Area small schools take home all the souvenirs before storm hits
By Robert Morgan | Published Thursday, May 15, 2008
There was no gold for Wise County this year at the end of the University Interscholastic League's track and field state championship rainbow. It's been three years since Wise County was the home of a gold-medal performer from the biggest meet in Texas.
However, Wise County was well-represented at the small-school ranks where five area 2A athletes competed in eight events in front of the biggest crowd of the season. Three of them came home with the only medals earned by local athletes this year, and it came just before the meet was delayed for hours because of a severe thunderstorm that produced heavy rains, hail and lightning.
Alvord's Paige Klein, Paradise's James Hodges and Chico's Hayden Eubanks all took the stage in their final meet of the season. For two of them, it was their final chance as they wrapped up impressive careers.
Klein had the busiest week among all eight Wise County qualifiers. She advanced to the Class 2A state finals in three events, all of which took place in less than two hours in the heat of the afternoon Saturday at UT's Mike Myers Stadium.
The junior's top showing came in the 100 where she clocked a second-place time of 12.18 seconds. Elydia Farwell of Lexington won the tight race at 11.98.
"I thought Paige ran awesome in the 100," said Alvord coach Curtis Enis. "She got a good start and really did a good job accelerating in the middle of the race and finished up with a good lean at the line."
Klein had two more chances less than an hour later to get back on stage in her two other events. She finished just short of getting more hardware and took fifth in both the 400 (58.58 seconds) and the 200 (25.76 seconds).
"She started out real good in the 400. Paige's first 120 meters of the sprint phase looked good, but she seemed to slow too much in the glide phase and kicked real well coming in, but it wasn't enough," said Enis, who watched his standout run three times with temperature in the mid 90s. "I think the heat really took its toll on her trying to recover from that race."
Hodges, who will be running for Texas A&M next fall, is adding a piece of state track memorabilia to his collection. He ran to a second-place finish in the 1,600 with a time of 4:29.16.
The senior standout was edged by Anna's Cody Hughes who took the title at 4:26.40. Hodges beat out Hughes to win the cross country state championship back in November.
Hodges also competed in the 3,200 where he had the fastest regional qualifying time. He captured another souvenir as he took third with a time of 9:55.86. Hughes won his second title of the weekend after running the eight laps in 9:44.84.
Eubanks made his second straight trip to Austin a success as well. He got on stage for the first time with a third-place finish in discus.
The Dragon standout had a season-high toss of 177 feet, 3 inches to take the bronze. Sean Reagon of Idalou won the gold with a 184.1.
Boyd freshman Katy Mark made the most of her first trip to state as she took sixth place in the 800 with a time of 2:25.68. Alvord's Travis Montgomery was eighth in his first Austin appearance after he clocked a 22.37 in the 200.
UIL state championships Class 2A Girls
Pole Vault: 1. Madison Gattis, Hawkins, 11-03; 2. Amy Rabalais, George West, 11-03; 3. Sundie Starr, Cisco, 10-09
