Marshall wins gold, Thames wins silver

In September, Christian Marshall was told it would be around eight months until his broken leg would be fully healthy. Eight months later, he crossed the finish line as the first Wimberley High School boys’ track athlete to hang a gold medal around his neck at the end of a race in the state meet.

And he wasn’t the only Wimberley athlete on the medal stand. Emily Thames may have come in third place in both the area and regional track meets, but she placed second at state taking home a silver medal in the long jump.

MARSHALL TURNS GOLD

Marshall was the only Wimberley athlete to qualify in two individual races. He made it to state in the 110-meter hurdles and the 300-meter hurdles. He first made it to state his sophomore year before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the entire 2020 track season. Finishing off the 2021 season didn’t come without a fight.

“He is normally pretty good out of the blocks and usually pulls away from everyone by the third hurdle,” Coach Josh DeMarco said. “But the guy on the inside of him got ahead of him out of the blocks.”

Marshall still trailed about halfway through the race. It was obvious his speed was taking over. As he cleared the eighth of ten hurdles, he began to take the lead before solidifying his victory in the clear sprint to the finish line.

“He is a kid that doesn’t show a lot of emotion,” De-Marco said. “But he showed a lot there at the end. He was flexed as he crossed the finish line. It was a great moment… He was pushed and challenged and he answered the call.”

Marshall finished with a time of 14.27 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles, which was good enough for a gold medal. He also finished eighth in the 300-meter hurdles, which were held shortly after his state championship sprint.

THAMES LEAPS FORWARD

Thames is a well-known athlete for the Lady Texans. Just a sophomore, she has been a starter on what seems like every other team sport Wimberley offers. While she has participated in track all season, Thames was named to the All-State team in soccer, which shared much of the season with the track team.

“She had games two nights a week, practices two times a week and a track meet,” Coach Lacey Lambert said. “Once soccer season was over, she was able to rest her legs a little bit, and fine tune those technical aspects of the long jump.”

Thames placed third in the area tournament and hadn’t quite leaped 17 feet going into regionals. She had the jump of her life, clearing 17 feet, nine-inches, yet she still placed behind Anna Gold, of Fredericksburg, and Kiana Van Haaren, of Davenport. Since both of those girls are in Wimberley’s district, Thames had gotten used to placing right behind them.

But some people rise to the occasion. At the state championship Thames leaped 18 feet, .75 inches, which was more than a foot further than her personal best just a few weeks further.

“For her to gain that much in the last two week is remarkable,” Lambert said.

Gold finished in seventh and Van Harren finished in third just half an inch behind Thames, who went home with a silver medal.

SEASON FOR THE BOOKS

Overall, this was the most athletes Wimberley had sent to a track state meet between the boys and girls teams combined. Three relay teams competed along with three individual competitors in four events.

“It used to be exciting just to make it to regionals,” Lambert said. “Then it grew to where we went to regionals and wanted to win it. The expectations went up. Since we’ve taken so many kids to state the last few years it’s the same. It’s not that we are trying to always win the whole meet, but we are going to go to state and show everybody who the Wimberley Texans are… We had people competing all day long. To be there and have a full day of track and field for Wimberley in so many events, it was just awesome.”

On the boys side, Cameron Waida finished in ninth place in the high jump. The 4x400-meter relay team of Ryan Shaw, Nathan Brooks, Landon Gary and Juan Olmedo-Barraco, placed in eighth with a time of three minutes, 23.74 seconds. All of those relay athletes are sophomores or juniors, and DeMarco stated that expectations are high for the relay team next year.

The 4x200-meter relay team of Waida, Ty Pruitt, Brooks and Olmedo-Barraco broke their own school record by about a second and placed fourth with a time of one minute, 28.29 seconds.

“If there was ever a time you took pride in the fact that you were in fourth place, it was this race,” De-Marco said. “The teams that went 1 and 2, I think they would have won every division. They would have even won the 6A Division, and third place was blazing fast too.”

For the girls’, the 4x400-meter relay team of Rhyan Masur, Rylee German, Haley Hall and Holly Harwood finished in ninth with a time of four minutes, 9.59 seconds.

Grace Harney placed fifth in the 300-meter hurdles breaking her own school record with a time of 46.55 seconds.

“We always try to tell them ‘Let’s go run our best race,’ and she did,” Lambert said. “She ran her best race of the year, and her fifth place finish was higher than where she was seeded going into the meet.”