LEVELLAND – Dominating best describes the performance that Maddie Francis from Silverton put on Friday and Saturday at the Region I-1A track meet on the campus of South Plains College.
Francis, along with her younger sister Laney, made quite the combination helping the Lady Owls win the regional championship as the duo totaled 56 individual points to lead Silverton to the team title. The Lady Owls finished with 72 points to distance themselves from second place Nazareth and Grady, which tied with 54 points.
Maddie continued her hurdles domination, easily sweeping both event. The senior crossed the finish line in both races while her competition was going over the last set of hurdles. In the 100-meter hurdles, she posted an impressive 14.85 with Nazareth’s Aubree Rowland grabbing second at 16.39 and Miami’s Bentley Brooks made it a clean sweep for the Texas Panhandle bringing home bronze at 16.60.
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Her biggest competition in the 300-meter hurdles came from her freshman sister. Maddie crossed the finish line in 45.17 while Lainey clocked in at 47.19. Shamrock’s Addi Jernigan nailed down third in 47.30 and was able to get to state via the wildcard slot.
The Francis sisters went 1-2 in the high jump on Friday with both clearing 5-feet, but Lainey doing it in fewer attempts and Maddie locking down silver in the long jump behind Grady’s Emerie White with a jump of 17-feet-6 3/4 inches. The pair then helped the Lady Owls get third in the sprint relay (52.09), finishing behind Nazareth and Klondike.
A major reason that Nazareth finished second in the team totals was its relay squads. The Swiftettes picked up gold in both the sprint relay and 800-meter relay races.
In the opening race, the Swiftettes were neck and neck with Klondike before their anchor, Madison Brockman, squeezed out a victory at 51.69, five hundredths of a second over the Lady Cougars.
Brockman was key again in the 800-meter relay as the speedster showed her prowess down the back stretch. Once again, it was Klondike battling for first when the senior used the final 100 meters to pull away for a victory at 1:49:00 to the Lady Cougars 1:49:76.
McLean’s Gracee Henderson has become dominant in her own right as the Lady Tiger took two gold medals in the 400 and 800-meter races. Hope McLain of Kress pushed Henderson in the 400 but the senior was just too much down the stretch, clocking a time of 1:00:67 to McLain’s 1:00:94.
In the 800 meters, the East Central University commit, was strong the entire way, posting a 2:23:86 while Claude’s Shealee Brannon finished in 2:26:51 for silver.
White Deer’s Makayla Chaney is also headed to state in two events. Chaney opened the meet Friday by winning the 3200-meter race at a time of 11:52:76. On Saturday, Chaney hoisted a silver medal in the 1600 meter run with a 5:31:89.
McLean’s Hailo Moon won gold in the shot put with a throw of 37-11 1/2, a toss that was almost 4-feet further than the second-place finisher, Audrey Lee, from Southland.
Gwyn Britten continues to impress in the pole vault. The freshman from Groom finished ahead of the competition with an 8-6 vault and a gold medal.
Kelton’s McKinzi McManus was busy both days. After just missing a state berth on Friday in the high jump, finishing third, the junior popped off a leap of 35-3 1/4 to get silver in the triple jump. McManus also finished third in the 100-meter sprint and now waits to see if she will be the wildcard after her 12.84 tied with Region II for the wildcard spot.
The guttiest performance across the two days may have been registered by White Deer’s Caynden Mynear.
The senior will head to Austin in three running events with gold around his neck in two of them.
In the 800 meters, Mynear bided his time until the final 200 meters where his kick was too much for the competition, winning with a 2:00:81. That kick was lethal again in the mile as he pulled away from HD Cardona of Petersburg and Carter Esteban of Boys Ranch in the final 150 meters with a 4:45:51.
With only the girls mile relay separating his victory in the mile, Mynear stepped up to anchor the Bucks mile relay. Taking the baton in second, the always smiling senior fell to third on the back stretch and entered the final 100 meters needing that kick one more time to secure another spot at state. Digging deep, Mynear passed Booker’s Reydn Rosales to add a silver to his haul as the Bucks ran a 3:31:14.
“The mile relay takes a lot of guts,” Mynear said. “Every meet I’m putting it all out there. Sometimes I can barely walk when I’m done but I’ll do whatever it takes to help our team”.
Mynear’s performance helped the Bucks finish second in the team standings, only two points shy of first place Whitharral. The Panthers finished with 86 points to White Deer’s 84. The Bucks finished top three in all three relays adding to their silver in the mile relay with gold in the 800-meter relay meters and bronze in the sprint relay.
Both hurdle races were tight, but Groom’s Jacob Babcock stood tall with gold medal performances. In the 110-meter hurdles, the junior ran 15:48 to hold off Booker’s Felix Au, who registered a 15:70.
Just as impressive was his victory in the 300-meter hurdles. In a battle of Tigers, Babcock squeezed by McLean’s Stran Henderson for gold. Babcock’s time of 40:76 earned him gold while Henderson was second in 40.90.
Jacob wasn’t the only Babcock from Groom to earn a trip to state. In the boys pole vault, Davis Babcock battled Sands Easton Sandlin in a riveting dual. Both vaulters matched each other, beginning at 12-feet. Matching each other each step of the way, the pair finally missed at 13-feet, but Sandlin had fewer attempts at 12-9 to secure gold with Davis Babcock getting silver.
Valley’s Micah Ferrell outdueled the competition for gold in the 400-meters. The sophomore improved his qualifying time by more than two seconds and was just too much for Paul Johannas of Motley County, winning in a time of 50.27.
Carter Esteban of Boys Ranch and Gael Alvarez of Booker battled with Carlos Plata from Sands in the 3200-meter race on Friday. Battling a cold and windy day along with stiff competition, Esteban held off Alvarez for gold in 10:36:67 while the junior from Booker finished in 10:39:61 for silver.
Also on Friday, Miami’s Kristopher Gorecki uncorked a throw of 146-8 3/4 in the discus to medal with a second-place finish. A throw of 47-2 1/2 in the shot put was enough for McLean’s Seth Patterson to wrap up a silver medal as well.
Shamrock’s Josh Whittington barely missed gold in the 100-meter dash, running an 11.28 for silver with Klondike’s Cannon McGee narrowly winning with a 11.25. Whittington will head to state by earning a silver medal.
Next up
The UIL Class 1A state track and field meet is set for Saturday, May 16 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
Check out the results
The top two athletes from each event advance to the UIL state track and field meet. For a complete look at the results from Region I-1A meet, please visit https://www.spatotrack.com/results/highschool/2026/levelreg/