SPORTS
Jackrabbits earn bronze at state
The Bowie boy’s golf team made some school history on Monday and Tuesday as the Jackrabbits finished third at the 3A state golf tournament to bring home a bronze medal.
Bowie made up a nine shot lead the original third place team, Orangefield, had after the first day to overtake the Bobcats and earn the program’s first team medal at state.
The Jackrabbits were coming into the tournament with some hope they could compete amongst the top. The first time the program made it to state as a team two years ago, Bowie had a slim shot at trying to break into medal contention. A rain delay did not help things and the Jackrabbits finished in a respectable sixth place.
Two players from that team who were freshman, Cy Egenbacher and Andrew Sandhoff, were looking to do better two years later.
The weather was perfect on day one at the Jimmy Clay Golf Course. Coach Matthew Miller said the course was described as having nine holes with narrow fairways that heavily punished wayward tee shots and then nine holes with more open space where players could look to be more aggressive.
The first day it seemed like every team at the front of the leaderboard had about the best round of golf they had shot all season. Almost every team except the Jackrabbits.
Bowie was sitting in fifth place with a 325 score, which was good but not the best the team had shot all season. Egenbacher and Zac Harris shot the lowest score for the Jackrabbits as both shot 78. Sandhoff shot around what he usually has with an 82 and Hunter Lea was the fourth player who shot 87. The fifth golfer Rayder Mann was only one shot more than Lea with an 88, though his score did not count towards the team total on day one.
While first place Callisburg would go on to set 3A state records for lowest score and the first of two Brock teams was up by 14 shots in second place, third place Orangefield was up only nine shots after its best round by far and the team was frontloaded with a player who would go on to win the individual gold. If his teammates could faulter a bit on day two, the door would be open.
Bowie was not the only team in position to try and make a play for third place. Fourth place Gunter was only two shots ahead of the Jackrabbits and the teams were paired together for the second day. Maypearl and Diboll also were in the mix only one and two shots behind Bowie in sixth and seventh place.
Miller tried to ease his player’s mind heading into the second day, putting little pressure on them to try and keep them loose.
“We talked Monday night and the message was, you have no pressure,” Miller said. “You have 18 holes left for the year. Go out and have fun, enjoy yourself. Go post a number and see what can happen.”
Of all of the teams in the top six, three posted a better score on day two with Bowie improving the most. The weather was not quite as good with the temperature reaching the 90s and with a breeze affecting balls more than the windless day before had.
Still, four of the five players posted equal or better scores for Bowie the second day. Egenbacher shot a 78 again to lead the team with the lowest score. His two day total of 156 put him in a tie for ninth place individually.
Sandhoff made a two shot improvement as he shot 80 for a total of 162, which was the second lowest two day total for Bowie and put him in a tie for 24th.
Lea made the biggest jump, improving by eight strokes from day one as he shot a 79, the second lowest score of the day for Bowie. His two-day total was 166.
Mann also made a big jump, improving by seven strokes from day one as his 81 score was counted towards the second day total of 318, which was a seven stroke improvement from day one.
Harris did not quite have as good a day as day one. After tying for the team’s lowest score on day one, his 85 score did not count towards the team total though his 163 two-day total was the third lowest on the team.
After improving by seven shots, as important was that other team’s had worse days. Playing partners Gunter were nine shots worse, eventual champions Callisburg were 17 shots worse and most importantly Orangefield was 16 shots worse.
Bowie passed the Bobcats to finish in third place, its 643 two-day total five shots better, to earn the bronze medal.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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