The Mount Pleasant Tiger track team had five athletes advance to the regional track meet held on the campus of University of Texas-Arlington last weekend. The meet lasted two days with some of the field events and prelims held on Friday and the rest of the field events and finals held on Saturday. The athletes had to finish in the top four in district and area to advance to the regional meet.

Junior Astin Ledbetter advanced to regionals in the discus winning the district title and finishing fourth in area. Ledbetter posted his best throw of 129’3″ to finish in 11th place at regionals. After winning the area meet in triple jump, Xavier Hills was feeling very confident heading into the regional competition. Hills finished with a new personal record of 45’2.75″ for a fourth-place finish, just two places short of a state berth. Senior Zaveion Chism-Okoh was probably the closest Mount Pleasant competitor to advance falling just short in the high jump. Chism-Okoh tied with five other athletes with a high jump of 6’2″ but due to the tie break of missed jumps finished in fifth place.

On the track, junior Daniel Robles competed in the mile and two-mile events with hopes of making his first state appearance. In the mile, Robles posted a new personal record of 4:34.27 but fell a few places short finishing in 7th place. In the two-mile race, he finished in 9th place with a time of 10:03.78. Freshman Skyler Guereca made his first appearance in the regional meet competing in the 110-meter hurdles. Guereca posted a time of 15.65 in the prelims finishing in 10th place falling just one-tenth of a second short of a finals berth. Senior Gill Landaverde competed in the 400m and 800m runs rounding out the Tiger competitors. Landaverde finished in 11th place in the 400m with a personal record time of 52.01 and in the 800m he finished in 9th place with a time of 2:06.18.

The Tiger and Lady Tiger track teams will continue to work over the next year in hopes of getting faster and stronger and advancing even further next season. The track teams are coached by Jabara Williams and Bryan Trickey.

 

Photos by Jabara Williams

Photo 1: Daniel Robles is all smiles after his regional finish with head coach Bryan Trickey.
Photo 2: Gill Landaverde prepares to run the 800m run.
Photo 3: Xavier Hills heads for the pit in the triple jump.