Lady Hornets own area after track meet
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

The Lady Hornets had another great track meet Wednesday as they took on their area at Thrall.

Last week, Louise made a trip to Thrall for their district meet and narrowly finished with a 2-point win over Thorndale.

This time, there was no contest for the Lady Hornets. The girls claimed first place with 114 points - 30 points ahead of second place Flatonia.

Louise advanced in 10 of 11 competing categories and will send seven Lady Hornets on to the regional meet.

The most dominant area of Louise's track team comes with its sprinting speed. Long-distance and field events have faired well for the Lady Hornets as well, but all four of Louise's firstplace wins have involved the sprint.

Considering two of the Lady Hornets' quickest sprinters have been out for the season, Louise's dominance has been quite an accomplishment.

Gabby Foster and Kirsten Machicek are considered among the school's fastest athletes. With both sophomores injured, several Lady Hornets have stepped up in their absence.

"Our strength is our sprinters," Bryan Branch, head coach of the Lady Hornets, said. "For a 1-A school, we are fortunate to have at least the four fastest kids in the district. We've got Kierra Thornton and Kelsey Kutac who went first and second in the 100 (meter dash). Then, Amber Bain could probably go one, two, or three in the 100, but she runs the 100 (meter) hurdles. She won that by a full second.

"We're fortunate to have Shelby Kotulek be able to step in when those girls got hurt. She's more of a quarter person, but she's got good speed and she's able to run that first leg for us on the relay. We're deep and we were able to withstand the two injuries and still be very competitive."

The following is a list of Louise's achievements at the area track meet. The top four finishers in each event will compete at the regional meet.

Final Team Standings

1. Louise 114; 2. Flatonia, 84; 3. Thorndale, 80; 4. Shiner, 70; 5. Thrall, 53; 6. Holland, 50; 7. Fayetteville, 40; 8. Round Top-Carmine, 31; 9. Runge, 29; 10. Prairie Lea, 12; 11. Milano, 10; 12. Austwell-Tivoli, 8; 13. Dime Box, 9; 14. Bartlett, 4; 15. Moulton, 4; 16. Nordheim, 2; 17. Buckholts, 0; 18. Calvert, 0; 19. Richards, 0.

100-Meter Dash

1. Thornton, 14.04; 3. Kutac, 14.37

400-Meter Dash

2. Ana Martinez, 1:03.46; 4. Kotulek, 1:06.03

100-Meter Hurdles

1. Bain, 17:20

300-Meter Run

2. Martinez, 2:37.59

1600-Meter Run

4. Nicole Roades, 6:01.21

3200-Meter Run

7. Kelly Koenig, 14:09.70

Long Jump

2. Bain, 15-5 3/4

Triple Jump

2. Kotulek, 34-1 1/2

4 x 100-Meter Relay

1. Louise (Kotulek, Bain, Kutac, Thornton), 53.16

4 x 200-Meter Relay

1. Louise (Kotulek, Bain, Kutac, Thornton), 1:51.30