Dekaney surging into regional meet
Dekaney’s track and field girls shined last week.
Klein won the District 15-6A team championship, but the Wildcats surpassed Klein and Westfield at the weatherdelayed 15-16 area meet, finishing fourth behind The Woodlands, Oak Ridge and Kingwood.
The Wildcats scored 54 points, Westfield had 48 and Klein 45½.
“That was a huge accomplishment for us,” first-year coach Karen Smith said. “I have a lot of seniors this year, and it was a good way for us to top off our season.”
Dekaney overcame the delays caused by the flooding that kept them out of school all week.
The area meet originally was slated for Wednesday and Thursday, then pushed to one day Thursday, and finally one day Friday.
“It affected us because we didn’t go to school the entire week and it was difficult for us to get to practice, so we didn’t have as much practice time as we should have,” Smith said. “But we ended up doing better than I thought we’d do.”
The Wildcats won the 400-meter relay in 46.93 seconds.
“That’s something that I expected with the four girls I have,” Smith said. “The three seniors (Natashia Jackson, Tia Elmore and Arbonay Hill-Bess) have been running the last four years, and I have one junior (Keishawna Scott), and that’s the team that competed last year at state (finishing seventh).”
Jackson also won the 400 (54.88) and took second in the 200 (24.22).
She finished third in the 400 at the state meet last year.
“She’s very meticulous with how she wants to perform in every meet, because she has a goal for every meet, and she was probably a little disappointed in her time, even though it was good,” Smith said.
“She sets very high goals for herself.”
Elmore took second in the 100, finishing three-hundredths of a second behind The Woodlands’ Charity Thomas at 11.89.
“Tia works very hard every day, just like Natashia Jackson, and so it was the icing on the cake for her to come in second,” Smith said.
“Of course, she was expecting to take first, but this weekend is coming up, and she plans on winning and going to state.”
The Region II-6A meet is Friday and Saturday in Waco. Dragons struggling
The John Cooper School baseball team took a big hit last week, dropping a pair of games to Houston Christian and St. John’s.
Cooper fell 3-2 to Houston Christian and 6-0 to St. John’s.
“At the beginning of the week we had the possibility of being the three seed from the SPC South Zone,” coach Brent Landrum said in a release. “After the one-run loss on Friday and the loss to St. John’s, it looks like we will be the sixth seed from the south.
“(But) I am proud of this team for making the playoffs. We didn’t make it last year and they set a goal to make it this year and they did. We look to finish strong at the SPC tournament in Fort Worth.”
The SPC tournament is set for Thursday through Saturday.
Braden Sebesta took the loss against Houston Christian, despite allowing only three hits.
Bobby Finnie went 1-for-3 with an RBI and Evan Minarovic went 1-for-2 with a run scored.
Finnie took the loss to St. John’s.
Emerson Raybon went 1-for-3 in that one, with A.J. Krehbiel going 1-for-1 with two walks. Duo at state
The Cypress Ranch mixed doubles team of sophomore Dylan Payne and freshman Melissa LaMette clinched a regional championship last week at the Region III-6A tennis tournament at Deer Park.
Payne and LaMette came from behind to beat Fort Bend Austin 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. The win over the region’s top-seeded mixed doubles clinched their spot at the state tourney May 16-17 in College Station.
“They played a fantastic tournament,” Cy Ranch coach Minh Phan said