From Saturday, April 26, 2008

Story by Chad Washington

 

Hightower track coach David Pollack had a feeling that his team was going to have a good day.

But in the eyes of many, the Hurricanes had more than just a good day.

Hightower’s relay teams won two relay events and finished second in another as they rolled to a second straight Region III-5A championship Saturday at Humble’s Turner Stadium. The Hurricanes also made a big statement that they are ready to defend their state title in Austin on May 6.

The Hurricanes garnered 112 points, with Lamar a very distant second with 33. Eisenhower and Fort Bend Willowridge tied for third with 30 points.

“We felt coming in we had a real good chance of doing well,” Pollack said. “We’ve ran and got progressively better, and we felt that one of our strengths is keeping our kids healthy all season. We felt we had the advantage to perform on the track and keep the sticks around and go back to defend our state championship.”

The 800-meter relay team of seniors Isaiah Sweeney, Cleon Davis and Robert Simmons, with junior Darius Johnson, set a new regional record with a time of one minute and 24.06 seconds. It was the team’s second fastest time this season, and it set the tone for Hightower at the meet.

“It’s always a good feeling that we worked hard all season and we came out here and we did what we’re supposed to do,” Sweeney said, who also won 100-meter dash and finished second in the long jump. “It’s hard for everything to go perfect in every time, but somehow it happened twice in a row.”

Simmons won the 200 while helping the 1,600 relay team qualify for state with a second-place finish behind district rival Fort Bend Marshall. Also, teammate Jarrett Gilliam finished second in the discus throw, qualifying for a state berth. He finished behind Humble's Matt Kosecki, who threw a 180.

Hightower also won in the 400 relay, posting a blistering time of 40.99 seconds. Trayvion Jones, who is part of that relay team, finished second in the 110 hurdles with a time of 14.71 seconds. Atascocita’s Cameron LaCour won the event with a time of 14.31 seconds.

But Hightower's streak came to an end two weeks later at state. Thanks to a sixth-place finish in one relay event and a disqualification in another, the Hurricanes finished fourth with 26 points.

Sweeney, though, helped the team not come away empty-handed.

He won the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.32 seconds to win another gold medal. Sweeney also finished third in the long jump with a distance of 23 feet and 10 inches.

The relay teams did not do well for Hightower. The 4-by-100 relay team – consisting of Sweeney, Johnson, Jones and Lance Patterson – finished sixth with a time of 41.17, almost two seconds behind the winning team from Garland Rowlett.

 

And the 4-by-200 relay team was disqualified when Sweeney pulled up with an apparent leg injury that forced the baton exchange to be outside of the exchange zone.

Simmons finished third in the 200 dash with a time of 21.16.