16 to compete at regional track meet
By Sam Waller
The Albany Lions and Lady Lions make their bid for a berth at the state track meet this weekend at the Regional II-2A meet at Porcupine Stadium in Springtown.
Albany has 10 boys and six girls qualified in individual events and relays. The teams have qualifiers in 11 boys and seven girls events, totaling 21 entries.
Running prelims will be held Friday, April 29, with finals on Saturday, April 30. Field events will be spread over both days.
The top two finishers in each event qualify for the Class 2A state meet, scheduled for Friday, May 13 at Myers Stadium in Austin. In addition, the top third-place result in every event from each region will advance.
Boys coach Rod Britting is optimistic about the Lions’ relay chances based on their best times.
“We’re sitting second in the region in the 800 relay, fifth in the sprint relay and third in the mile relay,” he said. “The mile relay looks like the two teams in our district are several seconds ahead of us, so it’s a long shot to advance in that one unless something happens.”
For the boys, senior Luke Ivy and junior Cole Chapman look to earn a return to state after qualifying last year. Ivy advanced in the triple jump with Chapman in the high jump.
“You would hope that experience gives them an understanding of what it’s going to take,” Britting said. “Luke is a really good leader for the younger guys because he knows how to prepare for a race.”
Both Ivy and Chapman will compete in those events at regional along with others. Chapman also qualified in the long jump and triple jump, while Ivy runs on all three relays.
Other field-event qualifiers are pole vaulters Tye Edgar, Luke Marshall, and Jayden Lucas. Qualifiers in running events are Coy Lefevre in the 100, Samuel Rosas in the 800, and Adam Hill in the 110 and 300 hurdles.
The relay lineups at the area meet were Cason Fairchild, Lefevre, Ivy, and Jayce Tinkle in the 400; Fairchild, Ivy, Lefevre, and Edgar in the 800; and Ivy, Rosas, Fairchild, and Hill in the 1600.
The availability of London Fuentes, who has run on all three relays but battled injuries much of the spring, could change things, Britting said.
“Most likely, we’ll run London on the mile relay,” Britting said. “It seems like when he runs full-out sprints is when he tweaks that injury. I’m not sure if I’m going to run him just in the finals or in the prelims, too.”
The Lady Lions are well-represented in field events with Kiana Roberson in the shot put and discus, Sarah Cotter in the high jump, and Briley Tabor in the pole vault. On the track, Ella Webb qualified in both the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles and is joined by Kam Browning, Cotter, and Robin Lucas on the 800 relay.
“We’ve got some girls who are in a pretty good position overall,” girls coach Ryder Peacock said. “We aren’t in a ton of events, but we feel like we have a chance to compete in the ones we are in.”
Peacock said having one or more entries move on would not be a surprise.
“We feel pretty good about where we are right now,” he said. “Obviously, you have to compete and perform to get to the next round because somebody’s going to come out of nowhere that you didn’t expect. You either want to be that person or do well enough it doesn’t affect you.”
