Christening renovated track & field facilities at Jacket Stadium, Meridian boys and girls track teams host the Yellowjacket Relays in final preparation for District 20-1A Championships
Forced to make the most of limited opportunities, the Meridian boys and girls track teams took their final step in preparing for the District 20-1A Championships by hosting the Meridian Yellowjacket Relays March 30 at Jacket Stadium. Utilizing the renovated track & field facilities for the first time at Jacket Stadium this season, the Meridian boys captured third place in a field featuring 17 schools while the Lady Jackets finished eighth.
Meridian will host the District 20-1A Boys and Girls Track and Field Championships – featuring Blum, Covington, Iredell, Kopperl, Morgan, Walnut Springs and Meridian – April 4 and 6 at Jacket Stadium.
While Class 3A Troy dominated the meet by winning the Varsity Boys Division with 173.50 points, Axtell claimed the runner-up spot with 89.50 points while the Jackets took third place with 65.50 points. Individually for the Meridian boys, John Pablo Bernal captured the gold medal in the 100-meter dash, Dustin Padgett took the silver medal in the 400-meter run, senior Dustan Bowers claimed the silver medal in the 100-meter dash along with a bronze in triple jump, while the Jacket 4×400-meter and 4×100-meter relay teams both earned bronze medals.
“I’m pleased with how we did at our home meet on Thursday,” Meridian boys track head coach Grant Schur said. “Time-wise, we didn’t run what we were hoping to run this week. But with the rain and strong winds, that was expected. The big thing for me when you have conditions like we had, it isn’t about the times, it’s seeing how our kids competed and how we faired against everyone there. I’m very proud of the way our kids competed and did.
“It was amazing to finally get on the new track and new high jump and pole vault pits,” Schur said. “The track and pits are amazing. We can’t thank the school board and (MISD superintendent) Mrs. (Kim) Edwards enough for those things. It was awesome to see our kids’ reactions this week when we got on them for the first time.
“We had 18 schools at our meet, it was pretty amazing to see all the busses surrounding the stadium, all the kids that were here, and then to also hear them talk about how nice our track and pits are.”
In the Girls Division, the Troy Lady Trojans also dominated the field by scoring 162 points, well ahead of runner-up Rio Vista with 91 points and third place Waco Live Oak Classical with 85. For the Meridian girls scoring 22 points, MacKenzie Borhofen claimed a silver medal in pole vault, while Aletheia Sandley placed fourth in both discus and shot put.
“We had to adapt to the changes of us not having a track and having to manipulate workouts,” Meridian girls track head coach Teandria Taylor said. “With the progress that we have made so far, I feel that we haven’t gotten to our fullest potential yet. Usually at this point, everyone would be at their peak times, and they have to maintain to get them through district, area and regionals. With that being said, I feel that our times are dropping, and we’re moving in the right direction.”
Prior to the Yellowjacket Relays, the Meridian boys and girls track teams finally started to overcome their late start to the season at the Italy Gladiator Relays March 23 as the Jackets captured the team title with 125 points, while the Lady Jackets placed fifth with 44 points.
“I am very pleased with the way the boys performed at the Italy track meet,” Schur said. “We really thought that we had a good chance to win in the team standings, and the kids did a great job of getting that done.”
Individually for the Meridian boys, Bernal took the gold in 100-meter dash, Padgett captured gold in the 400-meter dash, Bowers placed first in the triple jump, Matty Jones won the high jump, while the 4×100-meter relay – manned by Padgett, Bowers, Braxton Allen and Bernal – and the 4×400-meter relay – manned by Padgett, JR Rodriguez, Allen and Bernal – teams claimed gold medals.
“I was very pleased with our sprint relay in Italy,” Schur said. “We had a couple handoffs that I would like to see cleaned up in our next meet, but 44.7 in what was really our first meet is pretty solid. You always want to win the mile relay, so I am always happy to win that. I think we have a lot of time we can shave off of it, but I was very pleased with how they did.”
Additionally, Bowers claimed the bronze in the 100-meter dash, Jess Scott and Jordon Sheffer finished second and third in the 100-meter hurdles, while Scott took the silver in the 300-meter hurdles, and Camron Sheffer won silver in discus
“We are really working from behind right now with our track still being resurfaced, so that has made things difficult,” Schur said. “We have had to do a lot of track workouts on 200 yards of concrete around the school. That really limits what we can do workout wise, and other than shot and discus we haven’t really been able to practice any field events or relay handoffs either.
“With that being said we are really using these meets to try and get some practice in before district. With the run we made in basketball, then spring break this was really the first meet the boys have been to, and been close to having our full team, so I am very excited about how we performed in the Italy meet. Thankfully, our track should be finished next week and give us a little practice on a track before district.”
Top finishers for the Lady Jackets were Sandley claiming bronze medals in both discus and shot put, Jasmin Brown and Dyna Potter placing first and second in high jump, and Potter finishing fifth in the 100-meter run
“I felt that my girls did great,” Taylor said. “We went to Italy and competed as a team. Even though it was our second track meet, there were a lot of good things. Each girl stepped up no matter what division they were in.”
“This track season is really different from any track season I have had as a head track coach in my seven years as a head track coach,” Schur said. “Usually, at this time of year, you are really starting to work towards getting to everyone’s peak performance, and then fine tune things. We just have a bunch of really great kids here that work hard, and like to go compete. They make our job really easy and a lot of fun.”
Photos by WENDY OROZCO
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