Published: April 17, 2009 11:09 pm      

Plenty of gold for Palestine track

By SCOTT TYLER

Sports Editor



The Palestine boys’ track team may not have won the District 20-3A track title, but the Wildcats did finish with the most gold.

“I am excited with how we did,” Palestine track coach Booker Bowie said. “We competed pretty well and we had the best times we had all year.”

Palestine finished second in district to Crockett, which had a big lead over the Wildcats coming into Thursday’s running finals. The Bulldogs won with 160 points and Palestine had 149 points.

Out of the 17 events, Palestine qualified people to regionals in 11 events, including winning eight of those events.

The Class 3A-Region III meet will be held in Humble on May 1 and 2.

Three of the wins came in the relays as Palestine swept the three events. The 400 and 800 relays were run by Xavier Davis, Terance Simon, Darius Simmons and Joe Anthony.

“The kids are beginning to gel and we found four that meshed well,” Bowie said.

The 800 relay, which won the week before at the Lancaster meet, dominated at district, getting the lead early and continued to extend it to the end, finishing with a time of 1:29.0, more than three seconds ahead of Crockett.

“The 800 relay is one of our stronger events,” Bowie said. “Xavier got us the lead and I was happy to see that we kept getting it bigger.”

Simmons also was a part of the winning 1600 relay team, which had a time of 3:28.3, topping Crockett by two-tenths of a second.

“Darius is the glue that holds things together for us,” Bowie said.

The other members of the mile relay were Samuel Hazel, Harlon McCoy and Laquadium Foreman.

“The was the first time they ran together,” Bowie said. “Sam gave us a boost in the first leg and Darius got the lead in the second leg and we maintained it.”

Members of the relay team also succeeded in individual events.

Laquadium Foreman captured a pair of gold medals, winning the 3200 on Wednesday and the 1600 on Thursday. Foreman won the 3200 by almost a minute with a time of 10:34.6.

“I am so proud of Laquadium,” Bowie said. “He ran his best mile time (4:46.0) and no one was close to him.”

McCoy captured the 400 title, winning by nearly a second with a time of 51.2.

Hazel rallied to get into the top three in the 300 hurdles when he grabbed third place on the final hurdle.

“I am glad to see him finish hard,” Bowie said. “He showed a lot of guts.”

The sprinters also had success as Simon won the 100 with a time of 11.0 and Xavier won the 200 with a time of 21.8 seconds.

“Terance has won almost every 100 he has run this year,” Bowie said. “And Xavier keeps getting better and better each week.”

In field events, Palestine had two athletes reach the regionals, including Daniel Henson winning the pole vault title with a length of 11-6. He won by six inches.

Jermaine Black also made regionals after taking second place in the shot put.

Bowie also was pleased with how the Palestine girls’ competed, including 400 and 800 relay teams, which both captured gold.

The teams, which both are comprised of Annie Anthony, Krystal Davis, Temish Whitehead and Krystal Davis won the 400 relay with a time of 48.6 and the 800 relay with a time of 1:45.4, topping Fairfield by four-tenths of a second.

“We had great handoffs in our relays and that is the key,” Bowie said. “It also has helped that each girl runs the same leg.”

Fatima McDonald dominated in the hurdles, winning the 100 hurdles with a time of 16.6 and taking gold in the 300 hurdles with a time of 47.5.

“Fatima is a great competitor and she may be one of the smallest runners on the track but she has a big heart,” Bowie said.

Gretchen Scoggin also advances to regionals after she took third in the 300 hurdles.

Markesia Wilson also got a ticket to regionals after she took third place in the 200, getting the spot by two-tenths of a second.

On Wednesday, in the field events, Palestine took second and third in the pole vault with Sarah Price and Lindsey Gibson, who both finished with jumps of 7-6.

Also, Ashley Durham finished third in the triple jump.

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Scott Tyler may be contacted via e-mail at styler@palestineherald.com