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Ira’s Ben Fonville (left) and Hermleigh’s Colton Messick will be among the 34 Scurry County athletes competing at Monday’s Class 1A area meet in Hamlin.
Thirty-four Scurry County athletes will compete at Monday’s Class 1A area meet at Hamlin High School.
The top four finishers in each event will qualify for the Region 2-1A meet, which will be held April 26-27 at Angelo State University. Ira will send 25 athletes to the area meet while Hermleigh will have nine athletes at the meet.
Field events are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and running events are set for 3 p.m.
With 14 athletes heading to the area meet, Ira boys’ track coach Todd Wall likes his team’s chance to win the title.
“I feel like we have a chance to win the team title. But we have to get points in the field events,” he said. “I feel like we are going to get our points in the distance races and relays. I do think we will have a lot of kids move on to regionals.”
Isaac Cabrera and Brayden White each qualified in three individual events. Cabrera will run in the 800-, 1600- and 3200-meter runs while White will be in the 110-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles and triple jump.
Other individual qualifiers for the Bulldogs were Hunter McCowen (200-meter dash and 400-meter dash), Karson Valentine (300-meter hurdles and long jump), Lexton Hernandez (1600-meter run and 3200-meter run), Ben Fonville (800-meter run), Jake Digby (3200-meter run), Garrett Hafer (long jump), Nathan Goodwin (triple jump) and Ike Weaver (pole vault).
Carter Roberson qualified for the shot put and discus but will not compete after suffering a leg injury during a baseball game earlier this week.
All three Ira relay teams qualified for the area meet. Members of the 400-meter team were Asher Fowlkes, Hafer, Addison Fowlkes and Hunter McCowen. Goodwin, Hafer, Asher Fowlkes and Anthony Coy will run the 800-meter relay while Goodwin, Cody McCowen, Gage Peterson and Fonville will run the 1600-meter relay.
Hermleigh boys’ individual qualifiers were Gavin Chavez (100- and 200-meter dashes), Devin Hildebrand (200-meter dash), Kobe Roemisch (400-meter dash, 800-meter run) and Colton Messick (800- and 1600-meter runs). The 400-meter relay team of Hildebrand, Chavez, Roemisch and Bubba Digby also qualified for the area meet.
On the girls’ side, Hermleigh’s Makia Gonzales will be the athlete to watch. During the District 13-1A meet, Gonzales won four gold medals and one silver medal. She won the 100-meter dash, shot put and discus and joined Ciera Digby, Lynzie Stewart and Sarah Murphy on the winning 400-meter relay team. She was second in the long jump.
Ciera Digby qualified in the 200-meter dash and 100-meter hurdles while Stewart qualified in the 800-meter run and 300-meter hurdles.
Ten Ira girls qualified for the area meet, led by Jessica Heiskell and Breauna Hall, who both qualified in the discus and shot put.
Hannah Caswell will compete in the discus, Katelyn Clifton will be in the high jump and Shyia Hill will be in the long jump.
The 400- and 800-meter relay teams of Hill, Evelyn Gallegos, Madison Peterson and Macie Hanshew are also competing Monday.
Bailey Hall and Haylee Gruben will compete in the 100-meter dash and 800-meter run, respectively.