Brazos Valley has solid day at Texas Relays

Eagle Staff Report

AUSTIN -- Rockdale junior Daniel Brooks qualified impressively for the finals in both the 100 meters and 110 hurdles Friday at the 84th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays at Myers Stadium.

Brooks recorded the top qualifying time in the Division I 110 high hurdles, winning the first heat easily in 14.03 seconds. Brent Giddens of Hughes Springs, running in another heat, had the second-fastest qualifying time of 14.48.

In the 100, Brooks ran 10.59. Quentin Darnell Butler of Corpus Christi West Oso had the top time at 10.56. Aided by a strong wind, the only two sprinters to break 10.6 moved easily into Saturday's final.

A&M Consolidated sophomore Karis Jochen ran 11:19.83 to placed 10th in the girls' 3,200. The Lady Tigers were also 10th in the sprint medley relay with Markea Johnson, Jazz Harris Tori VanHootegem and Chase Mathews combining to run 4:22.53.

Tim Lott's 6-foot, 4-inch high jump also netted 10th for Consol.

Cameron's Brook Brashear just missed qualifying for the finals in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.46, just 0.03 seconds off the cut.

Brashear ran the opening leg of Cameron's 800 relay, which clocked in at 1:44.41 to win its heat and place fifth fastest in Division I for Brashear, Tonittia Williams, Kendra Jones and Maeson Mondrik.

Mondrik, who finished sixth in the state 100 in Class 3A last year, will run in the 100 final after sprinting to the eighth-fastest time of the day at 12.12. That was the top time in her heat, but was just off the pace of Re'Jana Ellison of Hearne. The Lady Eagles' sophomore ran a 12.09 to reach the 100 final with the seventh-best time. Ellison is the returning Class 2A state bronze medalist in the event.

Ellison placed third in the long jump at 18-8 3/4 behind another sophomore, Pflugerville Connally's Taliyah Brooks (19-0), and Austin LBJ senior Kierra White (18-11 1/4).

The Brenham Cubs finished fifth in the 3,200 relay, an event not contested in UIL postseason meets. The Brenham team of juniors Nathaniel Taylor, John Vierus, Ryan Gaskamp joined senior Will Antkowiak to post a time of 8:03.52. Georgetown won with a 7:53.13 time.

Brenham senior Roderick Payne took third place in the shot put with a toss of 53-5 3/4 on his next-to-last attempt.

Rockdale's Le'Raven Clark, who had a career-best discus throw of 181 feet at the Madisonville Mustang Relays Thursday, threw 167-3 on his fifth attempt Friday, but finished eighth.

The top nine individuals and relay teams advanced from the preliminary races to the finals Saturday. Running finals begin at 12:15 p.m.

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Aggies take two events on Day 3: AUSTIN -- Texas A&M's Sam Humphreys won the javelin for the second straight year while the Aggie sprint medley relay team also struck gold on Friday at the Texas Relays.

Humphreys' throw of 251 feet, 9 inches was good enough for him to repeat as champion at the Texas Relays. The relay team of Bryan Miller, Tabarie Henry, Michael Preble and Joey Roberts won with a time of 3 minutes, 15.18 seconds.

Teammate Melvin Echard finished second in the long jump. Florida State's Ngonidzashe Makusha took first in the long jump with a distance of 27-6. Echard was right behind at 26-6 1/2 while Texas' Marquis Goodwin took third.