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The Columbus Youth Track team traveled eastbound to Houston this weekend to compete in the Region 1 Texas Amateur Athletic Federation Regional Meet.
They competed for a spot in the State Championship Meet, which is set to be held later this month in College Station, TX.
The meet started with the 6u 50m dash and Raveonna Johnson and Ezekiel Frazier ran the girls’ and boys’ races respectively for Columbus. Johnson came in 7th place out of 19 runners in the girls’ race and Frazier came in 11th place out of 32 runners in the boys’ race.
In the 8u 50m dash Lena Peikert ran the girls’ race for Columbus and she came in 15th place out of 34 runners. In the boys’ race, Columbus had their first two athletes qualify for State.
Dakalin Smith and Kannon Ford both came in 4th place in the race with identical times of 8.77 seconds to qualify for the State Meet later this month.
In the 200m and the 400m, Kyden Moore and Savion Williams were in the starting blocks for Columbus. They both came in 9th place in their respective races with Moore being 9th place out of 37 runners and Williams being 9th place out of 19 runners.
In the 10u age group for the girls, the Columbus Youth Track team had six girls qualify for State. Samaria Williams, Layla Henneke, Aubrey Brantley, Navaah Woods, Journee Bedford and Lucia Zeferino all qualified for State in at least one or more events.
Williams placed 1st in the long jump with a jump of 11 feet and 11 inches, placed 1st in the 200m dash with a time of 29.87 seconds and is also a part of the 4x100m relay that also qualified for State. Henneke placed 5th in the long jump which qualified her for the State Meet, and she is also a part of the 4x100m relay team that is heading to State.
Brantley placed 8th in the long jump, placed 9th out of 17 runners in the 400m dash and is a part of the 4x100m relay team that will run at State. Woods placed 7th out of 38 runners in the 100m dash and is the final member of the 4x100m relay team that qualified for State.
Bedford and Zeferino both competed in the shot-put event that saw Bedford place 8th and Zeferino place 5th.
The 10u boys’ age group saw Dallas Taylor compete in the long jump and the 100m dash events. He came in 7th place out of 17 participants in the long jump and placed 11th out of 44 runners int eh 100m dash.
The 12u girls had two athletes qualify for State, and they were Jaycee Hayes Woods and Destiny Pence. In the 200m dash Hayes Woods came in 2nd place out of 45 runners with a time of 29.07 seconds and in the long jump event she came in 2nd place with a jump of 13 feet and six inches.
Pence came in 5th place in the long jump event with a jump of 12 feet and five inches to qualify for State. She also competed in the 200m dash where she came in 10th place out of 45 runners.
Arielle Martin (right) shows off her 3rd place medal and 5th place ribbon with coach Angela Taylor.
Cataleya Torres also competed int he 12u long jump event and came in 11th place out of 16 participants.
The 12u boys’ team had three athletes qualify for State and they were Briggs Drozd, Bryce Johnson and Simeon Williams. Drozd placed 3rd in the shot-put event with a throw of 27 feet and nine inches while Johnson came in 5th in the shot-put event with a throw of 27 feet and two inches.
As for Williams, he came in 4th place in the long jump with a jump of 14 feet and two inches and also qualified for State in the 400m dash, coming in 4th place with a time of one minute and five seconds.
The 14u girls had two athletes qualify for State and they were Arielle Martin and Laura Henneke. Martin came in 3rd place in the long jump with a jump of 15 feet and placed 5th in the 200m dash with a time of 27.63 seconds.
Henneke placed 2nd in the shot-put with a throw of 26 feet and five inches to punch her ticket to the State Meet.
The 14u Boys also had two athletes qualify for State and they were Kash Wilbert and Rafael Zeferino. Wilbert came in 2nd place in the long and triple jump events with distances of 18’5 and 38’10 respectively and also placed 5th in the 200m dash out of 29 runners.
Zeferino placed 5th in the shot-put event to earn his spot at the State Meet while their teammate Trevon Easton placed 7th out of 17 runners int eh 400m dash in the 14u age group.
The 16u age group had one athlete qualify and that was Brennan Hicks who came in 1st place in the long jump with a jump of 21’9. He followed that up by coming in 2nd in the triple jump with a jump of 41’6 to qualify for State in both events.
Izabella Zeferino also competes in the 16u age group for Columbus and came in 6th place in the shot-put event.
The athletes that qualified for State will be back in action from Thursday, July 31, until Saturday. August 2, when they travel to E.B. Cushing Stadium to compete in the 2025 State Games Meet.
