From a 100 degree Thursday to a drastic change Friday, a near 2,000 athletes from across the Texas Panhandle, South Plains and New Mexico, braved a cold, blustery morning afternoon to compete at their best during the opening of the 75th Amarillo Relays Meet of Champions at Dick Bivins Stadium.
Despite the non ideal conditions there were still some very outstanding performances from the first day of a two-day meet, which concludes Saturday afternoon with the running finals beginning at 1:30 p.m.
Panhandle’s Nelly Thiessen caught attention in the shot put event. The senior started slow but was able to launch a throw of 43-feet-5 inches to claim gold in the shot put. Thiessen’s new school-record toss was just over a foot from Tascosa’s Talore Kelly’s meet record of 45-feet set in 2012.
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Thiessen went over 40-feet twice during the session, hitting 40-feet-5 inches on her third throw.
On the boys side, Amarillo High’s Hunter Spier had quite the day and is a big reason that the Sandies hold an early team lead with 38 points. Spier went double gold on Friday starting his day by winning the discus with a throw of 148-9. In the afternoon, Spier earned his second goal by uncorking a toss of 55-feet to get a victory in the shot put.
In the only running finals Friday, Perryton’s Jacob Erickson continued his season-long roll by cruising to a win in the 3200-meter race. Erickson, a sophomore, left the field behind racing to a time of 10:00.93 with Noah Villanueva of Littlefield coming in second at 10:45.94.
On the girls’ side, Dumas’ Emily Gross stepped up in the tough conditions to gut out a win over Randall’s Brooke French in a great race. Gross gained gold clocking a time of 12:20.31 to hold off French, who won silver with a 12:22.57.
75th Amarillo Meet of Champions day one quick hits
The Tascosa Lady Rebels hold a slight day one edge in the team standings with 28 points. Rival Amarillo High is right behind in second place with 20.5 points.
Raelee Blevins and Koriana Nickerson both brought home individual championships for Tascosa on Friday. Blevins took gold in the discus with a throw of 131-3 while Nickerson hit a leap of 16-10 1/2 to win the long jump. On the boys side, Chester Creery paced the Rebels with a leap of 6-feet to win the high jump event.
Borger’s Alexis Estrada won the gold medal in the high jump by clearing 4-feet-10 inches.
Stratford’s Madi Braden made her presence known by walking away with two silver medals. Braden grabbed her first silver in the discus with a toss of 117-7 and then found the silver medal stand again with a 38-5 in the shot put.
Bryce White of Dumas was able to walk away with a gold medal thanks to a leap of 20-4 1/2 to get a victory in the long jump.