The Mount Pleasant Tiger Track team continued their historic run on Wednesday as they competed in the Area Meet held in Whitehouse and came home as Area Champions. Mount Pleasant posted 105 points on the day to take the title followed by Whitehouse and Tyler both with 78 points. Eleven Tigers and one Lady Tiger finished in the top four in their respective events to qualify for the regional meet to be held at UT Arlington next weekend. In total, Mount Pleasant brought in eleven medals including three gold, two silver, and six bronze.

Junior Xavier Hills was the top point getter for the Tigers and second overall in the meet posting 20 points. Hills took the gold in the high jump clearing 6’6″, a personal record and placing him fourth in the region heading into next weekend. Xavier also placed second in triple jump with a new personal record of 47′-0.25″ and leapt 20′-9.75″ in the long jump, good enough for fifth place. Skyler Guereca was second on the Tigers with 18 points. Guereca took gold in the 110m hurdles with a time of 14.88, his first sub-15 performance of the season. He also finished second in the 300m hurdles at 42.10. Daniel Robles scored 16 points for Mount Pleasant with his gold medal performance in the two-mile at 9:59.38 and a bronze medal finish in the mile at 4:42.98.

Other regional qualifiers were Geovanni Calderon (4th, 10:11.87) in the two-mile, Isaiah Hunter (4th, 15.56) in the 110m hurdles, Dylan Bennett (4th, 10.82) in the 100m dash, Astin Ledbetter (4th, 130′-7″) in the discus, Tre Emory (3rd, 49′-1″) in the shot put, and Will Hills (3rd, 46′-0.75″) in the triple jump. The 4x200m relay team of Bennett, Will Hills, Braylon Jones, and LaTristan Thompson also qualified for regionals with a third place time of 1:28.63.

Other athletes garnering points for Mount Pleasant were Gilberth Landaverde (5th, 1:59.42) in the 800m run, Thompson (5th, 22.93) in the 200m dash, Calderon (6th, 4:51.19) in the mile, and Owen Green (5th, 6′-0″) in the high jump. The 4x100m relay team of Bennett, W Hills, Thompson, and Jones placed fifth at 42.88. The rest of the Tiger results were as follows: Hunter (8th, 46.17, 300m hurdles) and Ricky Sampson (8th, 39′-11″, shot put).

The lone Lady Tiger to advance to the regional meet was senior Ladi Guereca. Guereca took advantage of a late scratch by a Marshall athlete to take both third in the triple jump and long jump. After placing fifth in triple jump at district, Guereca was expecting to only compete in the long jump. But the opportunity arose and Guereca put up one of her best overall performances of the season. A 36′-1.5″ bound pushed her into third place and a trip to the regional meet. Guereca followed that up by setting a new personal record in the long jump at 17′-4″ on her final attempt vaulting her on the podium. The 4x100m relay team of Paris Beard, Tiya Allen, Guereca, and Autumn Leroy placed eighth with a time of 52.31 and Leroy placed fifth in high jump clearing 4′-8″.

The UIL Region II Track Meet will take place April 29-30 at Maverick Stadium on the campus of UT-Arlington. The Tigers are coached by head coach Augie Berend and assistants Jarrad Jones, Jason Meskimen, Jesse Morris, and Ryan Stanage. The Lady Tigers are coached by head coach Karrie Hargrave and assistants Drew Barkley, Tina Carrillo, Cody Christenberry, and Melody Herron.

Photos by Drew Barkley