Lady Apaches take 2nd at district track meet

The second day didn’t go as planned for the Gonzales Lady Apaches track and field team. Hoping to repeat as district champions, Head Coach Cully Doyle believed the team had “a chance to win coming out of the first day.”

“We were leading in district coming out of the first day,” he said. “We take a lot of pride in our field events and our distance races.”

But once they started dropping points they were expecting to get, it was hard for the girls’ team to catch up as they took second place in District 27-4A behind Wimberley.

“We had a couple girls that we felt good enough that would get out,” Doyle said of the meet, “we just didn’t do what we needed to do there. That’s on me.”

The Lady Apaches will be represented in 13 events in the area meet.

Gold medalists for the team include Haley Garza who took first in the 1600-meter run with her time of 5:26.57 and the 3200-meter at 12:27.37, and Devon Williams who took first in the discus event with her distance of 106-0, and shot put with a distance of 33-8 ½.

“We got quite a few girls out just the first day,” Doyle explained. “We were leading the district coming into the second day. We felt pretty good that we had to do some things right. We didn’t do everything right the first day but we were still leading, so we were pretty confident with the girls. We were excited, trying to win another district championship. 

“Some things didn’t fall right early in the meet on the second day. We false started in the 4x100 relay, so we didn’t get out of that. We started talking to some of the girls individually and we started talking about what we needed to do to hang out to this district championship but once you start losing points you kind of realize at that point we felt like we were going to at least fall to second. I was really proud at the end of the day.”

Full results on the girls side include (top four finishers advance to area):

100-meter dash

• Madison Singletary, seventh, 13.45 seconds
• Caity Blundell, eighth, 13.57 seconds

200-meter dash

• Madison Singletary, seventh, 28.91
• Samantha Barnick, ninth, 29.24

400-meter dash

• Samantha Barnick, fourth, 1:04.10
• Krystalynn Buesing, seventh, 1:05.65

800-meter run

• Haley Garza, second, 2:25.48
• Shelby Davis, sixth, 2:38.89
• Maura Garcia, ninth, 2:43.86

1600-meter run

• Haley Garza, first, 5:26.57
• Veronica Moreno, third, 5:36.45
• Stephanie Reyna, sixth, 5:47.57

3200-meter run

• Haley Garza, first, 12:27.37
• Veronica Moreno, fourth, 12:38.90
• Stephanie Reyna, fifth, 12:46.33

100-meter hurdles

• Peyton Ruddock, third, 16.92
• Maggie Barnick, fourth, 17.03
• Sylvia Hernandez, sixth, 17.11

300-meter hurdles

• Madison Blundell, third, 49.57
• Maraia Mathis, fourth, 49.72

4x200-meter relay

• Tyla Dalton, Jacey Henrichs, Sylvia Hernandez, Caity Blundell, third, 1:54.79

4x400-meter relay

• Johnna Dalton, Tyla Dalton, Maraia Mathis, Krystalynn Buesing, fourth, 4:30.50

High jump

• Maggie Barnick, fourth, 4-10
• Madelynn Brown, sixth, 4-6

Long jump

• Samantha Barnick, sixth, 15-7 ¾
• Johnna Dalton, eighth, 15-2 ½
• Tyla Dalton, 10th, 14-6 ¼

Triple jump

• Johnna Dalton, third, 33-8
• Samantha Barnick, fifth, 32-7 ¾
• Shelby Davis, sixth, 32-5 ¾

Pole vault

• Caity Blundell, third, 9-6

Discus

• Devon Williams, first, 106-0
• Alicia Ramirez, second, 102-10
• Ali Rocha, fourth, 98-7 ¾

Shot put

• Devon Williams, first, 33-8 ½
• Aukievah “Kiki” Fryer, third, 32-3 ¼
• Megan Torres, seventh, 27-6 ¼

One note Doyle mentioned was freshman Reyna’s performance at the track meet.

“Stephanie Reyna, can’t speak enough of that freshman,” he said, “I’ve talked about her since the cross-country season. She really stepped up big. Fell to fifth, which is the first alternate spot in the 3200, and was the sixth-place runner in the mile.”

Doyle explained that Shelby’s times would have been enough to get out of district last season.

“We had a pretty solid district,” he continued. “She runs 12:46 and gets fifth and last year she would have been in the top four easy with that time. It’s not like she ran slow at all, she ran really well as a freshman.”

The 4x100-meter relay team false started, hence why no score.

On the boys side, the Gonzales Apaches placed fourth in district. Taking gold were Juan Jordan in the 100-meter dash at 11.31 seconds and Antonio Hernandez in the 800-meter at 2:07.16. Both athletes have worked with Doyle and Kevin Johnson throughout the season.

“Antonio Hernandez took, I work with a couple of those boys, and man he really took care of business,” Doyle said. “He won the 800, squeezed in the mile, got third. We’re excited about him. He really took care of business. Joshua Branch ran really well in the 100-meter dash, qualified and Juan Jordan won the district in the 100-meter dash. Juan Jordan is a special kid. He competed in five events and qualified in four. He’s going in the triple jump, 100, both hurdles, 110 and 300, so he really took care of business. Coach Johnson and I have been working with him for a while and he’s come a long way. It’s been fun watching him progress. Coach Johnson has done a good job with him and you got to be proud of those kids.”

Full results include:

100-meter dash

• Juan Jordan, first, 11.31
• Josh Branch, fourth, 11.66

200-meter dash

• Josh Branch, eighth, 24.88

400-meter dash

• Seth Gibson, fifth, 54.18
• Marvin Cardoza, sixth, 55.06

800-meter run

• Antonio Hernandez, first, 2:07.16
• Keisey Ramirez, seventh, 2:17.93

1600-meter run

• Antonio Hernandez, third, 4:57.37
• Keisey Ramirez, eighth, 5:18.93

110-meter hurdles

• Juan Jordan, third, 15.71

300-meter hurdles

• Juan Jordan, third, 42.40

4x100-meter relay

• Adam Martinez, Seth Gibson, Marvin Cardoza, Domingo Garcia, fourth, 46.14

4x200-meter relay

• Domingo Garcia, Adam Martinez, James Martinez, Michael Bosquez, fifth, 1:38.87

4x400-meter relay

• Josh Branch, Antonio Hernandez, Marvin Cardoza, Seth Gibson, fourth, 3:48.64

Long jump

• Juan Jordan, sixth, 19-5 ½
• Dillen Ramos, 11th, 16-8 ½

Triple jump

• Juan Jordan, third, 41-8
• Dillen Ramos, 11th, 36-7

Discus

• Jared Esparza, sixth, 126-2
• Vicente Reyna, 11th, 87-1

Shot put

• Kenneth Cavit, fourth, 44-6
• Jared Esparza, sixth, 38-7 ½
• Mathew Almarez, 11th, 34-4 ¼

This point of the season, health can be an issue for a team. But any concerns the Apaches may have had are gone for Doyle.

“Right now I feel confident with everybody,” he said. “We had some aches and pains going into district. The girls I was kind of concerned about took care of business. They ran and they ran healthy, so at this point I feel good about it. Nothing that’s going to keep us racing at this point. I feel pretty good about it.”