Polk County Sports

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JASON CHLAPEK | PCE Onalaska athlete Kierra Anstee finishes third in the District 23-3A cross country meet last week in Anderson. Anstee will participate in the Region III-3A Meet Monday in Huntsville.

ANDERSON — For the seventh year in a row, the Onalaska boys cross country team is a district champion.

The Wildcats accomplished this feat last Thursday at the District 23-3A Meet in Anderson. Onalaska finished with 47 points, while runner-up New Waverly had 56.

“I think individual commitment from each runner and making sure we were playing it safe, wearing our masks and maintaining social distancing helped us maintain our streak,” Onalaska coach Terri Boyce said. “We’ve also been very dedicated and we were determined to win come heck or high water. I’m very proud of them.”

The top two teams and top 10 individuals qualified for the Region III-3A Meet on Monday at Kate Barr Ross Park in Huntsville. At the region meet, the top three teams and top 10 individual finishers not attached to a qualifying team will earn berths in the 3A state meet Nov. 23 in Round Rock.

Leading the charge for the Wildcats last Thursday was three-time district champion William Boyce — the coach’s son. Running in chilly, windy conditions on a hilly course, Boyce finished the race with a time of 17 minutes, 37 seconds — nearly a minute faster than runner-up Hutton Edney of New Waverly (18:30).

“This was my first goal (to win district),” Boyce said. “I ran on my own and made sure I was faster on my times. I made sure I ran faster and longer in practice. I also conditioned myself on hills because there’s a bunch of hills on this course. Over the summer, I hit the hills really hard. We have a lot of hills in Onalaska that I ran on. This is the coldest I’ve run in a district meet. I’ve run in mud and slush for district, but never something this cold. I feel like that helped with breathing.”

Boyce also is the defending region champion and finished third in state last year. A runner-up finish in district his freshman year gave Boyce all the motivation he needed to make sure he never took home a silver medal in a district meet again.

“In junior high, I won both years — seventh and eighth grade — so I thought I was going into it pretty good my freshman year.,” Boyce said. “That’s what it’s been since then (first place).”

Now that the first goal is complete, Boyce is aiming for the second one — a repeat region championship. With this being his senior season, Boyce also hopes to complete the triple crown by winning gold at the state meet, and that his team will qualify as well.

“I’ve been to state every year,” he said. “I hope we can get there again. I won region last year and finished third in state. I hope to take him gold in both regionals and state this year. I need to put my head down and put the work in. There’s a bunch of guys real close and I hope to use them to push myself to run my best.”

Rounding out the boys scoring was Brady Neuman (fourth), Cy Turner (12th), Jason Arnold (14th) and Canyon Holley (16th). Derek Winkle (21st) and Jaykob Lowrie (25th) also participated for Onalaska.

On the girls side, the Lady Cats were 13 points shy of returning to the region meet. New Waverly and Anderson-Shiro finished 1-2, respectively, in the team standings.

This ended Onalaska’s streak of four consecutive district championships. However, Kierra Anstee and Emily Kirkley qualified for the region meet as they finished third and 10th, respectively.

“We’re very young and had three freshmen running,” Terri Boyce said. “We have a really good eighth grader coming up who’s going to run next year and help us out quite a bit. She’ll bring some speed to our team. We have one senior girl — Kierra.”

While Boyce will just have to replace one spot on the girls side, she’ll have three holes to fill on the boys side. Among those are Boyce and Neuman.

“We have three senior boys, including my top two finishers,” Boyce said. “We’re going to be struggling a little bit next year, but I’ve got two eighth-graders who can come in next year who could easily fill those shoes.”

Which could lead to an eighth straight title.

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JASON CHLAPEK | PCE Goodrich athlete Aralyn Angel finishes third in the District 28-A Meet last week in Lufkin. Angel will compete in the Region IV-A Meet Monday in Corpus Christi.

LUFKIN — Frigid, rainy conditions were not enough to slow down Goodrich senior Joaxci Garzon, who won the boys race at the District 28-A cross country meet in Lufkin.

Garzon and teammate A’Maereion Bookman finished 1-2, respectively, in the meet. Garzon finished with a time of 17 minutes, 50 seconds, while Bookman had a time of 18:33.

“It’s been a few years since I’ve run in weather this cold,” Garzon said. “I think I could’ve run better. I have to keep working, keep running and try to improve.”

Garzon was the individual district champion last year as well. In addition to him and Bookman, the rest of the Goodrich team will participate in Monday’s Region IV-A Meet in Corpus Christi.

The Hornets took second with 47 points and edged Chester (50) for the runner-up spot, while Zavalla scored 30 points to win the team title. The top two teams and top 10 individuals qualified for the region meet.

Rounding out the Goodrich roster was Exzavier Henderson, Tilde Guzman, Jose Reyes and Marcos Machuca. At the region meet, the top three teams and top 10 individuals not attached to a qualifying team will earn berths at the Class A state meet Nov. 23 in Round Rock.

“We’ve been working out as much as we can,” Garzon said. “We just have to keep running to make ourselves better.”

In the girls race, Goodrich finished third and missed out on team qualification. Zavalla and Chireno finished 1-2, respectively.

However, a pair of Lady Hornets will compete in Corpus Christi on Monday. They are Aralyn Angel and Daisy Stutts, who finished third and seventh, respectively.

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JASON CHLAPEK | PCE Big Sandy senior Bali Mitchell finishes fifth in the District 24-2A cross country meet last week. The Lady Cats finished second as a team and will compete in the Region III-2A Meet on Tuesday in Huntsville.

BROADDUS — Big Sandy junior Seth Beene Williams won the varsity boys race at the District 24-2A cross country meet on Oct. 28 at Jackson Hill Marina in Broaddus.

Beene finished the race with a time of 17 minutes, 23 seconds in frigid, rainy conditions and beat runner-up Jose Jimenez of Spurger by 26 seconds (17:49). This season also is the first time Beene participated in cross country.

“Never ran in weather like this,” Beene said. “A lot of people told me I’d be good at it and I tried it out. It’s pretty nice. I’m very competitive and I like anything that I can try to win.”

The top two teams and top 10 individuals qualified for the Region III-2A Meet on Tuesday, Nov. 10 at Kate Barr Ross Park in Huntsville. Despite Beene’s first-place finish and a fifth-place finish from Jordan Martinez, the Wildcats finished third and will miss out on competing as a team.

Broaddus won the boys crown with 47 points, while Spurger took second with 48. Big Sandy had 49 points — two shy of first and one shy of second.

Beene and Martinez will compete in the region meet as individuals. Despite winning the individual title, Beene believes his best is yet to come.

“I could’ve run better,” he said. “I’m coming off of a cramp injury, but I think I did well overall. I stretched, iced it and and rested as much as I could.”

Although this is Beene’s first season to run cross country, he has been a member of the Big Sandy basketball program. While basketball is his first love, he is open to participate in college cross country or track and field.

“Basketball is my first love, but I could see myself running in college,” Beene said.

While the Wildcats missed out on a region team berth, the Lady Cats did not. They finished second to Tyler County rival Colmesneil.

Big Sandy had top-10 finishes from Lauryn Hoffman (second), Bali Mitchell (fifth) and Lauren Hulin (eighth). Rounding out the Lady Cats’ score of 43 points was Lillian Fultz (16th) and Corynn Kaleh (22nd).

Colmesneil won the district crown with 38 points. The Lady Bulldogs are coached by Big Sandy alumnus Trey Bullock.

“I’m not sure if this is our first team title or not,” Bullock said. “We have very hard-working girls here at Colmesneil and I knew that they had good effort. Every coach would like for their athletes to give their best effort. I feel that’s what the boys and girls at Colmesneil do — give their best effort. A lot of these kids do volleyball or football as well. It’s a challenge dealing with injuries or running the day after a volleyball match or a football game, but through hard work they were still able to practice early in the morning. I think that’s all a coach can ask for is the best effort.”

In addition to being the head boys and girls cross country coach, Bullock also is the head boys basketball coach and a football assistant at Colmesneil.

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PHOTO BY JO’HANNAH PROCTOR Livingston running back Lynn Johnson (23) runs with several Little Cypress-Mauriceville defenders hanging on him trying to bring him down Friday night.

LIVINGSTON - The Livingston Lions ran their district record to 4-0 by defeating the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears 18-6 on Senior Night in Lion Stadium. The win sets up a District 10-4A Div. I showdown in Huffman for the final regular season game, as the Hargrave Falcons are also undefeated.

For the first time since 1963 when Corky Cochran was taking handoffs, the Lions (7-2, 4-0) have won seven consecutive games in a season. It is an accomplishment for a school that had won just two games the three prior years combined. A win on the road Friday will have the school vaulting from worst to first.

“The past two years have been rough,” senior linebacker Tanner Orn said after playing his final game at Lion Stadium. “My sophomore year, we were 0-10 and last year we went 2-8, so it kind of feels surreal right now, winning seven straight. We are going into the district championship undefeated and it really doesn't feel real. This is it for me. I'm playing out here 100% as long as I can. I just love football and I'm just trying to play.”

Livingston was successful on the ground, led by junior Lynn “Tank” Johnson, who had 18 carries, 145 yards and two scores. Ja’Marri Green added 56 yards in 11 attempts. In all, the Lions ran for 238 yards.

The story of the year for Livingston has been its defense. After holding the Bears to six points, they have now surrendered an average of 8.5 points per district game.

Orn said a lot of the improvement for the defense is mental and emotional.

“It is the attitude, 100%,” he said. “Everyone is in there playing for the person next to them, you know? In past years, it wasn't like that. Now it is. Everybody has the same goal.”

The visiting Bears also performed well on the defensive side. The Lions were unable to convert many drives into points.

“They played defense,” Livingston coach Finis Vanover said of LC-M. “They were well-prepared, they moved people around on the chessboard that we haven't seen moved to those spots. They attacked us and got physical and we didn't answer back a couple of times real good. We figured it out enough to put points on them.”

Livingston scored on its first drive of the game, going 10 plays in six minutes and ending in a Damian Ruiz 1-yard sneak. A missed extra point had the team chasing two-point conversions the rest of the night.

Much the same as the Lion offense saw early in the season, the Bears brought pressure from both ends to contain rollout passes and runs outside the tackles.

“They brought two people, and then they put their big boys out wide that we haven't seen all year,” Vanover said. “We were in a bind and we didn't handle it well. We have to get that smoothed out. I am very disappointed in our red zone offense. We had two possessions before the half and came away with nothing. They stopped two two-point conversions and that is just unacceptable.

“It is also a tribute to their defense. It's what I was afraid of all week. If they get juiced up and get rolling and get confident, they would make some big offensive plays. I didn't want those skill guys out there, because I knew they I would throw it all over the field. I didn't think they could run it on us. They have some playmakers and they can go the distance in a hurry like they showed.”

The time they went the distance was in the third period on a 78-yard slant to Brendon Pollock, cutting the lead in half at 12-6.

Before that, Johnson sprinted in from 16 yards with 1:53 to go in the first half, capping a 14-play drive to put the Lions up 12-0. The final score of the game had the junior tailback outrunning the defense again, this time in the third quarter on a counter for 59 yards.

Friday will decide District 10-4A Div. I. The Hargrave Falcons are 9-0 on the season after taking down Vidor 15-13 on the road. Both teams enter the clash with 4-0 district marks.

“It is what you play the sport for,” Vanover said. “It is what everybody talks about from Aug. 3 until now — playing for the championship. Everybody snickered and snarled about the old Livingston Lions and here we’re fixing to be two undefeated teams playing game 10 for the district championship. What more can you say about a group of boys that have stuck it out, believed and achieved like you are supposed to do?”