WACO -- On a sun-drenched afternoon at Hart-Patterson Track, the decorated high school sports career of A&M Consolidated's Karla Gilbert came to an end.

Unofficially, it concluded when her final preliminary shot put Monday at the Class 5A Region II track meet went 36 feet, 8 inches -- well short of what she knew she would need to qualify for the finals.

"I didn't compete at the level that I know I can," said Gilbert, a regional track competitor for the second straight year. "I'm competitive. Whatever it is, I'll try my best. I don't think I'm going to blame this on anything but myself this time."

Gilbert finished 13th out of 24 competitors. Fellow Consol thrower Victoria Quintana finished 14th with a 34-11 effort on her final attempt.

Gilbert had thrown 39-5 3/4 at the District 12-5A meet. Had she been able to match that mark Monday, she would have earned a bronze medal. Champion Nicole Morgan of The Woodlands College Park won with a toss of 41-11 1/2 on her final attempt.

"This teaches you a lesson, and I just love it," Gilbert said. "You can always learn a lesson, and there are a lot of great competitors here."

Gilbert was targeted as a top basketball recruit before she began high school and lived up to that, earning McDonald's All-American status and a scholarship to Texas A&M. In fact, that All-American game was the reason for one of her rare absences from the track and field schedule. The first Brazos Valley female athlete ever chosen to play in the game, Gilbert scored 15 points while her Consol teammates were competing in the Tiger Relays.

Gilbert also played volleyball for the Lady Tigers.

"Doing track these four years was to help us," Consol girls track coach Rodney Wellmann said. "I do believe that she and her mother [Consol girls basketball coach Nelda Gilbert] believe in a philosophy that girls in high school should be playing more than one sport. I'm so glad that they do because, for the last four years, we've enjoyed having her and she's scored beaucoup points for us."

This season, Gilbert finished second behind Ashley Deem in points at meets.

"We all knew from an early age that basketball was her sport, and that's cool," Wellmann said. "We tried to work with that. She's a perfect example that it is possible to do more than one sport."

Consol high jumper Jesse Drummond, who hopes to continue her athletic career at Rice University, missed on three attempts at 5-2 on Monday and finished 14th. Drummond, who has a career best of 5-2 and has cleared 5-4 in workouts, has eyed the marks set by Rice's high jumpers and thinks she can help.

This was the third straight year Drummond qualified for the regional meet and the second time she has participated.

"I was at state gymnastics," said Drummond of her sophomore year, when she didn't make the trip to regional track. "It was more important for my [gymnastics] team than coming to regional for myself here. I always knew every year that there was definitely the chance that I'm not going to go. I had to push for it and give myself those little pep talks to tell myself what I had to do."

Jahyda Reed of Killeen Shoemaker, who cleared 5-8, won the high jump.

Karis Jochen got Consol's top finish of the day in the 3,200, finishing eighth after a rain shower helped chill the temperature to 60 degrees. Jochen and Sally Hays stayed in the lead pack until the third lap, when The Woodlands' Amanda Russell began a near-record runaway. Russell won with a time of 10 minutes, 36.25 seconds, narrowly missing the meet record set by Sarah Andrews of The Woodlands last year at 10:36.11.

Jochen ran a strong final two laps to post a time of 11:12.10, improving her district time by more than 41 seconds. Hays, who finished ahead of Jochen at the 12-5A meet, also dropped her time by more than 16 seconds, running 11:29.26.

That A&M Consolidated duo will also compete in the 1,600-meter run as the regional meet continues Tuesday.