SPORTS
Montague County had eight athletes compete at state track
The state track meet in Austin was last week and Montague County had eight athletes competing against the best in the state in their particular events.
At the end of three days, Nocona sophomore Graci Brown was the only athlete who stood on the podium as she won two gold medals, but all athletes did a good job of competing on the biggest stage.
On the first day on Thursday, only Bowie junior Tucker Jones was competing.
Running the 3A 110 meter hurdles event, Jones finished ninth with a time of 15.40 seconds.
It was not his best time and with one more year of high school, Jones is going to use it as motivation for next season.
On the second day of the meet on Friday, Nocona’s Brown was competing in four events.
In the morning she started the day competing in the 2A long jump. She was sitting in third place after the second jump which ended up being her best jump of 17 feet 9 inches.
It was only on the final jump that a girl from San Augustine came out of nowhere, improving her best jump by nearly 10 inches and finished half an inch ahead of Brown. She finished fourth and did not get a medal.
Brown was devastated, but was determined the result was not going to negatively affect her next three events later in the day.
She first ran the 800 meter race. Brown was sitting in third place after the first lap and made her move with about 200 meters left in the race, going outside on the curve to turn on the jets.
She ran away from the two girls who were leading throughout the race and won by nearly two seconds with her time of 2:15.84.
Brown did not have long to celebrate one of her goals. With the rainy weather coming in, the meet was on a rolling schedule, meaning her rest time until her next race would be shorter than usual.
Less than an hour later Brown had to then run the equally grueling 400 meter race.
Brown finished first with a time of 57.69 and beat second place by .35 seconds. It was her second gold in less than an hour’s time.
Despite that, Brown’s day still was not done as she anchored the 4×400 relay at the end of the meet.
The team of Ava Johnson, Ayden Patton, Megyn Meekins and Brown came in sixth place with a time of 4:06.72.
The third day on Saturday was the most rainy day that featured delays throughout, which is what the three boys from Gold-Burg and Saint Jo got to compete in.
Sophomore Devin Stewart from Saint Jo competed in the 1A high jump.
Stewart did not jump his best on the day, finishing at 5 feet 10 inches in fifth place. He felt he could have done better, but was not dismayed by the result.
Fellow sophomore Isaac Renteria from Gold-Burg also competed in the morning running in the 1A 3200 meter race.
Renteria just missed earning a medal, finishing fourth with a time of 10:16 and was just three seconds off from third place.
Renteria was not pleased with the result, but knew he had one more chance later that day running in the 1600 meter race along with a familiar competitor.
Saint Jo senior Collin Thomas was making his second appearance at the state track meet.
He made it last year in the 800 meters and was also a leg in the 4×400 team. He finished in ninth last year in the 800 meters and wanted to run better with it being his last chance.
He did as he finished fourth with a time of 2:00.84. Although he was half a second behind the third place finisher, he jokingly gestured after the finish how close he was to the third place runner and earning a medal.
He would have his chance later as both Thomas and Renteria ran in the 1600 meter race.
It was a close race for the mile with only 12 seconds separating first place from last place.
Thomas again was kept off the podium as he finished in fourth place again with a time of 4:43.
Renteria only finished two seconds behind with a time of 4:45, but finished in seventh place.
To read the full story with quotes and see more pictures, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Indians were able to beat Saint Jo at home on Thursday night in a tight contest.
The Indians won 55-48 against the Panthers in a game where both teams played hard, but made plenty of early season mistakes.
Nocona came into the game following a low-scoring win against Bells earlier in the week 35-30. For a young Indians team that only has a few players with varsity experience this year, every early season win builds confidence.
For Saint Jo, the Panthers were still without several returning starters since football is still going on. Despite that, new Coach Jacob Nocktonick is trying to build what he can with his group of basketball first players that include several key players even when the football team is integrated.
Despite Saint Jo being the smaller school, overall it had the height advantage in the front line since Nocona features only one player, Kasch Johnson, who is built like a post player. That is nothing new for the Indians, who featured a short team the previous year as Coach Brody Wilson emphasizes full-court pressure on defense and pushing the ball in transition in his system that makes up for a lack of height and size.
Initially Nocona’s pace and energy, grabbing several offensive rebounds, got it the lead 9-3. Eventually, the Panthers adjusted and trailed only 12-11 after the first quarter.
Saint Jo got the lead early in the second quarter. Post Trent Gaston took advantage of his size advantage, especially when the Indians had Johnson out, and led 17-12. Both teams had trouble scoring in a rough second quarter as open perimeter shots just were not going in and shots at the rim were tough to convert.
The Panthers led 23-20 heading into halftime.
Both teams had better offensive success pushing the ball when it could in the second half.
Saint Jo broke Nocona’s press and punished the Indians with quick baskets. Nocona ran whenever it could and seemed to put up an array of perimeter shots and drives, getting offensive rebounds it seemed at will to keep the pressure up and infuriate the Panthers coach.
The Indians got a big push from Landon Fatheree in the second half. After scoring eight points in the first half to lead the team, he scored 10 of his team’s 14 points in the third quarter.
Nocona got the lead back, but only led 34-33 heading into the final period.
The Indians had a comfortable lead up 44-36 when Saint Jo’s Gaston fouled out with 4:56 left in the game. Still, the Panthers did not give up and a minute later had whittled Nocona’s lead down to one basket 44-41 with 3:45.
The game stayed a one-possession game for the next two minutes as Saint Jo had several chances to tie or take the lead not go through.
Nocona made its free throws down the stretch to win with a little more comfort, with the final score being 55-48.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. To see more pictures, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870682&T=1
Nocona senior Meg Meekins signed her official letter of intent to play college basketball at Lubbock Christian University on Wednesday. Meekins, the daughter of Brandi and Lance, is a four-year starter on the volleyball and basketball court. She has earned several accolades like being named to the All State Teams for TGCA, TABC, Associated Press and was selected to the All Tournament Team at the UIL State Basketball Tournament in San Antonio last year.“The coaching staff and the community of the LCU program and just knowing you have a staff that coaches you, but also looks over you just like Coach (Kyle) Spitzer did here was a huge part in the recruiting process,” Meekins said. She plans to pursue a degree in either physical or occupational therapy.
For more pictures, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870680&T=1
The Bowie Lady Rabbits got more than they bargained for when they traveled to Bellevue on Tuesday night.
The Lady Rabbits escaped with the win 44-40, taking the lead with less than a minute to go after trailing whole game.
Bowie came into the game confident. The larger 3A school was supposed to play Windthorst, but had to reschedule because the Lady Trojans volleyball team was playing in the state tournament.
Finding a last minute replacement, the Lady Rabbits thought they would have an easy game playing the 1A program down the road. Little did they know.
Bellevue had a couple of players out with injury to limit its depth a bit and a new coach in Celsey Hoffman, but the Lady Eagles were coming off of nearly beating a Nocona team the previous week. While the Lady Indians were missing four starters who were still in volleyball, it still showed this was not a 1A team to take lightly.
Bellevue came out fast showing tough defensive pressure despite giving up size at nearly every position. Within a few minutes the Lady Eagles had used that pressure to force turnovers and convert those steals into transition opportunities.
Also, the energy showed in other areas as Bellevue seemed to grab every loose ball and fought for offensive rebounds despite lacking in height compared to Bowie.
After a little more than four minutes into the game the Lady Eagles led 15-0. The Lady Rabbits had barely been able to set up their offense or attempt a shot against the pressure.
Bowie Coach Matthew Miller had to reset his shell-shocked team during multiple timeouts. The young ballhandlers was reminded how the team was going to break the press defense so it could set up its offense.
Bellevue led 19-4 after the first quarter, led by Mary Grace Broussard and Brittany Gill who each scored six points.
The Lady Rabbits settled down and made some good progress in the second quarter. Their defense switched between man-to-man and 1-3-1 to keep the Lady Eagles off balance. With them taking care of the ball better, there were less chances for Bellevue in transition and the Lady Eagles offense struggled to consistently find ways to score against Bowie’s length.
The Lady Rabbits offense found some success as well. Five different players made at least one basket and the team made two 3-pointers.
While the game was physical from the start, now that Bowie knew what type of game it was in the team responded back. It was not pretty and only enough fouls were called to make the game watchable, but individual foul trouble affected Bellevue harder than the Lady Rabbits in the second quarter.
The Lady Eagles still led heading into halftime, but Bowie had gotten it down to single digits trailing 25-19.
The third quarter was more even between the two teams as both had trouble consistently scoring baskets. Bellevue made three baskets and a couple of free throws to keep ahead.
The Lady Rabbits got a big lift from Lanie Moore, who knocked in all three of her 3-pointers in the quarter, scoring nine of the team’s 12 points.
Bowie still trailed, but had cut the lead down to one point earlier in the quarter and one basket 34-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bellevue grew the lead to 38-32 early in the final period. The Lady Rabbits struggled to get anything going offensively and trailed 40-34 midway through the quarter.
Bowie’s Kendall Fallis made a 3-pointer in transition to cut the lead to one basket 40-37.
The score stayed there for the next several minutes even as the Lady Eagles had two starters, Karis Denson and Mattie Broussard, foul out of the game.
With a little more than a minute left, the Lady Rabbits drew up and out of bounds play that got Laney Segura an open shot in the corner. Despite not having made a basket all game, she sunk the 3-pointer to tie the game at 40-40 with a minute still to play.
Bowie had been in a pressure defense for the second half of the fourth quarter to prevent Bellevue from passively running clock. Still in the defense, the team next stole the in-bounds pass and Railey Martin made the undefended layup to give the Lady Rabbits their first lead of the game 42-40 with 48 seconds left.
The Lady Eagles could not tie the score on their next offensive possession. Bowie would made two more free throws to make the final 44-40.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870678&T=1
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