Fast and the Furious

The Palestine Herald

April 17, 2009 10:18 am

— By SCOTT TYLER
Sports Editor

FAIRFIELD — With the lightning and rain holding off just enough, Palestine and Westwood fared well Thursday night at the District 20-3A track meet as both teams advanced several athletes to regionals.
With thunderstorms in the area, late in the meet, track officials decided to start cutting junior varsity events so the varsity events could be completed. It almost did not happen as there was a short delay because of lightning with one event left — the 1600-meter relay. But after the delay, the varsity girls and varsity boys were able to get the relays finished to make the meet official.
In the varsity boys’ meet, the Crockett Bulldogs built up enough of a lead after the first day to hold off Palestine and Westwood for the district title.
Crockett after field events Wednesday and finished with 160 points. Palestine overtook Westwood for second place and the Panthers finished third.
Palestine’s success Thursday came from the relays as the Wildcats swept the three relay events including running a 42.37 in the sprint relay.
The Wildcats also had several athletes on the relay teams that won in individual events including Terance Simon in the 100 and Xavier Davis in the 200.
Laquadium Foreman won the 1600 Thursday night after winning the 3200 Wednesday afternoon.
Sam Hazel also qualified for regionals, taking second in the 300 hurdles.
For Westwood, the Panthers qualified seven athletes to regionals from Thursday’s events including Cameron Shead, who took second place in the two hurdle races.
Desmone Williams captured Westwood’s only gold Thursday as he won the 800. Kyle Carroll finished third in the race to reach regionals.
Also reaching regionals for Westwood were Ryan Mackie, who took third in the 400 and John Almarez, who took third in the 1600.
In the girls meet, Fairfield ran away with the district title as Palestine finished second and Westwood took third.
The Lady Panthers qualified their relay teams along with Adrianne Williams, who took second in the 100 hurdles, and Jasmine McDaniel, who took second in the 1600.
The Ladycats won the 400 and 800 relays but were a late scratch from the 1600 relay because of injuries.
Fatima McDonald won both hurdle races and Gretchen Scoggin took third in the 300 intermediate hurdles.
Markesia Wilson also qualified for regionals after she took third in the 200.
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Scott Tyler may be contacted via e-mail at styler@palestineherald.com
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Editors Note: Due to the delay of the track meet, all results were not provided to the Herald-Press by deadline. See Saturday’s edition for more on the District 20-3A track meet.