Lady Texans win home track meet

It can be hard to compete when your entire team isn’t available to take the field. That didn’t stop the Wimberley girls’ track team from winning the home track meet the Texan Relays last week.

Due to the Texan Relays being held the same week as the Texas Relays, which is held annually by the University of Texas and brings in the top high school talent in the state, only some Wimberley Texan athletes could compete in their home tournament. The University Interscholastic League has rules about how often an athletic can compete over a given time frame, so some of the top athletes planning to run later in the week at the Texas Relays were unable to compete locally.

The Wimberley girls’ won the meet anyways placing first amoung 14 teams scoring 141 total points. The boys’ varsity track team placed fifth in the meet overall, and the junior varsity took second place.

Balyee Gold was the highest point athlete for the entire meet individually with 22 points. She placed second in the triple jump with a personal record jump of 35 feet, 2.5 inches. She was also on the third place 4x100-meter relay team, placed fourth in the 100-meter hurdles, second in the 300-meter hurdles and fifth in the long jump.

“She is the toughest girl in all of girls’ athletics in my personal opinion,” Track Coach Lacey Jo Lambert said. “She is a competitor that always rises to the occasion. It doesn’t matter what I ask her to do or what event she is running. She is going to compete at her best. She is up for anything.”

Laney Hennessee took first place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.5 seconds. She was also on the 4x200-meter relay team that took first place along with Lauren Foster, Laney Addison and Emily Thames that finished with a time of one minute, 48.18 seconds.

The 4x100-meter relay team of Foster, Gold, Thames and Jade Duncan placed third as didMadison, who placed third in the 800-meter run.

In the field, Elise Brown took first place in the pole vault by clearing nine feet, six inches. Layla Dubuisson placed third in the discus.

The boys’ track team finished in fifth place overall. Landon Gary was the standout in the field winning the long jump with a 20 foot, 8.5 inch leap and placing second in the triple jump.

“Landon is a duel sport athlete,” Track Coach Josh DeMarco said. “He plays baseball also. He has been a long jumper and triple jumper and runs on the relay for us. He is almost like the glue of the team. He brings everybody together, because he is involved in just about everything. He is a really good athlete for our whole athletic program.”

Moses Wray took first in the shot put throwing 53 feet, 8.5 inches. Hunter Allen took third in the long jump. Ryan Shaw placed third in the 200-meter dash. He was also on the 4x200-meter relay team that took third comprised of Shaw, True Couch, Gabe Wray and Zach Patek.

Wimberley will compete in the Tivy Relays in Kerrville on Thursday. The District track meet will be held from April 11 through 13 in Canyon Lake.