Ricebirds advance to regionals
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Kris Bagley Run, Ricebird, Run Thad Deiss takes off after Landon Appling passes him the baton in the 800-meter relay. El Campo took first in the event.

Four Ricebirds will run in the Regional Track Meet.

Thursday and Friday's district track meet at Terry High School featured several nice outings by the El Campo boys, and one outstanding performance.

Landon Appling, Thad Deiss, Maverick Smith and Dominique Murray combined for first place in the four-by- 200-meter relay. Each of the boys ran 200 meters, combining for 800 meters in the event. The relay team finished with a 1:31.52 time and took first place by less than a second.

Now the team is getting ready to compete against the region at Huntsville April 25 and 26.

At the start of the district meet, the Ricebirds were underdogs but never lost focus and the belief that first place was in reach.

"We were excited about the relays and I knew that was our best chance at getting to regionals," Royce Johnson, head coach of the Ricebirds, said. "According to times before (the meet) we had maybe the third or fourth best time, so we knew we could get there. I told the kids just before that we had to be perfect on the hand-offs and make no mistakes.

"They were perfect. They worked on it hard and they got it right. Everybody else made mistakes and we capitalized on it. We were able to hold it off. Dominique Murray ran a heck of an anchor leg at the end."

After an injury, Murray rejoined the team just in time for the meet. The injury was never apparent in his last lap as the Ricebirds claimed victory.

"I knew we were ahead, but by him being hurt before, I was hoping his leg was just strong enough to hold out and hold them off," Johnson said. "He did. He came through and he's a competitor. All of them ran their legs well and we got the hand-offs."

Deiss, who ran the second leg of the relay, said his mind was clear while he was running. He only focused on the people around him.

"I'm looking at who-all is around me, who I'm catching, who I'm getting and thinking about getting that baton to Maverick," he said.

When it came to Murray's final lap, however, Deiss was thinking a lot more and became caught up in the tension.

"When he was coming around I saw he was in first place and I kind of started yelling and got excited a little bit," Deiss said. "When he crossed the finish line, I ran on the track and the starter guy from Terry told me to get off the track because I could get disqualified. So, I had to quickly get off the track just as soon as I ran on. It's pretty exciting to win district in a relay."

To prepare for the regional meet, the relay team will run in two practice meets. The 'Birds will face other regional qualifiers at Rice Consolidated Saturday and Brenham April 18.

The boys will focus primarily on their technique and not so much on competition.

"In the relays, the hand-offs are the most important part," Deiss said. "You really can't practice like you're going to be running in a meet with the adrenaline and all the excitement going through you. The only real way to practice that would be to go to a regional qualifier and go all out."

The team is healthy, so some extra competition should not be a problem for the Ricebirds. Appling, however, is expected to miss the Brenham meet because it conflicts with a baseball game. J.R. Harris or Dymonic Richardson could run in his place.

"It's just a timing thing that we need to work on," Johnson said. "If we have the relays there, we have to work on the hand-offs. Now, if we're going into relays and we have an injury problem or tightness, it may not be good to go to a qualifier's meet. Right now, our kids are working pretty good. We have to get the hand-offs."

Johnson recognized his entire team for a strong performance. Several Ricebirds finished just shy of a medal.

"The meet went great overall," Johnson said. "We thought we might get another place in discus, but with the wind going like it was, it affected everybody. It wasn't just our kids."

The following is a list of El Campo's performance at the district meet.

Discus

4. Chase Bullard, 126-0 3/4

Triple Jump

5. Smith, 41-4 3/4

High Jump

5. Darius Parks, 6-0

Pole Vault

4. Matthew Montalvo, 11-0

4 x 200-Meter Relay

1. El Campo (Appling, Deiss, Smith, Murray), 1:31.52; 2. Lamar Consolidated, 1:31.69.

4 x 400-Meter Relay

4. El Campo (Rodney Butler, Deiss, Appling, Murray), 3:33.06

Long Jump

5. Appling, 20-10

Shot Put

6. Junior Tompkins, 46-10 1/4

4 x 100-Meter Relay

5. El Campo (J.R. Harris, Deiss, Smith, Appling), 44.19

Final Team Standings

1. Bay City, 158; 2. Seven Lakes, 127; 3. Lamar Consolidated, 126; 4. Foster, 94; 5. Terry, 65; 6. El Campo, 47.