Lady 'Birds run hard at Terry
El Campo sends six to regional meet, practicing for qualifier meets
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Kris Bagley Leaping Power There is no denying Ebonee Spencer's triple-jump power. The sophomore took first place at the district meet Thursday with a 37-0 3/4 distance.

The Lady 'Birds are set to take on the region.

A strong showing at Thursday and Friday's district track meet at Terry High School qualified six members of the girls track team for the Regional Track Meet at Huntsville April 25 and 26.

Shelby May was one of the Lady 'Birds to advance to the regional meet. She finished second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:24.23.

"I was really excited," May said. "When I called my mom and told her, she started crying."

May said her typical strategy involves laying back at the start and finishing with a strong run.

"If you burn out, if you give it all in the beginning, at the end, the other people are going to catch you and you won't have enough energy to finish the race," she said.

Throughout the run, she thinks through her strategy and focuses on the surrounding competitors.

L-N Photo by Kris Bagley Full Speed El Campo's senior sprinter, Chelsea Robinson, runs the third leg of the 800-meter relay. She helped push her team to third in the event.

"I'm kind of sort of thinking, 'I'm going to get that person,'" May said. "If it's in the beginning of the race, I'm kind of just like, 'OK, stay behind for a little bit.' Then, toward the end of the race, I start to pick it up and catch her."

Friday's race, however, was a little different. May was instantly one of the front-runners. Instead of staying back and waiting for a chance to strike, she jumped out ahead of the other girls and kept her distance.

"A lot of times, I'll start off in the back and work my way up," May said. "This last track meet, I started out faster than I normally do.

"I was kind of worried about it because I hadn't done it before, but it worked out."

Joining May are Ebonee Spencer, Laura Echeverria, Janae Owens, Chelsi Robinson and Angel Brooks.

Brooks, Robinson, Echeverria and Owens are all part of the four-by-200- meter relay. Spencer will compete in the triple jump and 400-meter dash. Robinson will also run in the 200-meter dash.

The Lady 'Birds had a goal of qualifying in all three relays. Due to mistakes in the hand-offs, however, only one squad advanced.

"I'm pretty proud of them," Alice Barron, head coach of the Lady 'Birds said. "We knew we could make it out in each relay and it's different not taking every relay, but I'm very proud of the effort they showed after that bad handoff on the four by one."

Barron said she felt like rain may have played a role in the relay miscues.

"We're usually a very focused team. We can't use any excuses, but we have to really be focused. When it's bad weather or something like that, you have to overly focus."

Saturday, the Lady 'Birds will compete at Rice Consolidated. The team will travel to Brenham April 18 for their final pre-regional meet.

Though the events are nothing more than practice meets, Barron said the Lady 'Birds will approach them with intensity and a desire to perform well.

"I'm taking it like it's a district meet, basically," she said. "The competition that's going to be there at Rice is going to be serious. It's going to be just like another district meet.

"You don't want to get out of your routine. Once you get kids that are used to a routine, out if it, they'll just be like, 'What's going on?' It would be like the first day of practice again if I took off these two weeks."

Though the four-by-100-meter relay team did not qualify for the regional meet, the team will still run at Rice.

"Even though we had a bad handoff on the four-by-one and even though we didn't qualify for that, I'm going to go ahead and let them run so they can get some closure and know that it was just a mistake," Barron said. "It's basically for closure even though we didn't qualify for it.

"I know they worked their behinds off all year long. That's something they really worked hard to beat their times from last year. Due to circumstances, it didn't happen, but everybody deserves a second chance. Since I'm capable of giving it to them, I don't want to take it away from them."

The following is a list of the Lady 'Birds showings at the district track meet.

Triple Jump

1. Spencer, 37-0 3/4

High Jump

5. Shanice Thomas, 4-8

4 x 200-Meter Relay

3. El Campo (Echeverria, Owens, Robinson, Brooks), 1:49.06

4 x 400-Meter Relay

4. El Campo (Thomas, Echeverria, Spencer, Brooks), 4:10.53

300-Meter Hurdles

5. Courtney Janak, 49.35

Long Jump

5. Brooks, 16-10 1/2

100-Meter Dash

4. Courtney Cadriel, 13.71

200-Meter Dash

3. Robinson, 26.82

400-Meter Dash

2. Spencer, 1:01.15

800-Meter Run

2. May, 2:24.23; 5. Brooks, 2:29.13; 6. Thomas, 2:30.50.

1600-Meter Run

6. Lupe Garcia, 5:56.54

4 x 100-Meter Relay

5. El Campo (Robinson, Owens, Cadriel, Spencer), 51.41

Final Team Standings

1. Foster, 159; 2. Terry, 125; 3. Lamar Consolidated, 109; 4. Seven Lakes, 94; 5. El Campo, 70; 6. Bay City, 53.