The excitement was high for several track athletes from our area who competed at this year’s UIL State Track & Field Meet in Austin. Three area schools, Mason, Menard and Richland Springs, had multiple competitors in various events. It was an amazing day for Junior Danni Ruiz from Menard who picked up a total of three individual gold medals during Saturday’s competition by repeating as champion in the 400M dash and 800M run and in her first attempt, took the gold in the 1600M run. Her teammate Taytum Chambliss placed 8th in the 3200m run. At the end of the day, the Menard Lady Jackets had 30 points and finished in a tie for third place with McMullen County.
The Richland Springs boys had a great showing leading the field in Class 1A Meet for much of the day but on the last event of the night, the 4×400 relay team from Gordon took first place which gave them 81 total points to Richland Springs’ 69. For the Coyotes, Bryce Roesler took the gold medal in both Discus and Shot Put while teammate Cohen Ethridge placed second in both the 300M Hurdles and in Long Jump followed by Evan Deeds who placed 6th in Pole Vault. Richland Springs had two relay teams place in the top three both comprised of Layne Ward, Evan Deeds, Ethan Deeds & Cohen Ethridge. The 4x200M relay team picked up the gold medal and the 4x100M relay team earned the bronze medal.
The Mason Punchers competing in Class 2A also had success as Caden Klingelhefer took the gold medal in the 800M run, Cooper Ratliff finished fifth in the 3200M run and sixth in the 1600M run, and Kingston Garza took the Bronze medal in the 400M dash. The Punchers had two relay teams competing which consisted of Kolton Wenzel Caleb Koenig Kingston Garza Trevor Loeffler. The 4×200 relay team taking seventh place and the 4×200 relay team finishing in ninth place. Overall, the Punchers finished in eight place with 19 points. On the girls side, Elizabeth McFarland finished in eight place in the 1600m run.
