St. Paul tracksters going to state meet

It is every athlete’s dream to compete in a state meet or tournament.

For a group of St. Paul track and field athletes, that dream will come true next week as they all finished in the top four in their respective events at the TAPPS South Region Meet Saturday in Hallettsville. The Lady Cardinals finished second as a team, while the Cardinals finished fourth.

On the girls’ side, St. Paul qualified in all three relays – 400, 800 and 1,600-meter – as the Lady Cardinals won the 800 Relay with a time of 1:54.66, and finished second in the 400 (52.96) and 1,600 (4:28) Relays. Alexa Schaefer (3rd, long jump, 15-4), Kali Kocian (4th, 3,200-meter run, 13:18) and Elise Patek (3rd, 300-meter hurdles, 52.90; 4th, high jump, 4-6) also qualified for state.

The St. Paul boys won the 400 (45.92) and 800 (1:35.95) Relays, and Dylan Barton (2nd, triple jump, 38-7.5; 3rd, long jump, 20-6.25), Adam Hollenbach (3rd, triple jump, 38-5.5; 4th, 200-meter run, 23.66) and Austin Horne (3rd, discus, 114-4) also qualified for state. Martin Kennedy, Mitchell McElroy and Justin Natal also ran legs on either the 400 or 800 Relay teams.

The TAPPS State Meet will take place May 4-5 at the Hart-Patterson Complex in Waco.

Track and Field

While St. Paul already had several athletes qualify for the TAPPS State Meet, 31 athletes will try to qualify for the UIL State Meet this weekend. Athletes from Gonzales (10), Nixon-Smiley (8) and Shiner (13) will all compete in region meets today and Saturday.

Gonzales will compete in the Region IV-3A Meet at Calallen High School in Corpus Christi. Don Cartwright will compete in the boys’ 100 run and team up with Chris Cerda, Troy Hernandez and Darrance James in the 400 Relay.

Six Lady Apaches also will compete in the Region IV-3A Meet.

Contessa Baird (800 run), Krisslynn Sexton (400 run) and the 800 Relay team (Bailey Connell, Kelsey Hardy, Ebonique Harris and Melanie Hunt) will compete for the Gonzales girls.

Nixon-Smiley will send five boys and three girls to the Region IV-2A Meet at Converse Judson. Victor Evans (shot put), Tristan Newman (300 hurdles) and the 800 Relay team (Newman, Jacob Arevelo, Garrett Earlywine and Miguel Hernandez) will compete for the Mustangs, while Savannah Martinez (high jump), D’Laine Palacio (long jump) and Meagan Stone (high jump) will represent the Lady Mustangs.

Shiner has six boys and seven girls participating in the Region IV-A Meet, which also takes place at Converse Judson. Representing the Comanches will be Lucian Blaschke (800 run), Marcus Coleman (200 run), Evel Jones (400 run), Zach Lawrence (high jump), the 400 Relay team (Blaschke, Coleman, Lawrence and Trevion Flowers), the 800 Relay team (Coleman, Flowers, Jones and Lawrence) and the 1,600 Relay team (Blaschke, Jones, Lawrence and Marlon Wallace).

The Lady Comanches will be represented by Meloni Berger (300 hurdles), Emmalie Berkovsky (100 hurdles), LaNeshia Hunt (100 run), Lauren Oden (discus), Stacey Perez (100 hurdles), the 400 Relay team (Berger, Hunt, Perez and Destiny Chumchal) and the 800 Relay team (Berger, Hunt, Perez and Cassie Stafford). The top two finishers in each event qualify for the State Meet May 11-12 in Austin.

Tennis

Fourteen area tennis players concluded their seasons last week in region tennis tournaments. The Gonzales girls doubles tandem of Lynnea Fink and Alex Finch wrapped up their season at the Region IV-3A tournament April 18 in Corpus Christi, while six Nixon-Smiley and six Shiner tennis players finished their seasons and the Region IV-2A and Region IV-A Tournaments, respectively.

Nixon-Smiley had a trio of doubles teams compete in the Region IV-2A tournament April 18 in San Marcos. They were Ricky Hernandez-Jake Robinson (boys doubles), Palacio-Damian Perez (mixed doubles) and Jennifer Flores-Megan Guerra (girls doubles).

Shiner was led by a fourth-place finish from Berger in girls singles on April 19 at the Region IV-A Tournament in College Station. Also competing for Shiner were Leo Baray (boys singles), Blaschke-Derek Duke (boys doubles) and Shelley Kresta-Hailey Pardy (girls doubles).