a time of 1:33.
That was it for the medals, but that is not what all state track is about. Sometimes the journey there is just as important.

Bowie senior Tucker Jones made it to state in the 3A boy’s 110 meter hurdles for the second straight year. Jones had won the wildcard spot, getting the last qualification despite getting third with his career best time at regionals.
Even if Jones could repeat the feat, a medal was probably out of reach with the field he was racing against.
Jones ran well, but not his best as he finished 14.99 seconds and got eighth place. Both were better results than last year at state, where he was just happy to make it to the big dance.
It was a similar story last year, where Jones ran the best time he had ever run at regionals to qualify, getting second that time.
Despite not earning a medal in two tries at state, just getting there for Jones was a trip. His sophomore year he fell on the first hurdle in the regional final.
To come back the next two years and run his best races shows what type of athlete he is.

Gold-Burg junior Isaac Renteria also was returning to state for the second straight year, but had plenty of experience on the big stage having competed at state in cross country three times as well.
Competing in the 1A boy’s 3200 meter race, Renteria just missed out on medaling for the second straight year as he finished in fourth place again, despite his time being nearly 10 seconds faster as he ran 10:06.
Some other athletes were soaking in their first times at the state track meet.

Forestburg senior Reagan Ladewig competed for the Lady Horns for the last time, competing in 1A girl’s shot put. She finished in ninth place with her best throw being 31-2¾.
It finishes a career for Ladewig who started high school competing in five different events before honing in on certain ones which paid off as she got to state in her final attempt this year.

From Prairie Valley, junior Linzie Priddy was competing at the state track meet for the first time. However, it was her third time to represent the Lady Bulldogs at the state level, having qualified for state in cross country her freshman and junior years.
Competing in the 1A girl’s 800 meters, Priddy finished in ninth place with a time of 2:39.

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

Baseball
The Saint Jo Panther baseball team lost their playoff series double-header against Electra on Thursday night.
The Tigers won 13-5 and 9-0 against the Panthers to end their season.
Saint Jo had a tough season up to that point. The Panthers last win came against Chico in early April. While the team usually struggles against their mostly 2A district schedule, the results were especially one-sided this season.
Still, Saint Jo was hopeful playing another 1A team like Electra would give the team a chance to win and continue its streak of winning its bi-district series that dates back to at least 2018.
Saint Jo started off the first game strong. Logan Hoover hit a sacrifice fly ball that drove in a run. Charlie Barclay followed with an RBI double. Trent Gaston then hit a two RBI single to put the Panthers up 4-0.
The Tigers answered with two runs in the same inning to make it 4-2.
Saint Jo failed to score in the second and third innings while Electra took the lead with three runs and then four runs to go up 9-4.
In the fourth inning, the Panthers scored one run when Jayden Curry successfully scored on the base paths from third base to make it 9-5.
That was the final run for Saint Jo in the game. Electra added three runs in the fifth inning and one more in the sixth inning.
It made the final score 13-5 for the Tigers.
Saint Jo was hoping it could play better in the second game.
In one sense the team did, allowing only eight hits and keeping the hot hitting Tigers from scoring in the double-digits.
Unfortunately, the Panther bats were kept tamed the entire game. Barclay got the teams only hit in the game and the team drew four walks. Unfortunately this was not enough to get any runs for Saint Jo.
The Tigers won 9-0.

Softball
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers softball team had their season come to an end in the area round of the playoffs against Jonesboro on Thursday night.
The Lady Eagles won the one-game playoff series 39-9 after five innings due to run-rule.
Saint Jo was coming into the game following a dominant 16-1 win against Perrin-Whitt in the bi-district playoff series. Unfortunately, the Lady Panthers were without their starting pitcher due to injury and their other pitchers struggled to throw strikes.
That was the case as Jonesboro piled on the runs in the first three innings. Trailing 26-0, Saint Jo’s batters put some good things together.
Taylor Patrick drove in one run with a triple. After drawing three straight walks, one runner scored thanks to a wild pitch. K Skidmore then drove in two runs with a double. Two more runs thanks to wild pitches following a single and two drawn walks.
The Lady Panthers had cut the lead to 26-6.
The Lady Eagles added seven runs in the fourth inning where Saint Jo found some more offensive success. With the bases loaded and two outs, one run scored on a passed ball.
Later an error when trying to throw a runner out at third base allowed the other two runners to score as the Lady Panthers scored three runs.
Jonesboro added six more runs in the fifth inning to make the final score 39-9.

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

The Nocona Indians’ season came to an end on Wednesday night with their playoff series against Windthorst at Bowie.
The Trojans won both games by the scores of 4-0 and 11-5 against the Indians.
Nocona came into the series fresh off of the high of securing the program’s first playoff berth since 2005.
The Indians were coming off a sweep of Chico and had won five of their last six games. Still, Nocona was expecting a tough series as the underdogs, playing a district champion in Windthorst.
The Trojans got on the board first with an RBI single in the first inning. They added to it in the third inning with another RBI single and then an fielding error that allowed two runs to score.
Windthorst led 4-0 after three innings.
Nocona pitcher RJ Walker and the defense did its job the rest of the game, allowing only three base runners for the rest of the game and shutting down the Trojan batters with his off-speed pitches.
In the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, the Indians were able to get two base runners on in each inning, but never could find a way to get a run across home plate.
In the seventh inning the team had no such luck getting runners on base. Two strikeouts and first pitch fly out to right field ended the first game.
Windthorst won 4-0.
Both teams had seven hits in the first game. The only difference was the timing of the hits and the one fielding error that allowed two unearned runs to score.
Still, Nocona had some momentum with how it had played in the second half of the game. With the Indians having some one-sided losses against the top teams in their district, there might have been some worry that could happen.
Instead they had shown they could hang with the Trojans and knew that heading into the start of game two 30 minutes later.
Nocona went with a senior, Wesley Murphey, on the mound to start game two. Windthorst got to him and the defense in the first inning. An RBI double and an error at third base that allowed two runs to score put the Trojans up 3-0.
This game, the Indians’ offense had more luck as they answered back in the same inning.
Nocona loaded the bases with a single and two drawn walks. Landon Fatheree then drew a walk to score one run. Konnor Harrington followed with a fly ball out to deep left field. It was deep enough to get one run to come in and score.
Caden Belcher then followed with a double that drove in the final runner to tie the score up at 3-3.
Murphey and the defense settled down and shut out Windthorst in the second inning while the Indians bats were not done.
A fielding error, a walk and a single loaded the bases up with one out. Brody Langford and Fatheree each drew walks to score two more runs to give Nocona its first lead of the series 5-3.
The Trojans got one run back in the third inning. With two runners in scoring position, a groundout allowed one to score as Windthorst cut the lead to 5-4.
The teams then exchanged scoreless fourth and fifth innings before Windthorst grabbed control back in a sixth inning from hell Nocona would like to forget.
With two runners on and two outs with a full count, a double drove both runners in to give the Trojans back the lead.
A hit batter and a walk followed to load the bases. A change in pitching did not help the Indians as the next batter scored three runs with a bases clearing triple. A passed ball then allowed the runner to go home.
Windthorst had scored six runs and now led 10-5.
The Trojans were not done. In the seventh inning, a sacrifice fly ball to center field was deep enough to score one more run to put Windthorst up 11-5.
Nocona had three outs to make it all up, but the bats could not deliver as no base runners got one.
The Trojans won game two 11-5 to win the series 2-0.

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