The Mount Pleasant Tiger and Lady Tiger track teams took nine athletes to the Area Track Meet held at Hallsville High School on Wednesday. Six of those nine finished in the top four of their respective events to advance to the regional track meet hosted by University of Texas-Arlington next weekend. The Tigers had four athletes crowned area champions in their events accumulating 69 total team points. Mount Pleasant finished behind Longview (88), Lufkin (94), and area champ Pine Tree (97).

After a one-hour rain delay, senior Zaveion Chism-Okoh got things started by winning the high jump with a 6’2″ finish. Chism-Okoh currently sits in sixth in the region with the top jumps clearing 6’6″. Sophomore Xavier Hills joined the champion’s podium by jumping a 44’2.5″ triple jump. That jump moves him up to ninth in Region 2 with the top jump in the region landing at 47’9″. Senior Gill Landaverde double dipped his gold medals winning the 400m Dash and the 800m Run with new PRs in both events. Landaverde posted a 51.88 (26th in Region 2) in the quarter and a 2:00.97 (12th in Region 2) in the 800m. Junior Daniel Robles continued his strong run winning the mile with a PR 4:32.94 mark good for 13th in the region. Robles also finished third in the two-mile to advance finishing with a time of 9:57.12 ranking him 8th heading into regionals. Freshman Skylar Guereca also advanced earning a third-place finish in the 110m Hurdles with a time of 15.78, ranked 22nd in the region. Junior Astin Ledbetter didn’t have his best performance but did enough to place fourth in the discus and advance with a toss of 132’2″. He also competed in the shotput placing eighth with a distance of 39’0.75″. Other participants were sophomore Geovanni Calderon who notched two sixth place finishes in the mile and two-mile runs. Calderon posted times of 4:51.43 and 10:16.88 respectively in those events. Senior Xzavier Brown competed in the long jump finishing sixth with a jump of 20’4″. The lone Lady Tiger competing at area was senior Aunesti Brannon in the long jump. Brannon finished just shy of advancing in fifth place with a jump of 16’5″.

The UIL Region 2 track meet will be held next Friday and Saturday, April 23-24, at the UT-Arlington Maverick Stadium. Preliminary races will be held Friday evening and field events and finals races will be held on Saturday.

By Drew Barkley