Shadasia Brackens jumped her way to a state title early in the day with a gold medal finish in the girls 3A high jump. Brackens and Abigail Elmore each passed on the opening height and Brackens cleared the next two with only a couple of misses. Jaiden Robinson of Karnes City completed the first five heights and had only one miss but could not clear 5’7.” Brackens cleared that height on her second attempt to win the event and then went over at 5’9” on her first attempt. She would clear one more height and win the event going away. Robinson finished second and Merkel’s Alyssa O’Malley finished third.
The Fairfield Lady Eagles ran in two of the three relays and finished on the medal stand. The spring relay of Addisyn Cox, Shadasia Brackens, McKinna Brackens and Na’Kayla Conner ran a 48.08, however, Universal City Randolph ran a second better to claim the gold medal as the state sprint relay champion. Goliad and Daingerfield finished third and fourth. Cameron was attempting to finish high in the team standings but took a damaging hit with a fifth-place finish.
The final event of the day was the girl’s mile relay. Fairfield put Madox Mitchell, Avery Thaler, Ava Grecu, and Shadasia Brackens on the track for medal contention. UC-Randolph had enough points to claim the team title but the Lady Eagles still had hardware to shoot for. The Lady Eagles found the lead on the second leg with Thaler and she would extend the lead into Grecu’s leg. Brackens took the baton with a small lead but Makki Hart of Shallowater would run a second and a half quicker to claim the state champion slot on the medal stand. Bushland, Tatum and UC-Randolph were the remainder of the field.
Breyunna Dowell got into the circle for the state final in the shot put. She was one of two Lady Eagles to compete. Shamari Strawther also competed and would finish with a sixth-place throw of 39-4. Dowell was in the top three throughout the event and her best throw came in the fifth throw that went a distance of 40-7. Jillian Howell of Bushland had her best throw in her third attempt and her 41-9.5 was enough to win the event. Mattie Boyd of Canadian finished third.
McKinna Brackens competed in the girl’s discus and claimed a third-place finish for the Fairfield Lady Eagles. Mia Goicoechea of Shallowater threw 141-5 on her fifth attempt to put enough space to win the gold medal. Olivia Hildebrand of Whitesboro finished second. All three medalist were underclassmen with two juniors and a sophomore.
Breyunna Dowell was in the top nine in the state in the girls triple jump and her best jump came on her second attempt. She went 35-3.25 and she was as high as sixth but she would finish seventh in the event. Kyla Hill of Goliad won the event and Briana Saint Louis of UC Randolph finished second and Yierra Flemings took third from Cameron.
Shadasia Brackens competed in the girls 3A 400-meter run and ran one of her better times of the year. The race was a fast pace and Yierra Flemings from Cameron won the event with a 55.29. Makki Hart of Shallowater finished second with a 56 and Tardanique London of Hempstead edged out Brackens for the bronze medal.
The Ro-Hawks won the team title with a great showing of 88 points, but the Lady Eagles made them earn it with a second-place team finish of 59 points.
(Photos by Randi Mitchael)
