Lake Travis stakes a school claim for track with gold medal at Texas Relays
Lake Travis has built a legacy of athletic excellence on the wings of football, basketball, baseball and soccer. You might soon add track and field to the list.
The Cavaliers were among a strong group of area teams that stood out on the final day of the Texas Relays on Saturday afternoon at Myers Stadium. To be more specific, Lake Travis' 3,200-meter relay team rallied late to win its race with a time of 1 minute, 57.62 seconds, a split-second ahead of San Antonio Reagan.
Lake Travis coach Aaron Macik said his team wants be part of a tradition that is among the best in Texas.
"Pressure builds diamonds, right?" Macik said. "When one team wins, it puts pressure on the other sports to do well. This is just the beginning for this program. They've been really good in the pole vault and the throw events. We're trying to get better things other than those."
Lake Travis juniors Noah Wood, Drew Campbell, Kai Tiantawach and Ben Wright walked away with gold medals and should be in the mix for more when the UIL state meet convenes here next month.
Reagan's Ethan Rodriguez had a narrow lead over Wright with about a half-lap to go. When Rodriguez turned his head to see who was behind him, Wright bolted past him and never looked back.
"That's when knew I had it," Wright said of Rodriguez's turn. "I've got a really good kick, and all I had to do was go all out."
Campbell said track and field will never unseat football as the school's most distinguished sport, but winning the relay Saturday was "a big step."
"We've had others (in track and field) do well, but to have an entire relay team here is a really big deal," Campbell said.
More: Giddings senior Carlie Weiser medals in discus at Relays
Speaking about champions, it came as little surprise that Giddings senior Carlie Weiser blew away the field to win the girls shot put. She threw the shot 51 feet, 3 inches — her best attempt of the spring — to win the event for the second straight year.
Giddings coach John Graham said his star pupil has made steady improvement since she enrolled in school in 2019. Weiser, bound for Texas A&M in the fall, won state in the discus and pole vault as a sophomore and repeated that feat as a junior.
"She's not very hard to coach because she coaches herself," Graham said.
More: Cedar Park strikes gold in girls sprint medley relay
Vandegrift runner Kevin Sanchez is finishing his high school days in style before he embarks on his college career at Notre Dame. He crossed the line first to win the boys 3,200 meters in 8:58.51. In a hotly contested race, he held off Marcelo Parra of TMI Episcopal at 9:00.95 and Logan Law of Portland, Ore., at 9:01.68.
Cedar Park's Isabel Conde De Frankenberg made it to the medals stand for the second straight day. Competing in Saturday morning's first race, she ran the girls 3,200 meters in 10:25.15 to earn a bronze medal. San Juanita Leal of Edinburg North won it in 10:16.12 while Nicole Humphries of Lewisville Flower Mound earned silver in 10:18.82.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lake Travis strikes a blow for school track with gold at Texas Relays
