WACO -- Another big track meet, a new injury, and one last gutsy performance for Bryan's Mikey Piatt.

Piatt matched his career-best pole vault of 14 feet, 6 inches and placed sixth at the Class 5A Region II track meet Tuesday at the Hart-Patterson Track Complex.

Piatt had watched a long, pressure-filled competition until that point while taking shade under a Texas Lottery umbrella. That seemed appropriate, because competing in the pole vault has almost become a gamble for him.

Two days before the District 12-5A meet, Piatt's pole broke in practice, injuring his hand and wrist badly enough that he did not know if he would compete. He ended up going and qualifying for regionals.

Last week, he suffered a groin pull.

"I really don't know, but it was probably a day when I was jumping good and the adrenaline was flowing," Piatt said of the groin injury. "I never felt it pull. I think I did it Thursday and then I went Sunday to jump and said, 'What is that?' I just put it in God's hands and decided to leave it all out there, and that's what I did."

Piatt was the only Brazos Valley athlete to score a point in the regional meet, but not even that came easily. He had to power his way over on his final try at 14-0 but came back quickly to clear his first try at 14-6.

"The third attempt, those jumps are always scary," Piatt said. "I just ignored the pain and pushed through. I guess once I cleared that 14 I had some adrenaline pumping and it carried over."

A&M Consolidated sophomore Catherine Chenault, in her second regional appearance, cleared 10-6 in the girls pole vault. She finished eighth on a tiebreaker, edged out for the final sixth-place point by two other girls who vaulted 10-6.

"There's a little more pressure here and your expectations are a lot higher," Chenault said. "The competition is a little harder."

Chenault joined the event at 10-0 and missed on her first tries at 10-0 and 10-6 before clearing on the second attempt at each height.

Chenault has had an eventful spring, also qualifying for the state gymnastics championships. She says her pole vaulting has benefitted from the extra work.

"They definitely go hand-in-hand," Chenault said. "It's the muscle and knowing where you are in the air. Pole vault doesn't help much with gymnastics, but gymnastics helps a lot with pole vault."

Consol's Andrew Fletcher jumped short of the take-off board three times in the long jump and never put himself into contention to reach the finals. His best jump was his first, a leap of 21-3 1/4. He would have had to go more than a foot longer to reach the finals.

Fletcher, who jumped 22-6 1/2 at the District 12-5A meet, finished well behind Klein's Keshawn Hill, who won the regional crown at 23-6 3/4.

Consol's Karis Jochen and Sally Hays chased the same fast 1-2 finishers in the 1,600-meter run Tuesday that they saw in the 3,200 on Monday. Jochen moved from 14th to 12th with a surge just before the midpoint of the 1,600, finishing in 5 minutes, 24.98 seconds. Hays was timed in 5:38.07 and finished 16th.

Amanda Russell of Vista Ridge took the lead on the home stretch of the first lap and won in 5:00.05, with Regan Tindell of Belton rallying for second in 5:02.71.