In only their second meet competing in the two-day gauntlet of events, the Belton underclassmen finished first and second, respectively, at the National AAU Junior Olympics last weekend at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
“It was an amazing feat,” said David Simmons, a Belton Middle School coach who is guiding the fortunes of the Belton Tiger Summer Track Club, in its third year. “I’ve been coaching 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like that.”
It was a particularly stunning accomplishment for Mahler, a 14-year-old incoming Belton freshman competing in the 16-and-under division. Mahler’s middle school athletic career was severely limited by hip and knee injuries. He competed in track last spring for the first time and only then primarily as a pole vaulter to lessen the wear on his knees.
“Before we went I looked on the computer to see everybody who qualified and tried to figure out what I could do and set some goals in my head,” said Mahler, who qualified for the national meet two weeks prior at a meet in Round Rock. “There wasn’t much time to improve. I just had to work a little harder.”
Through the first day’s events - the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 - Mahler was running second to Emmanuel Price of St. Louis. Simmons, a 15-year-old sophomore, was struggling to stay in the top 10. It was much the same through the first two events on Sunday, the 110 hurdles and discus.
The pole vault was the difference maker. Both Mahler and Simmons cleared 13 feet, far better than their closest competitors. That vaulted them into the top two spots. They solidified their positions with 145-foot javelin throws and reserved their places on the top two tiers of the medals stand in the 1,500 finale.
David Simmons, who works with throwers, started the program with Karen Francis, who works with jumpers. He credits volunteer coaches - particularly pole vault specialist Gary Bunch - who have used their own time in the summer to work with athletes.
Mahler and Simmons were two of a contingency of athletes from the Belton club who went to the meet, which ended Saturday. Matthew Nash was 29th in the decathlon. Ryan Simmons took fourth in the youth discus with a toss of 158-9 and third in the youth javelin, and shot putter Ryan Stinson was fourth.
The beauty of the competition for Mahler and Jake Simmons is that they still will be eligible in the same age division next year. Mahler is already making plans for it.
“Next year I hope to train real hard and break the record for the point total,” Mahler said. “My weaknesses were the discus and javelin. I can always get better.”
The pair’s accomplishment also got the Belton name out loud and clear.
“It was pretty exciting, but it was a tough two days,” David Simmons said. “There were some ups and downs, but we went 1-2 from Belton. People were saying, ‘Where is Belton, Texas?’ There were some tears at the end.”
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Central Texans made their presence known this year in Iowa. The Temple Flyers have long been one of the premier youth track and field clubs around and have figured in the mix as always with relay teams and good individual athletes.
The Texas Greyhounds are another group with local athletes involved, including a second-place in the under-14 3,200 relay that included Victor Lemons, Vincent Blakemore, Devonte McClennan and Johnny Rodriguez.
Derwin Graham, 16, of Copperas Cove was second in the steeplechase, Issac Cole of Temple was fourth in the sub-midget long jump and Temple’s Keandre Bates was third in the sub-youth triple jump.
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Holland’s Justin Price still holds the national Junior Olympics in the outdoor pentathlon. Price amassed 2,836 points as an 11-year-old in 2000 in the sub-midget division. Price went on to compete in track for a time at the University of Texas.
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For years there seems to have been a forcefield around Bell County schools when it came to state volleyball rankings. Teams tended to pop into the poll as the season wore on, the poll expanded and the wins no longer could be ignored.
Not so this year. Rogers managed to crack the Texas Girls Coaches Association preseason Class 2A top 10 in the No. 9 slot. The Lady Eagles, who shared last year’s District 25-2A championship with Salado, have a new coach in appropriately named Stacy Rogers. Rogers replaces veteran Pam Lomas.
Interestingly, Salado, which returns most of the players from a team that established a school-record 37 victories and reached the Region IV title match, was left out. Don’t expect that to last.
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I ran into a few area football coaches last week as two-a-days were heating up. I asked the probing question, “How ya’ll look so far?” The answers ranged from, “They look like they’re in shorts” to “young” to “too little” to “scrawny.”
It’s comforting to know that the crying towel industry still is thriving in today’s economy.
twaits@temple-telegram.com
