Varsity tracksters off to area competition
The Dripping Springs High School track teams competed in the District 26-6A Track Meet last week, coming off a strong showing at The Texas Relays.
The meet, held at Burger Center in Austin, was highly competitive with top athletes in each of the various events competing. The complete results by the stat system used were not immediately provided, and it will be next week before official results will be posted. What we do know is that Dripping Springs had five event champions.
Sofia Farris — who had set a school record in the 300m hurdles at The Texas Relays — was the top winner at the district meet with wins in both hurdle events. Her 42.96 time in the 300's broke the school record and represents the eighth best time in the state. Her male counterpart, Gage Groce, ran a winning time of 38.53 to become the 25th best in state. Ava Williamson won the high jump (5'2”), and the boys 800m relay composed of Boston Papp, Nick Tyndall, Garon Duncan and Gunnar Betts won their event.
Track rules call for the top four places in each event to compete in an area meet with District 25-6A. That meet was held this week at the Georgetown Eastview track with 24 athletes in attendance from Dripping Springs: Farris (100H, 300H, LJ, 400R), Croix Dacunha (LJ), Mia Zimmerman (PV), Ian Jones (PV), Williamson (HJ), Tomsen Vickery (Dis), Alexa Velasco (3200, 1600R), Sofia Vences (3200), Kaleigh Howell (400R, 800R,200), Chloe Fredenburg (400R, 800R), Ellie Hodsden (400R, 800R), Rylea Bernhard (800, 1600R), Betts (100, 800R), Avantza Gil (800R), Papp (800R), Tyndall (800R), Duncan (800R), Lucy Fredenburg (400, 1600R), Megan Hancock (1600R), JD Casteen (1600R), Maddox Maher (1600R), Groce (300H, 1600R), Louis Lopez (1600R), Elijah Gonzales (SP).
Head Coach Ben Reid emphasized the importance of track and field as a core sport for high school athletes because of the fundamentals learned and practiced. As Reid said, all the track athletes work extremely hard all year for their accomplishments — before and after school, in all types of weather, through physical pain and mentally taxing situations.
Reid also highlighted and thanked his assistant coaches — Brenda Womack, Al Pena, Trevor Marshall, Thomas Eckenrode and Eric De Los Santos — as well as his counterpart on the girls team, Coach Kourtney Morris.