Trio of athletes bronzed at state
Terhune, Summers, Cameron among top finishers in Austin
Katy’s Christie Terhune was one of three Katy ISD athletes to medal at the UIL Track and Field State Meet last week.
The junior placed third in the pole vault by clearing 12 feet in Austin.
“It was extremely exciting,” coach James Pat Darcey said.
“You get to coach a bunch of different types of kids, and you don’t get a better type of kid than Christie. She’s one of the hardest workers, one of the most positive kids and one of the best leaders we have on our team.”
This was Terhune’s first trip to the state meet.
She nearly made it out in the 300-meter hurdles, too, finishing fourth in the region – and the third-place finisher was called up as the state wild card – and she dominated the 800 in the postseason.
Terhune won the district, area and regional titles in the 800.
“It was certainly exciting for her,” Darcey said. “She came in as a hurdler and we started working into the 800 a little bit, really just to build up her strength for the hurdles. And at the end of the year she just really started blooming in the 800, really starting at district, and then carried that on through.”
She won the Region III6A championship with a time of 2 minutes, 12.06 seconds, then turned in a personal-best time of 2:11.41.
“We certainly felt like she was going to have to run faster than what she had, but with not being beat for the past six weeks of the season, and from the workouts she had put in, we knew she was ready to go.” Darcey said.
Darcey said Terhune will come back next year even more motivated.
He sees her stepping up in the 300 hurdles and on the team’s mile relay, which also narrowly missed state, and going for gold in the 800.
“The kids always develop their own goals,” he said. “We give them an idea of what we think they’re capable of, and she’s really good at setting goals. But I would certainly think her goal would be to get there in the 300 hurdles, and she’s such a good teammate I know she’s going to want the mile relay to get there.”
Katy ISD had two other bronze medalists – Morton Ranch’s Ashton Summers (pole vault) and Mayde Creek’s Javlyn Cameron (100 hurdles).