Ballinger wraps up District track. On to Area!

Starting off strong for Ballinger was the 1st place JV Girls team. In the high jump the Junior Varsity girls had Haven Harper finish 2nd, Christy Zhuang 3rd and Emma Perkins 4th. Emma Booher and Natalia Rangel finished 1st and 2nd in the pole vault. In the long jump Emma Perkins placed 4th while in the triple jump Megan Booher and Stephanie Rangel finished 1st and 4th. Natalia Rangel and Alissah Landeros were 3rd and 4th in the 3200 M run. In the 100M dash Christy Zhuang finished 3rd and Kira Garcia 4th. In the 200M dash Mikaela Gonzalez was 1st and in the 400M dash Emma Perkins was 2nd with Stephanie Rangel 4th. Megan Booher was 1st in the 800M run and Natlia Rangel was 4th in the 1600M run. In the 4×100 relay Emma Rutledge, Kira Garcia, Piper McBrayer and Christy Zhuang. were 3rd. In the 4×200 Mikaela Gonzalez, Abby Herrera, Emma Perkins and Christy Zhuang were 2nd and the 4×400 team of Stephanie Rangel, Emma Perkins, Mikaela Gonzalez and Megan Booher were 1st.

For the Junior Varsity boys there were several bright spots. Johnny Wheeler finished 4th in the 200M dash and Wheeler also finished 3rd in the 400M dash with Noah Peacock coming in 4th. Evan Busenlehner was 4th in the 1600 M run and 3rd in the 3200 M run. In the 110 M hurdles Ballinger’s Monty McKinnon finished 3rd. In the 4x100M relay Payton Harris, Jeremiah Bullingor, Nathan Rivera-McDuffee and Blake Collom finished 3rd and they finished 2nd in the 4x200M relay. In the 4x400M relay the team of Johnny Wheeler, Jeremiah Bullingor, Payton Harris and Noah Peacock. In the discus Robert Roman took 1st place. Blake Collom was 3rd in the high jump. In the pole vault Nathan Rivera-McDuffee was finished 1st.

Despite a 5th place team finish for the LadyCats Varsity there were many things to be excited about. In the 400M dash Danielle Pena took 1st with a new PR as did Addison Martin while taking 1st in the 800M run. Up against stiff competition in the 1600 and 3200 M runs Kendall Smith set a new PR in the 1600 and managed a 4th place finish while finishing 3rd in the 3200. In the 300M dash Addison Martin took 3rd place. In the discus Chelsea Martinez was her usual outstanding self, but with two throwers setting a new PR jumping ahead of her she dropped to 3rd for the district meet. Jillian Halfmann was 2nd in the pole vault. Setting a new PR and school record was Annabelle Reed in the triple jump with 34’8″. Annabelle’s triple jump of 34’8″ bested the previous school record of 33’11” set by Taryn Kalina in 2015. Just a Freshman look for Annabelle to add some more records and trophies to her shelf before she is done.

For Varsity Boys they fell just short of accomplishing their goal of District Champs by just 11 points. This shouldn’t take away from the extremely impressive performance they have put together this season. JoeMarcus Guerrero was 1st in the 200M dash and the 400M dash. Landen Landers also was 4th in the 400M dash. Javian Zavala was 3rd in the 1600 M run and 2nd in the 3200 M run. In the 110 M hurdles Weston Rollwitz was 1st and Dylan Hostetter was 3rd with both setting new PR’s. The two would also place in the 300M hurdles with Weston in 1st and Dylan in 4th. The 4×200 M relay saw Gavin Martinez, Garrett Dixon, Carter Arrott and Luke Rollwitz finish 3rd while the 4×400 relay team of Gavin Martinez, Weston Rollwitz, Landen Landers
and JoeMarcus Guerrero finished 1st. In the shot put Garrett Dixon finished 2nd with a new PR and in the discus Garrett not only set a new PR with his 1st place finish, but he set a new school record as well. Garrett beat the previous school record of 164’1″ by two inches at 164’3″. More impressive is that the record was set in 1981 by Scott Stubblefield and stood unmatched for 40 years. Markus Castleberry also finished 4th in the discus with a PR of his own. In the high jump Weston Rollwitz was able to take 3rd place while in the pole vault Briley Clinton took 1st and Javion Zavala was 3rd. JoeMarcus Guerrero was 4th in the long jump and 1st in the triple jump.

Area qualifiers Varsity Girls— Jillian Halfmann- Pole Vault

Addison Martin- 800m (District Champ), 300 hurdles

Chelsea Martinez- Discus

Danielle Peña- 400m (District Champ)

Annabelle Reed- Triple Jump (new school record)

Kendall Smith- 3200m, 1600m

Area qualifiers Varsity Boys— Garrett Dixon – Discus (New School Record)

JoeMarcus Guerrero- Triple Jump (District Champ), 400m(District Champ), 200m(District Champ), 4×400 (District Champ)

Weston Rollwitz- 110m hurdles(District Champ), 300m hurdles(District Champ), 4×400(District Champ)

Briley Clinton- Pole Vault(District Champ)

Gavin Martinez- 4×400(District Champ)

Landen Landers- 4×400(District Champ)