Speed, speed and more speed is what separated Amarillo High from the rest of the teams on the way to a championship during the 75th Amarillo Relays Meet of Champions on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Dick Bivins Stadium.
The Sandies were dominant totaling 151 points, which was 69 points better than second place Dumas.
“I was super happy with how we performed,” AHS head boys track coach Andrew Murga said. “We’ve had this meet circled for a long time and we showed how much we wanted to go out and win it. We put a lot of emphasis on our relay teams. Coach Tony Cavalier does a fantastic job putting those together and we have a certain mindset. We attacked and I was proud of all of our guys.”
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The Sandies relay teams dominated from the opening gun. Trailing on the last leg of the sprint relay, Creed Cavalier made a furious rally on the final 50 meters to edge Randall’s Caden Brown, giving the Sandies 400-meter relay team the win with a time of 42.06. In the 800-meter relay, the foursome of Jude Dunavin, Cavalier, Brandon Jiwa and Landon Barker, held off rival Palo Duro thanks to running a 1:27.68. The AHS mile relay team then earned big points with a silver medal finish (3:22.72).
Barker was stellar the entire day. Not only did he help sprint relay to gold, and the 800-meter relay to a gold, Barker showed his wheels in the 100-meter dash, running past the field with a 10.40. That wasn’t even his best time of the weekend, as Barker ran a 10.36 during the prelims on Friday.
“Landon got hurt about this time last year when he was a sophomore,” Murga said. “He was never able to get back and show what he could do. We knew how good he was and he’s healthy and showing it now. We are exciting when he’s healthy and he is a pretty special young man. He’s a hard worker that strives to get better and he has turned in on in the last couple of meets.”
While Amarillo High handled the team title, there were some pretty special performances and plenty of athletes walking away with quite the medal count.
Hereford standout Izak Dominguez was on display Saturday and the senior didn’t disappoint. Dominguez was smooth in both of his hurdle events that resulted in two trips to the gold medal stand. Dominguez won the 110-meter hurdles handily clocking a 14.19, and followed that with a victory in the 300-meter hurdles thanks to a 39.74.
“It meant a lot to win,” Dominguez said. “One of my goals was to come in and get a sweep here at the Amarillo Relays. It was a little cold Friday, but I felt good Saturday. I have been running really well since spring break a couple weeks ago and I just want to keep it going. I’d like to break 39 in the 300 and keep improving.”
Perryton’s Jacob Erickson also went double gold. Erickson won the 3200-meter run on Friday with a 10:00.93, then on Saturday, Erickson was on back at it holding off Palo Duro’s Abdihafit Mohamed to win the 1600-meter race with a 4:30.44.
75th Amarillo Meet of Champions quick hits
The only record to fall on the boys’ side came in the junior high division, as the Dumas eighth grade mile relay team of Enock Bosaco, Ian Nolazco, Esvan Melendez and Devin Pena, set a new meet record with a time of 3:45.15. The previous record was held by Westover Junior High (3:45.77) in 2015.
As for the team championship in the junior high division, it was Bonham Junior High getting the team title with 124 points.
Not only did Amarillo High win the varsity team championship, but the Sandies also won the JV team title with 172 points.
The Dumas Demons mile relay continues to be a staple in the Texas Panhandle and all of Class 4A. The foursome of Zbastian Jara, Tate Dunnam Colton Mills and Ivan Nava edged Amarillo High to take gold in the mile relay clocking an impressive 3:20.78.
Blake Robinson of Dumas also had quite the day. Robinson broke his own school record with a leap of 46-1 1/2 to take home a victory in the triple jump.
Palo Duro’s Daniel Moses showed off his speed racing to a 22.02 for a gold medal win in the 200-meter dash.
Caprock’s Xavier Varga won the 400-meter dash in a very good race, holding off the field with a time of 50.24.
Braylon Rule of Randall cleared 13-6 to win the pole vault event Saturday.
Oak Christian’s Reagan Sparkman outlasted the field to claim a victory in the 800-meter race with a 2:03.77.
Check out the results
For a look at the results from the 75th Amarillo Relays Meet of Champions, please visit https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/meet/626735/results