WEBSTER — Jacie Droddy entered Saturday’s long jump of the 5A Region III tournament pretty relaxed.

That allowed the Port Neches-Groves senior to make her season-best attempt.

“I was satisfied,” she said. “I was glad to get back in the hang of things, but I know I can do way more.”

Droddy jumped 18 feet, 5.25 inches to take second place in the region for the third year in a row and earn a third straight trip to the UIL state meet next month at the University of Texas at Austin. Destini Lomnard of Fort Bend Hightower jumped 19-3 to win the title.

“She was focused. She was ready,” PNG coach Brittany Fruge said of Droddy. “Everytihng just fell, just like it should have.”

It also helped Droddy to relax knowing that she had a busy day ahead.

She earned 11 points — good for a 14th-place team tie — in the two-day meet at Clear Creek ISD’s Challenger Columbia Stadium. Droddy took fifth in the 200-meter dash (25.91) and was sixth (12.17) in the 100-meter dash for her highest region finishes in those sprints.

The 5A Region III meet was not as rewarding to Memorial’s teams as in recent years. The District 21-5A and area champion Titans competed in nine finals and the Lady Titans made two, but qualified no one for state. Memorial’s boys had finished second as a team in 6A in 2015 and in 5A two years ago.

Still, the Titans finished sixth as a team Saturday.

“This is the first time in a long time we didn’t have anybody qualify for the state meet,” Memorial boys coach Darrell Granger said, “but I’m still excited for these young men. I’m still excited for them competing and making it to the regional finals, so I’m still happy with the results, even though we didn’t make it to the state meet.”

The Titans’ 4×400-meter relay team was the last hope for a Region III medal, but Fort Bend Hightower kept them off the medal stand by 0.3 second. Harold Mosley (110-meter hurdles) and Jessie Cornell (300 hurdles) also were fourth for Memorial.

Granger said he had to make some changes in his relay legs after Allen Santos-Williams was injured in the 4×100.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, but we’ll reload next year and we’ll be ready,” Granger said.

The major development Saturday was Strake Jesuit sprinter Matthew Boling’s 9.98-second run in the 6A boys 100 meters. While Boling’s run became the fastest all-conditions time for a 100 ever according to milesplit.com, the wind reading was 4.2 meters per second, which meant the run does not qualify for world charts. (The legal wind-aid is 2 meters per second.)

Divine Oduduru of Nigeria ran a 9.94 in Waco last Saturday, and Roberto Skyers ran 9.98 in his home Cuba on Feb. 22.

Former Olympic champion and NBC analyst Ato Boldon tweeted that Boling’s time would convert to 10.16 seconds with no wind-aid.

“As a sub-ten guy, I’ll say this: sometimes you have to run a time wind-aided first, before you can run it with legal wind,” Bolton said in the tweet.

Boling will have the chance May 10 in the 5A state meet, where Droddy will shoot for her first state medal.

“I just really want a medal, so I’m going to do whatever it takes,” Droddy said.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews

 

**CORRECTS Droddy’s number of silver medals in the 5A Region III meet**