Of their 17 medal chances, area athletes capitalized on 14 of them and added a team title to boot Friday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
By the time the meet’s first day came to a close, area athletes had hauled off eight gold medals, two silvers and four bronzes to go along with Copperas Cove’s Class 4A boys team championship.
Holland senior Justin Price won two golds in the Class A hurdles, as did Copperas Cove junior Robert Griffin in the 4A hurdles and Killeen senior Tiffany Townsend in the 4A 100- and 200-meter dashes.
Cameron Yoe senior Charlissa Foster added a gold in the 3A discus and the Cove boys won the 800 relay.
Silvers came from Academy freshman Emily Koenig in the 2A 3,200 and Cove in the 4A boys 1,600 relay. Price added a bronze in the long jump, as did Cove’s Troy Vital in the triple jump, Holland’s Callie Johnson in the 400 and Cove’s Rashad Hawk in the 100.
Koenig proved she belongs on the state’s biggest stage by making a final-lap charge to grab silver in the 3,200.
Off like a rabbit at the pop of the gun, Koenig had slipped to fifth through four laps and was still there when she came to the line for the bell lap, at which point she picked up the pace. She was fourth with 300 meters to go and had moved into second when she started to kick 200 meters from the finish.
With eventual champion Sarah De Los Santos of Shallowater out of reach, Slaton’s Valerie Calderon and East Bernard’s Molly Farrell gave chase to Koenig and the three came off the final turn in a dead heat. Calderon got ahead by a step and Farrell dropped another stride behind before Koenig found another gear, clipping Calderon at the wire by .06 seconds to claim the silver.
“I was keeping the pace I wanted, and I was trying to speed up a little as I went along,” said Koenig, who finished in 11 minutes, 56.15 seconds - 17 seconds behind De Los Santos, last year’s runner-up. “Then I started kicking with about 200 to go. At regionals I kicked at 100 so I decided to start a little earlier this time.
“I saw a girl behind me and another one got in front of me once, but I just pulled on from there.”
Koenig’s time was 14 seconds back of her Region IV-winning mark, and the slower pace had Academy coach Lee Bender sweating more than just the heat.
“I was worried that the whole freshman-at-the-state-meet thing had caught up to her,” he said. “I kept waiting and waiting for her to go, but maybe it was apprehension that kept her from going sooner.
“The whole last lap she picked it up. I got worried again a little bit because those other girls caught her and I thought they would have the momentum, but then she found another gear. I’ve always believed that she has a great kick.”
Koenig still has her battle today with Salado senior Chelsea Ervi in the 1,600 as she goes for a second medal.
Likewise, Foster will try to finish her sweep of the 3A throws today in the shot put.
Foster, who has five medals in her possession with a solid chance for a sixth today in the shot, erased the disappointment of last year’s runner-up finish in the discus and matched the elation of her golden performance as a sophomore.
As the field struggled early against a headwind, Foster uncorked her second-best throw of the season on her third preliminary attempt. She whirled and grunted as she released the winning heave of 154 feet, 9 inches that gave her the victory by more than 20 feet but fell 8 inches shy of the 3A state meet record, leaving her in tears afterward.
“It’s my last year and not being able to get the record, that’s what the tears are from,” said Foster, who has signed with Houston. “Not winning last year motivated me a lot because I wanted all golds and didn’t get it.”
Relieved of the pressure from last year’s disappointment, Foster will cap her high school career as the hands-down favorite in the shot put today.
“Doing this today will mean a whole lot, because it was a big thing for her to throw better than she did last year,” Yoe throws coach Wanda White said. “Just having done that, she’s going to feel a lot better going into the shot put.”
Townsend was breathtaking in the girls sprints, a portrait of textbook form as she chewed up the track and the field with a pair of record-breaking performances. She broke the 4A and overall state meet records with an 11.21 in the 100, then shattered both marks again with a 22.84 in the 200 that bested the old state mark by .20.
“This is a dream come true,” said Townsend, who will run at Baylor next year. “I was running against the clock today and I beat it. That’s what I set out to do and I accomplished it. I wanted to prove that I could do it; I wanted those records for me.”
With Griffin in unbeatable form, Cove had the team title all but locked up when it crossed the line first in the 800 relay. The Bulldawgs finished with 68 points, more than double the amount of runner-up Texas City.
In other events involving area competitors, Bartlett sophomore Ted Crews was fifth in the Class A boys discus, Holland’s Cheyenne Knaus was seventh in the Class A girls 800, and Moody’s Preston Budziszewski didn’t garner a place after failing to measure a legal jump in the 2A boys triple jump.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
