Locals dominate, but Central sweeps team titles
Published 1:44 am Thursday, April 13, 2017
The District 22-5A track meet wrapped up Wednesday evening at Bulldog Stadium with plenty of winners from Mid- and South County, but Beaumont Central came up the big winners in both boys’ and girls’ team standings.
Central topped the boys’ standings with 185 points, followed by Port Arthur Memorial with 158, Nederland with 87 and Port Neches-Groves with 67.5.
Central’s girls team had a little closer battle to the team crown with 146 points, 12 more than second-place Nederland. Memorial (121) and Ozen (83) rounded out the top four.
Memorial was solid, as usual, in the sprints, hurdles and relays. Memorial nearly made a clean sweep of the relays, winning five of six (both 4×100 and 4×200 races and the boys 4×400). Central took first in the girls 4×400.
Kary Vincent Jr. began his march to another state championship in the 200 meters, winning that race with a time of 21.24 seconds. He was 0.32 ahead of Central’s Devin Broussard.
Ja’Quan Francois was the only sub-2 minute runner in the 800 meters. He set a time of 1:59.21, more than four seconds ahead of the runner-up.
Bryan Moore rebounded from a close defeat in the 110-meter hurdles to win the 300 hurdles in 40.74.
Carlos Barbosa of Nederland swept the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, and the Bulldogs took the top three positions in each race. Carlos Rodriguez was second in the 1,600 and third in the 3,200, and Blake Mortera reversed those positions for both races.
The Titans had some close calls with Ireon Brown just getting edged by Central’s Calen Ragsdale in the 100 meters (10.73 to 10.75) and Central’s Howard Hunter beating both Moore and Ja’vantae Hopkins to the line in the 110 hurdles. Hunter came in at 14.69 seconds, Moore ran 14.81 and Hopkins ran 14.89.
Capri Wilson was victorious again for the Titans in the girls 100-meter dash, running 12.20. Breanna Hall gave PNG a win in the 400-meter dash, running 60.67.
Nederland was strong in the long distances. Following Rachel Morrison’s win Monday in the 3,200, Madison Ledet came in second in the 1,600 with Morrison coming in third.
Gabrielle Gutierrez won the 100-meter hurdles for Nederland (15.92) and Millicent Neveu gave Memorial gold in the 300 hurdles (48.20).
The top four in each event advance to the 5A Region III area meet at Barbers Hill next week.