Pilot Point boys, girls to go to Regionals
The Pilot Point Bearcats and Lady Cats track teams are picking up the pace, with both teams placing in the Top 5 at the UIL Region II-3A Area 09 & 10 Meet in Whitesboro on April 16.
The Bearcats took first place overall out of 12 teams, with a team total of 134 points.
“Everyone that advanced to area went out and competed, and some of them did better than they did at district,” said Tyler Lawson, Pilot Point head boys track coach. “The points show that when you have that many kids in events, you have a good shot at winning the area meet, and they went out and did that.”
The trio of Hunter Newman, Michael Marsh and Caleb Johnson set the pace for the Bearcats, taking first, second and fourth in the 400-meter dash.
Newman won gold with a time of 50.99 seconds, Marsh won silver with a time of 51.58 seconds, and Johnson finished fourth with a time of 52.08 seconds.
In the middle-distance races, Angel Garcia earned the bronze medal in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:08.10.
Blake Warren kept things roll- ing in the long-distance races, winning bronze in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:44.07 and finishing fourth in the 3200-meter run with a time of 10:35.05.
In the hurdle events, Jack Harpool won silver in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 16.49 seconds and placed fourth in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 42.39 seconds.
Luke Conner finished fourth in the 200-meter dash, with a time of 23.25 seconds.
In the field events, Johnson secured the silver medal in the long jump with a personal best of 6-feet-2-inches, while Conner took bronze with a height of 6-feet.
Newman took gold in the long jump with a season best of 20-feet-9 1/4-inches.
Kaleb Reid won silver in the pole vault with a height of 13-feet.
The Bearcats relay teams won bronze in the 4x100-meter relay with a time of 43.44 seconds, silver in the 4x200-meter relay with a time of 1:30.11 and closed out the meet winning gold in the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:22.20.
The Lady Cats finished fourth overall out of 13 teams with a team total of 61 points.
Ava Smith was the Lady Cats’ top individual runner, winning gold in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:24.1.
Smith also won silver in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:27.31, followed by Kaelyn Chaney, who took bronze with a time of 2:28.26.
Sophia Garcia won silver in the 3200-meter run, recording a time of 12:17.15.
Peytyn Goodin, who recently returned from a knee injury, won bronze in the 400-meter dash, recording a season best time of 59.32 seconds.
In the hurdle events, Austin Crow finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 16.83 seconds.
Crow also finished sixth in the 300-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 50.11 seconds.
The Lady Cats’ relay team closed the meet, winning bronze in the 4x400meter relay with a time of 4:14.2.
“Everybody that we took qualified for regionals, so I was really happy with the kids’ performance,” said Jeff Price, Pilot Point girls track coach. “… We’re just trying to make sure they peak at the right moment here and just keep building. Hopefully, we run extremely well at regionals, and then we’ll see what happens.”
The Top 4 finishers from each team will compete again at the UIL Region II3A Regional Track Meet on May 1 & 2 at Whitehouse High School.
