Phoenix athletes do well at CHS meet
The Sonoraville High School track and field team scored 38.5 points last week at a three-team competition at Calhoun High School.
The Yellow Jackets won the meet as a team with 76.5 points and Fannin County was a not-too-far-away second place with 70.
The Phoenix won just two events — one relay and one field event — but had a number of solid showings as they continue getting ready for their first-ever Region 7-4A meet, which is scheduled for next month.
Individually, junior Julian Aguilar won the discus event as Sonoraville had both first and second places. Oliver won with a best hurl of 129 feet, 11 inches and teammate T.J. Oliver was second in the field of nearly 20 throwers with a distance of 121 feet even.
The Big Red also won the 4-x-200 meter relay by five seconds over Fanning County, running a 1:38.87. Senior Brant Bryant, Jayden Cruz, senior Ridge Redd, and Xai Gilbert were the young men on that Phoenix relay.
Sonoraville was second in two other relays and had two of the top four team places in the 4-x-100 relay.
In a bang-bang finish, Fannin County won the 4-x-100 with a 45.2 and the Sonoraville A team had a 45.5. Kyler Bonds, Jordan Carter, Gilbert, and Bryant made up that relay for the Phoenix.
The Phoenix B team was just a couple of seconds behind, running a 47.37 for fourth place. Cruz, Joe Heimer, Alex Trejo, and Dale Lambert ran that relay for SHS.
Sonoraville also had a C team in the 400-meter field and they ran a 49.49 time.
And the Phoenix were the runners-up in the 4-x-400 relay, behind Calhoun, with a 4:23. Austin Turpin, Liam Scott, Jasper Neal, and Andre Hamilton ran that mile relay for Sonoraville.
Senior Ethan Hibberts took two medals for his team with a second place showing in the high jump and a third place in the long jump.
In the high jump, he started a Sonoraville run that saw them bring home two medals as Hibberts was second in the field with a 5-08 while teammate Jordan Carter was third for the bronze at 5-04.
Hibberts had a 19-07.25 for third in the long jump. The winning length was a 20-07.75 and second place was a 20-03.
Besides placing second in the discus, Oliver was also the runner-up in the shot put with a distance of 4407. The Phoenix had two of the top five in the pack of 19 throwers with senior Preston Gilbert fifth at 41 feet, six inches.
Junior Keegan Townsend was second in the 100-meter run and started an outstanding Sonoraville effort in the event with the Firdbirds securing three of the top five spots.
Townsend ran an 11.67 for the silver medal with teammate Jayden Cruz fourth with an 11.75 and sophomore Alex Trejo fifth with an 11.95 in the next-to-last time under 12 seconds.
Zach Taylor was third in the 800-meter race for SHS, running a 2:41.75. Taylor was just two seconds away for the second place time of 2:39.80.
Sonoraville also did well in the pole vault, taking third and fourth place. Braden Henry was third at 10 feet even and Trejo tied Calhoun vaulter Dustin Kerns for fourth place with both going over the bar at 9-feet-6.
The Phoenix had two of the top five in the 3,200-meter race with freshman Matthew Worley coming in fourth and junior Jesse Hendrix was fifth. And they were not that far apart at the finish line with Worley running a 13:12 for the two miles and Hendrix had a 13:23.
Andre Hamilton also gave Sonoraville a top five showing in the 400-meter run, going around the track one time in exactly a minute.