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Track and field season is officially underway as the Rice Raiders hosted their first meet of the season at their home stadium. The meet featured competitors from all three varsity teams in Colorado County. Each of them left the first meet of the season with goals and areas of improvement as they look to claim more top positions in the coming meets. The Lady Cards for Columbus and the Raiders for Rice finished in the top-5 of the team standings and were the only teams from the county able to reach that threshold.
Rice
The Rice Raiders claimed the highest team finish on the boys’ side by claiming fifth place as a team after their performances. Rice earned top three spots in several different events, but they were not able to claim a gold medal in any competition. The top placement of the day was provided by Kejun Wilson in the 3200-meter event. The state-qualifying cross-country runner took second place in the long-distance run. They also had a host of third-place finishers as well. Tamarion Turner took the bronze medal in the long jump as well as the triple jump with teammate Jon Woods just behind him in fourth place. Woods took third place himself in the high jump. Jace Upson was the only other Raider to medal, taking third place in the 300m hurdles.
The Rice girls finished just outside the top five as a team with sixth place overall. While they did not receive any medals from the meet, they were led by a number of near misses. The relay team of Adalyn Rogers, Raelee Nelson, Beautiful Johnson and Anabel Gonzales provided one of those near-medal performances with fourth place in the 4X200m relay. Individually, they were led by Tatianna Mills who finished in fourth place for the 100m dash as well as the discus throw. Tricelle Fields took fourth place in the discus throw to round out the Lady Raiders’ top performers.
Columbus
The Cardinals in Columbus finished just behind the Raiders with a sixth-place finish on the boys’ side of the meet. The Cards did have their fair share of medal ing performances however, and even had a firstplace finish as part of their outing. Xavier Woods took the gold medal home for Columbus in the high jump event as the team’s highest individual placement. Daegan Stevens and Hunter Mangum showed their strength and technique in the throwing competitions. Stevens took second in shot put while Mangum took third in the discus throw. Jayden Dillard took third place in the short-distance sprint whi le Josafat Galvan took third in the long-distance, 1600m run.
The Lady Cards took the highest team finish in the standings with fourth place overall. They notched several gold medals and top-3 placements as they made a solid statement to begin their season. They found much of their success in the short-distance races. The relay team of Taylor Morrow, Mariah Woods, TiYana Celestine and Scarlett McClelland took first place in the 4X100m relay. McClelland and Woods also took the gold and silver medals respectively in the individual 100m race. McClelland added another silver medal with her 200m dash performance and a bronze medal in the long jump0. Chloe Ross carried the Lady Cards in the long-distance runs, taking first place in the 3200m run and taking third place in both the 1600m and the 800m races. Areanna Jackson took third place in the triple jump to add more points to the team score.
Weimar
The Wildcats had somewhat of an underwhelming start to their season after scoring just eight team points for their totals. Dalton Turlington, a regional qualifier last season, claimed the team-high for points with a third-place finish in the pole vault, his top event. Marcus Castillo also claimed points for the team with a fifth-place finish in the triple jump event. These two competitors had the strongest days for Weimar as they were the only Wildcats to get as high as eighth place in events outside of their point-scoring placements.
The Ladycats of Weimar finished in seventh place as a team just behind their county counterparts from RHS. While they did not claim any top-three placements, they got a couple fourth-place finishes from Rylee Noska in the high jump and Katharina Chaloupka in the pole vault. Weimar took a fifth and sixth-place finish in the 400m run from Camilla Rangel and Maritza Garay respectively. Janiya Cooper claimed a sixth-place finish after her performance in the long jump competition.
