The area sent 17 athletes to compete at the state track meet last week and four brought back medals competing against the best.
Nocona’s Graci Brown earned a gold medal, Forestburg’s Brenna Briles earned a silver medal, Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard and Saint Jo’s Damon Byrd won bronze medals.
Lightning on Friday afternoon pushed 2A/5A running events to Saturday morning where runners was competing at the same time 1A/6A field events were going on. Despite that the weather, while being a bit humid, was perfect during Thursday and Saturday.
The Lady Indian’s Brown was making her third and last appearance at the state meet. She won two gold medals and a bronze medal in her past two trips, but was disappointed by her performance last year.
She rededicated herself this season and it paid off. She came into state with the fastest qualifying time in the 2A girl’s 400 meters event. She improved on her time, running a personal best 57.33 seconds, winning by more than a second to earn her third gold medal. She leaves Nocona as the most decorated track athlete in program history.

For Forestburg’s Briles, the sophomore leaves state a bit disappointed at not defending her gold medal from the year before in the 1A girl’s high jump event. Both she and the girl from Silverton ended up jumping the highest at 5-2.
After both failed to jump 5-3, the gold was figured by who had fewer faults up to that point. Briles had taken three tries to make 5-0 height earlier, which was one more than the other girl.
Briles then immediately went to compete in the 1A girls triple jump where she jumped 34-3.75 on her final attempt and finished in fifth place.

Saint Jo’s Byrd, a sophomore, had an up and down day at the jumping pit. It was his second year competing at state after competing last year as a freshman and earning a bronze in the triple jump.
Competing first in the 1A boy’s long jump, he was well out of medal contention after faulting on three of his five jumps heading into his final attempt. He jumped 22-1.75, which moved him up to third place where he finished to earn his second bronze medal.
Unfortunately, Byrd could not replicate that success when he competed in the 1A boy’s triple jump later. He faulted on his first three attempts. Without a successful jump, he was not allowed his final three attempts. Still, Byrd was pleased with getting a medal on his second trip back to state.

For Bellevue freshman Mattie Broussard, everything was new for her competing at the state track meet. Not only that, but she had three races to compete in and was not a favorite to medal in any of them based on qualifying times.
In the 1A girl’s 3200 meter race in the morning, she finished in fifth place with a time of 12:02, improving her time by 52 seconds and setting the tone for the day despite not getting a medal.
Later she ran the 1A girl’s 800 meters. Coming down the final straightaway, she was sitting in third place with a runner from Borden County who had been drafting behind her the whole final lap. She made a play to pass Broussard, but Mattie held on to finish third and earn the bronze medal. Her time of 2:22 was eight seconds faster than her qualifying time.
Broussard then finished her busy day by running in the 1A girl’s 1600 meter race near the end of the meet. Broussard could not slip up into medal contention again, finishing in seventh place with her time of 5:32 being a 13 second improvement from her qualifying time.
Broussard had little expectations coming in and leaving with Bellevue’s first medal at the state track meet, according to Athletic Director Colby Broussard, along with three new personal records is more than she could have imagined.
Those were the athletes who left Austin with a medal, but the area still sent 12 more athletes to state who did their best competing against the best.
From Bowie, sophomore Tyler Richey competed in the 3A boy’s pole vault. He jumped 14 feet and finished in eighth place. Competing later in the day, senior Russell Anderson competed in the 3A boy’s 400 meter race. He ran 50.58 and got seventh place.
Saint Jo brought 11 more athletes who competed. Individually Devin Stewart nearly medaled, finishing fourth in the 1A boy’s 300 meter hurdles with a time of 41.17. Savannah Hill got sixth place in the 1A girl’s 300 meter hurdles with a time of 49.75. Lee Yeley got seventh place in the boy’s 1A high jump, completing 6-0.
Maxey Johnson competed in the 1A girl’s discus where she got eighth place, her best throw being 98-6. Trent Gaston competed in the 1A boy’s 110 meter hurdles where got ninth place with a time of 16.27.
Saint Jo also had two relay teams for both the boy’s and girl’s teams get through and competed, with many athletes competing in other events as well.
The Lady Panthers 4×100 relay team, made up of Hill, Abigail Carter, Aubrey Morman and Jordyn O’Neal got fourth place with a time of 51.21. Their 4×200 girl’s relay team, consisting of Taylor Patrick, Olivia Johnson, Carter and O’Neal got seventh place with a time of 1:50.
Saint Jo’s 4×200 boy’s relay team, made up of Barrett Johnson, Stewart, Byrd and Yeley got seventh place with a time of 1:32. Later the boy’s 4×400 relay team, consisting of Gaston, Stewart, Yeley and Johson, got eighth place with a time of 3:34.

To see results for all area athletes, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the state meet, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6874863&T=1