The Sulphur boys track team continued to roll on Monday, as the boys won the Lake Country Conference meet at Sulphur.
Sulphur won the meet by 11.5 team points over Plainview, scoring points in 16 of the 17 team events.
“Our track coaches really emphasize every year with the team that there are three important meets during the year - the LCC meet, regionals and state,” said Sulphur head coach Emile Heitland. “The LCC is the start of our postseason and we take this meet really seriously.”
Heitland was inspired by his team’s performance and where the Dogs sit heading into regionals.
“It was very encouraging to see how our athletes performed,” he said. “The boys are currently ranked No. 4 in OSSAAstandings and Plainview is ranked No. 5 so we knew it would be a good test for us. For us to score points in every event but one really shows how deep of a team we are.”
The relays continued to be strong for Sulphur, as they have all year.
Brytan Gaddy, Austin Garrett, Trace Todd and Damontre Patterson continued to dominate in bot the 4x100 and 4x200, winning 1st in both.
“All of the boys’ relays ran really well,” Heitland said. “We probably had our best handoffs of the year.”
The 4x400 relay team (Gaddy, Garrett, Todd and Triston Grantham) was 2nd, while the 4x800 relay team (Kaleb Madron, Huston Holder, Halen Pannell and Treygon Gehrig) were 3rd.
“The 4x8 is really running well right now,” Heitland said. “They are knocking chunks of time off at each meet. They ran an 8:30.57 at the LCC which is two seconds faster than they ran last year at the state track meet when they got on the podium.”
Madron was 1st in the 800, running 2:00 again.
“Kaleb is really driven by his goal to break 2:00 this year,” Heitland said. “He has been running 2:00 for the last several meets and if he gets favorable conditions the next two weeks I believe he will achieve his goal.”
Patterson was 1st in the 100 and 200, as the defending state champ continues to dominate.
“DaMontre never was pushed on Monday and cruised to victory in both his open events,” Heitland said.
Justus Gilliam was 1st in the shot and Caden Cole was 2nd with a new personal best throw of 45-06.
“Caden had a big PR throw yesterday and he is starting to put things together,” Heitland said. “If he continues his upward trajectory, I think he is going to have a good chance to find himself throwing at the state track meet in two weeks.
Gaddy was 1st in the long jump, while Grady Hardoin was 3rd in both the 110 and 300 hurdles.
Nash Williamson was 3rd in the discus for Sulphur, while Jayden McClure was 4th in the pole vault.
“The LCC high school boys pole vault was a stacked field,” Heitland said. “Jayden is in only his 2nd track meet ever and jumped 12-feet, which is unheard of jumping that high with so little experience.”
“Both Jayden and Landy DeArman are jumping really well and have a real chance to make some noise at the regional and state track meet.”
The junior high boys won their division of the LCC meet with ease, scoring 207 points, well ahead of 2nd place.
“I was very excited about the way our junior high boys competed at the LCC meet,” Heitland said. “They scored 207 points and soundly beat the 2nd place team by 59 points. It was very exciting to see the younger guys show up and compete like they did. The future of the Sulphur track team is very bright.”
The high school girls were 4th overall, as the team continued to be led by familiar faces in Jayden Lee, Amaurie Peters, and Kenleigh Johnson.
Lee was 2nd in the 800, continuing to run well with a time of 2:30.
“For the second meet in a row she has run 2:30,” said Heitland. “She is just a freshman and has made great strides this year in getting her 800 time down. She works extremely hard in practice and it is paying off with her performances the last several weeks.”
Peters was 2nd in the 200 and the 400, posting a new personal best in the open quarter with a time of 61.53.
“Amaurie had her best meet of the year,” Heitland said. “She ran 2 great races in open events and ran a great anchor leg on the 4x400 relay.”
Johnson was 2nd in the shot and the discus, posting a new PR in the shot with a throw of 33-06.25.
“Kenleigh has had a great season in discus but has been struggling with her shot put in the first part of the season,” Heitland said. “But in the last couple meets, she has really taken off in the shot put. I credit that to Kenleigh’s work ethic and her ability to keep grinding in practice.”
“Also, we are lucky to have a really good throwing coach in David Gilliam. Coach Gilliam made an adjustment with Kenleigh and changed her from spinning to gliding which has really paid off.”
The girls 4x100 relay team (Peters, Lee, Jadelyn Scheer and Kate Woods) was 3rd, while the same group placed 2nd in the 4x400 relay.
“The 4x400 is the girls strongest relay,” Heitland said. “They have been getting stronger and stronger each week.”
The teams will be at regionals at Madill on Saturday.
