The Amarillo High Lady Sandies put on quite the show in front of the fans on a shiny Saturday afternoon at Dick Bivins Stadium.
The Lady Sandies left the field behind stacking 164.5 points to run away from second place Tascosa, which finished with 124 points.
“I’m so proud of how we competed as a team,” AHS head girls track coach Jonathan Woodward said. “There are so many great teams at these relays and we knew we would see some great competition. We’ve been working so hard on speed work, and these girls are wanting to start peaking at the right time to get ready for regionals and then hopefully at state in May. We came in and set some great times, jumps and throws and we always have a very high expectation.”
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Memori Hibbler, Willow Cornell and a dominant relay effort were the perfect recipe for the Lady Sandies success. The mile relay was the highlight of the day for AHS, as the Lady Sandies foursome of Mya Velazquez, Willow Cornell, Memori Hibbler and Sofia Quiles, clocked a time of 3:49.98 to set a new meet record set by AHS last year (3:53.57).
“A year ago we didn’t know we were going to break the meet record,” Woodward said. “Memori joined the mile relay last year and we knew when she set the 200-meter Amarillo Relays in eighth grade, she was going to be something special. We have her on the third leg and then we had Mya (Velazquez) coming on the relay. When we got this group together at the Canyon Invite a few weeks ago, we ran a school-record 3:48. This team is never satisfied and now it’s about getting better, but it’s an honor to break a meet record at an event that’s ran so long like the Amarillo Relays.
Hibbler and Cornell left with a combined six gold medals Saturday. Hibbler and Cornell were apart of the 800-meter relay that won with a time of 1:42.32. Hibbler also won the 100-meter dash, sprinting to a 12.04. Cornell was outstanding in the hurdle events, winning the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.55 and the 300-meter event thanks to a 44.24.
“Memori and Willow had excellent meets,” Woodard said. “Memori was unbelievable as the anchor leg of the 800-meter relay. She chased down Panhandle, which is a legit relay team to get the win for us and she was awesome in the 100-meter dash. She wants to break 12 seconds so bad and she’s very close to doing that. Willow is so smooth running the hurdles and she is just getting better and better. Both were so big for us and it was awesome to see.”
Quiles walked away with some hardware as well. Not only was Quiles part of the record-setting mile relay squad, but Quiles claimed gold in the 400-meter race with a time of 55.47. She also won a silver medal as a part of the sprint relay team (48.98).
75th Amarillo Relays Meet of Champions quick hits
Besides Amarillo High, there were other individuals making a splash. Randall’s Brooke French ended the two-day meet with three medals. French started the relays with a silver medal in the 3200-meter run (12:22.57) on a very cold Friday, but Saturday, French was on her game. French took double gold in both long distance events, getting a victory in the 800-meter race clocking a 2:20.53, then winning the 1600-meter run with a 5:26.38.
Emily Gross of Dumas won gold in the 3200-meter (12:20.31) on Friday, and was able to nab two silver medals Saturday. Gross finished second behind French in both the 800 and 1600-meter races. Gross ran a silver medal time of 2:24.83 in the 800-meter run, then a 5:26.92 to get second in the 1600.
Tascosa’s Koriana Nickerson dominated the field events taking home two gold medals in the long jump and the triple jump. On Friday, Nickerson hit a leap of 16-10 1/2 to win the long jump, and on Saturday Nickerson was at it once again, gaining gold in the triple jump, popping off a season-best jump of 36-5.
Palo Duro’s sprint relay team of Jazzlyn Brown, Myla Sims, D’Zyire Burks and Semiyia Bozeman held of Amarillo High with a winning time of 48.95.
Hadley Reed of Borger continued her strong track year by winning a very competitive 200-meter dash. Reed sprinted to a time of 25.65 to edge Markline Nuquay of Tascosa (25.96).
Nevaeh Barros of Clovis, N.M. High School cleared 11-feet to get on the gold medal stand in the pole vault event.
Amarillo High not only won the varsity meet, but the Lady Sandies JV team won the team title as well with 142 points.
In the junior high division, it was the Canyon Lady Eagles eighth grade winning the team title racking up 138 points.
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