And in this sport, speed is the most imperative of virtues.
“We are one of three teams that will probably be battling for the district title,” said Wildcats coach Wayne Ransleben, whose squad is only two seasons removed from a last-place finish at the 2006 district meet. “We knew that we had some kids who were probably going to have great seasons, but it has really spread throughout the whole team.”
The Temple boys and girls, along with those from Belton, will make their gold-medal bids when the District 13-5A Track and Field Meet begins today at Wildcat Stadium.
The opening day of the seven-team meet will feature competition in three field events, the running preliminaries and the 3,200-meter run, with the remaining field events and running finals Friday. The top three finishers in each event will advance to the Class 5A Region II meet April 25-26 at Baylor’s Hart-Patterson Track Complex in Waco.
It was only two years ago that the Wildcats sent just two athletes to Waco. Now the Temple boys figure to be well represented at Hart-Patterson.
“It just takes time to build a program,” Ransleben said, “and we’re starting to see the benefits of our summer track program.”
The Wildcats finished out of the top two only once during the non-district season - and even then they came in third - with the potent combination of skilled sprinters and jumpers.
Senior Harry Sheppard -defending state silver medalist in the high jump who cleared 6 feet, 10 inches during the fall indoor season - shouldn’t be pushed during the district meet and also should contend in the 400.
“He’s a lot more consistent in the 400 this year,” Ransleben said. “We’ve focused more on that and it really hasn’t taken away from his high jump.”
Sophomore Lache Seastrunk captured district gold in the 100 as a freshman and hasn’t skipped a beat, carrying the state’s fastest time of 10.35 seconds into today.
“We’ve been kind of easy on Lache the last month or so because of a little nagging injury,” Ransleben said, “but he’s very gifted.”
Seastrunk also will run on the 400 relay, and Sheppard is penciled in to anchor the 1,600 relay.
With a tight battle expected for the team crown between Temple, Killeen Ellison and Bryan, the double-point relays will be key. To boost their chances, the Wildcats likely will pull Chris Anderson from his individual races and put him on all three relay teams.
Temple also has gold medal chances in the 300 hurdles, triple jump and long jump.
Tevin Reese owns the area’s best time in the 300s at 38.62 and the state’s second-best 5A mark in the triple jump at 48-7. He’ll also challenge in the long jump, in which teammate Daniel Carr ranks fourth in the region at 22-11.
“Tevin and Daniel have really come on this season,” Ransleben said. “And in the 300 hurdles, Tevin really hasn’t been pushed yet.”
The Belton boys likely will be paced by throwers Kyle Voss and Cody Gangloff, pole vaulter Jose Cerna and distance runners Marc Sandlin, Tyler Maddox and Paul Boston.
On the girls side, Temple and Belton will be hard-pressed to keep pace with Harker Heights and College Station A&M Consolidated in the chase for the team title. But the Tem-Cats and Lady Tigers will have gold-medal opportunities in a handful of events.
Temple will be anchored by senior Trenette Smith, who advanced to regionals last year in the high jump and to state the year before in the long jump, and hurdler Erika Allen.
Belton’s Skylor Alford ranks first in the region in the 800 at 2:16.54 and pole vaulter Morgan Toone ranks second at 12-0.
The Lady Tigers also have versatile Myca San Miguel - who has shined in the triple jump and both hurdles events - and area-leading distance runner Regan Tindell.
edrennan@temple-telegram.com
