Albany track teams open season at Maverick Relays

By Sam Waller

Albany track and field athletes entered competition Thursday, Feb. 27 at the Eastland Maverick Relays.

Albany, which had its first scheduled meet cancelled because of weather, was competing Thursday, March 6 (today) at the Cross Plains meet.

At Eastland, the varsity boys scored 74 points to finish fourth in the team standings. The Lions won two events and medaled in four others.

“It was a good opening meet,” boys coach Rod Britting said. “It wasn’t anything incredibly good, and it wasn’t anything incredibly bad. We’ve got some things we can work with; we’ve just got to put it all together.”

Meanwhile, the Lady Lions had all three varsity athletes entered medal and score in multiple events to total 29 points and finish fifth.

“Our goal was to go compete and see how we need to attack the rest of this season,” girls coach Lauren Peacock said. “You can practice all day long, but competing in a meet is a lot different. They ran well and gave us a starting point.”

Britting held a similar view with the boys team.

“My goal with the kids who went was to get them in a race to see if they can help us somewhere,” he said. “I’ve got some times on kids and can see if we can put one on a relay to help us and move another one to a different spot. A couple of our kids weren’t there because they were playing baseball, so we didn’t have a full crew, but it was pretty close.”

Bringing home gold medals for the boys were Max Oliver, who started the day off by winning the shot put, and the 1600-meter relay of Jaxson Street, Wesley Gleitz, Jayce Tinkle and Christian Hernandez.

“The mile relay ran a really good first race,” Britting said. “All four of the guys had good splits.”

Tinkle added a silver in the 400 and Breylon Billington was second in the pole vault. Claiming bronze were Adrian Wren in the discus and Jakobi Roberson in the triple jump, going over 40 feet for the first time.

Tony Wheeler placed fourth in the pole vault and fifth in the 200, while Huffman Heatly was fifth in the 400. The 400 relay of Street, Billington, Hernandez and Jack Nail and the 800 relay, with Roberson running the second leg, both finished fifth.

For the Lady Lions, Avery Everitt (300 hurdles), Zayne Lefevre (400) and Ashlyn Miller (800) each earned a bronze medal in addition to scoring in their other events. Miller was fourth in the high jump and sixth in the 400. Everitt was fourth in the 100 hurdles, and Lefevre was fifth in the 200.

“The girls were disappointed in themselves because they expect to come out and run their best every time,” Peacock said. “We talked about how it’s still early, and this is a good starting point. They just have to be patient and trust the process.”

The JV boys scored 24 points. Zane Green accounted for 20 by winning the shot put and the 200. His shot put distance of 40 feet, 4½ inches would have placed third in the varsity division.

VARSITY GIRLS

Team totals — 1. Joshua, 166; 2. Eastland, 158; 3. Snyder, 103; 4. Jacksboro, 102; 5. Albany, 29; 6. Throckmorton, 8.

High jump — 4. Ashlyn Miller, 4-6.

800 — 3. Ashlyn Miller, 2:39.94.

100 hurdles — 4. Avery Everitt, 18.87.

400 — 3. Zayne Lefevre, 1:05.80; 6. Ashlyn Miller, 1:06.51.

300 hurdles — 3. Avery Everitt, 58.67.

200 — 5. Zayne Lefevre, 29.11.

VARSITY BOYS

Team totals — 1. Joshua, 206; 2. Eastland, 163; 3. Jacksboro, 97; 4. Albany, 74; 5. Snyder, 64; 6. Throckmorton, 0.

Shot put — 1. Max Oliver, 41-3.

Discus — 3. Adrian Wren, 124-3; 12. Ryan Turner, 86-5.

Long jump — 9. Jack Nail, 18-0½; 11. Aaden Mendez, 17-2½; 13. Jakobi Roberson, 17-0.

Triple jump — 3. Jakobi Roberson, 40-9.

Pole vault — 2. Breylon Billington, 12-0; 4. Tony Wheeler, 8-6.

400 relay — 5. Albany (Jaxson Street, Breylon Billington, Christian Hernandez, Jack Nail), 45.60.

100 — 8. Jack Nail, 12.43; 10. Aaden Mendez, 13.13.

800 relay — 5. Albany (Jaxson Street, Jakobi Roberson, Christian Hernandez, Jack Nail), 1:37.44.

400 — 2. Jace Tinkle, 53.89; 5. Huffman Heatly, 55.40.

200 — 5. Tony Wheeler, 23.96; 10. Breylon Billington, 24.73; 14. Aaden Mendez, 27.72.

1600 relay — 1. Albany (Jaxson Street, Wesley Gleitz, Jayce Tinkle, Christian Hernandez), 3:36.26.

JV GIRLS

Team totals — 1. Joshua, 216; 2. Eastland, 118; 3. Jacksboro, 85; 4. Snyder, 48; 5. (tie) Albany, 0; Throckmorton, 0.

Shot put — 10. Aisley Alvada, 22-9½.

Discus — 10. Aisley Alvada, 48-6½.

100 — 11. Tatum Grady, 15.28; 12. Sumer McBay, 15.81; 13. Maddie Stapp, 16.36.

200 — 11. Tatum Grady, 33.64; 13. Sumer McBay, 34.61; 14. Maddie Stapp, 35.39.

JV BOYS

Team totals — 1. Joshua, 247; 2. Eastland, 162; 3. Jacksboro, 80; 4. Snyder, 62; 5. Albany, 25; 6. Throckmorton, 0.

Shot put — 1. Zane Green, 40-4½; 6. Bennett Neece, 33-10½; 10. Casey Estridge, 30-1.

Discus — 7. Bennett Neece, 87-8¼; 8. Cash Edgar, 86-3; 9. Casey Estridge, 85-7.

Long jump — 4. Seth Barrett, 15-8.

100 — 8. Shawn Keen, 12.77; 12. Bennett Neece, 13.08; 14. Seth Barrett, 13.41.

200 — 1. Zane Green, 24.45; 10. Seth Barrett, 27.86; 15. Shawn Keen, 31.50.