tom halliburton's track volume 38, number 4

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     Tom Halliburton’s Track                

Volume 38, Number 4

  OK, not bad.... Another solid week of track and field performances from our athletes at the Southeast Texas high school meets, especially at Vidor and Houston.

     The weather cooperated again and 16 new area-best numbers resulted in the 34 UIL state events on the first March days. Golden Triangle athletes brought home 10 gold medals at meets in Houston, Huffman or College Station and that certainly has a way of shortening the ride back home.

    Even the Vidor Pirate Relays produced seven new area-best numbers – more than the Vidor meet normally has produced. Congrats go out to Hamshire-Fannett’s boys and Little Cypress-Mauriceville’s girls for capturing the team titles at Vidor.

    Now let’s dig into the impressive athletes. Throughout most of its 20-plus years, Port Arthur Memorial’s boys have been more dominant than the girls track team. Evidently, these 2026 Lady Titans are tired of sitting in the back seat.

    Coach Tamela Roberts saw her girls capture four gold medals and deliver two other GT-area best relay times at the Sonny Donaldson Relays on Friday at Aldine Davis high school. Darrell Granger’s boys added two golds and one area-best time but it’s unusual for the girls to outshine the boys in Port Arthur’s track spotlight.

     Tatiyana Crain swept gold in the shot and discus. Jalexis Neal won the 100 meters and ran the anchor on the winning sprint relay with Ariana Leday, Jada Guilbeau and Alicia Francis running ahead of Neal. Guilbeau and Neal comprised half of an area-best mile relay team along with Delia and Torrie Washington.

    Nederland’s boys also had to take a back seat. The Nederland girls delivered three new area-best times at two different venues. Kiley Havard, Marie Hawkins, and Avery Parigi carted home gold from Vidor with Havard notching new area-best times in both hurdle races.

   Ella Mecom trimmed off five seconds from her previous best time in the 1,600 at Texas A&M’s Bluebonnet Invitational. Oh yeh, and Mecom’s 3,200 time of 11:27.04 on the previous week at Bridge City broke a 25-year-old Nederland girls school record set by Lauren Pinder, according to Dale Dial.

    Your track writer definitely doesn’t keep up with those school records. So I’ve got to trust coach Dial on that one.

    Beaumont ISD’s track and field programs are not quite as established as some of their neighbors. First-year mentor Caleb Ceaser certainly is attempting to elevate United’s program off the ground floor. It’s obvious that Renwick Johnson and Kirby Jones have the Bruins starting to make more noise on the west end.

   West Brook’s boys came home from Houston with three gold medals and two new area-best outings. Junior Joe Bowser improved his area lead in winning the discus at 153-10. Terence Mouton produced the fastest area time to date in the open quarter, clocking a 48.93 in the prelims. Versatile junior D’Andre Carter won the 300-meter hurdles in 39.93.

    Another mighty good WB junior, John Fowler, improved his 1,600-meter lead by more than two seconds at A&M’s meet.

    We have an abbreviated schedule of meets coming up now. But great performances still may emerge from those meets.

        Tom Halliburton is a senior sports correspondent for the Beaumont Enterprise

Here’s where they’re going this week

THURSDAY

Mike Gentry Relays at Orangefield

 Bridge City, Buna, Orangefield, Kelly, Kirbyville, Little Cypress-Mauriceville, Lumberton, Newton, Vidor, West Orange-Stark

H-J Hawk Relays at Sour Lake

 East Chambers, Hamshire-Fannett, Hardin-Jefferson, Livingston, Nederland, Silsbee, Tarkington, Woodville

West Hardin Relays at Saratoga

   Colmesneil, Deweyville, Evadale, Sabine Pass, West Hardin

The following schools are not scheduled

to compete in a meet this weekend

   Beaumont United, Beaumont West Brook, Port Arthur Memorial, Port Neches-Groves, Dayton, Jasper, Anahuac, Hardin, Barbers Hill

                GOLDEN TRIANGLE-AREA HIGH SCHOOL TRACK & FIELD LEADERS

DISCUS – Girls: Tatiyana Crain, PAMem, 129-4; Boys: Joe Bowser, WB, 153-10

SHOT PUT – Girls: Madagyn Boudoin, Lumberton, 39-10; Boys: Ace Reeves, PN-G, 45-10

HIGH JUMP – Girls: Addelyn Hooper, PN-G, 5-6; Boys: Kobe Prejean, H-F, 6-7

LONG JUMP – Girls: Delia Washington, PAMem, 17-8; Boys: D’Andre Carter, WB, 22-8

TRIPLE JUMP – Girls: Jaislyn Heater, Vidor, 35-8.75; Boys: D’Andre Carter, WB, 44-0

POLE VAULT – Girls: Janet Le, LC-M, 10-0; Boys: Gavin Rubio, Hardin-Jefferson, 14-0

100 M – Girls: Jalexis Neal, PAMem & Dinah Tippins, LC-M,12.19; Boys: Emmanuel Shaffers-Jones, Beaumont United, 10.88

200 M – Girls: Jalexis Neal, PAMem, 24.94; Boys: Brandon Richards, PAMem, 21.88

400 M – Girls: Jada Guilbeau, PAMem, 57.85; Boys: Terence Mouton, WB, 48.93

100 M Hurdles – Girls: Kiley Havard, Nederland, 15.34

110 M Hurdles – Boys: Hayward Monceaux, Nederland, 14.99

300 M Hurdles – Girls: Kiley Havard, Nederland, 47.92; Boys: Shay Stacy, Vidor, 38.16

800 M – Girls: Ella Mecom, Nederland, 2:27.3; Boys: John Fowler, WB, 1:55.05

1600 M – Girls: Ella Mecom, Nederland, 5:14.99; Boys: John Fowler, WB, 4:21.49

3200 M – Girls: Ella Mecom, Nederland,11:27.04; Boys: John Fowler, WB, 9:32.92

400 M Relay – Girls: PAMem (Ariana Leday, Jada Guilbeau, Alicia Francis, Jalexis Neal) 48.16; Boys: WB (Lucas Johnston, Jay’vier Fair, Jacob Johnston, Willie Clark) 41.73

800 M Relay – Girls: LC-M (Amaya Meadows, Dinah Tippins, Janet Le, Brianca Barclay) 1:43.57; Boys: WB (D’Andre Carter, Willie Clark, Lucas Johnston, Dareion Nixon) 1:28.42

1600 M Relay – Girls: PAMem (Jalexis Neal, Delia Washington, Torrie Washington, Jada Guilbeau) 4:08.56; Boys: PAMem (Matthew Christian, Malcolm McCrea, Cam’Ron Roberts, Jaylen Gibson) 3:20.59

Due to the large number of meets which area schools are attending, please e-mail as many official results as possible to [email protected]