HUMBLE — The girls led the way at the Region III-5A track and field meet as Rudder, A&M Consolidated and College Station all had multiple girls qualify for the Class 5A state meet on Saturday at George Turner Stadium.
Despite multiple weather delays having other ideas, each Brazos Valley program had a few performers that were not fazed.
The Rudder girls 4x100 meters relay team made up for a lightning delay by putting on a show for the Rudder fans in attendance and qualified for state in the first event of the afternoon.
The team of A’Naiya Kelley, Kimora Maxey, Chasity Rayford and Charity Rayford ran a 47.03 second time to finish in second and were just 0.2 seconds behind Fort Bend Marshall for first.
“We feel like we did good,” Chasity said. “We all trust each other and then we just took off and did what we did.”
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The Lady Rangers came into the final with a ton of momentum after blazing through the prelim on Friday with a 46.90 time. That time was the 23rd fastest this season in Texas and the 49th best nationally.
All four team members said the goal coming into the final was just to advance.
Now that they’re state-bound though, they have a different goal in mind.
“We had 46 yesterday, so y’all know we can do it again,” Kelley said.
A statement that Chasity backed up.
“And we will do that at state,” she said.
It was the first of two events for the quartet as they finished in first in the 4x200 with a time of 1:39.06.
They also reached state in the 4x200 last year, the only relay team in that event at state to return all four legs for 2024.
The wait between the two events was longer than originally expected as another lightning delay came into play after the first few events. The Lady Rangers weren’t worried as they said they stretch, pray, talk to each other and use the massage guns to get the legs going.
“No matter what comes up we’re going to finish the mission,” Maxey said.
They were one of two groups of athletes to reach state in multiple events on Saturday. College Station’s Layni Kaase qualified in three events as she began the day by qualifying in the high jump and then later in the 100 and 300 hurdles.
She finished in second in each of the finals, which included winning a jump off in the high jump.
The junior also qualified on Friday in the triple jump.
“It’s so awesome,” Kaase said. “Last year I went in two events but it’s just so crazy to think two to four cause just those two were so much work and those other two just came this year. It was just really awesome to have that difference.”
She competed in the 100 and 300 hurdles at state in 2023.
“I definitely did not think that,” Kaase said of going for four events. “I mean I’ve always been pretty confident in my hurdles, but my field events, I was just seeded for third or fourth or something like that and so there was always a little bit of a chance but I just never really thought that I was going to qualify.”
Consol wasn’t waiting long to celebrate either as the next 5A girls event after the 4x100 relay was the 800. It was the only event of the day for Hayden Helms, but she made it count by reaching state with a second-place time of 2:15.16.
“Go out fast and finish strong,” Helms said of her plan going in.
The freshman admitted she was nervous going into the event especially with having to wait around cause of the first delay. She also credited it though for helping her reach state.
“…I think it was good for me because I run faster when I’m nervous,” Helms said.
The Class 5A state track meet will be on May 3 in Austin at the University of Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium.
NOTES — The other state-bound athletes from the B-CS after Saturday’s results include College Station’s Ella Hawryluk (pole vault) and Delaney Ulrich (1600m). Ulrich also qualified for state on Friday in the 3200. The College Station girls also won the regional title with 72 points as a team, two points ahead of Fort Bend Marshall.