Mason, Weatherton Area champions

By Sandy Anderberg

Clarendon High School’s Charles Mason out jumped and outlasted every other opponent in the long jump at the Area Meet last week at West Texas High.

Mason posted a distance of 22’2″ in the contest, outdoing his closest competitor by 10 inches.

Sprinter Amelia Weatherton ran for gold in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.90 to earn the championship in that event. Weatherton will also compete in the long jump due to her third place finish in the Area meet with a distance of 16’2 ½”, and Mason will be running in the 100-meter dash, also. He finished fourth with a time of 11.44 and earned the right to advance. Both athletes will compete at the Regional level in Odessa May 1-2 along with other athletes who finished in the top four of their event. Both the Broncos and Lady Broncos finished seventh in the final team standings.

The Bronco 400m relay crossed the wire just out of the top four, finishing fifth with a time of 45.16 and was run by Keandre Cortez, Steven Johnson, Cedrick McCampbell, and Mason. The 1600m relay took eighth place with a time of 3:54.64. Running the mile relay was Caleb Cobb, Cortez, Bryce Grahn, and Colt Wood.

The Lady Broncos’ sprint relay finished eighth at 54.45 and was run by Taylor DeGrate, Taylor Gaines, Weatherton, and Jensen Hatley. The mile relay took seventh place with a time of 4:42.36 and members were Hanna Howard, MaRae Hall, Carlee Johnson, and Abby Johnson.

Caleb Cobb will advance to the next meet with a second-place finish in the 800m run with a personal best time of 2:02.22. Cobb also competed in the 400m dash and finished sixth at 57.69. Bryce Grahn will advance in two long distance events. He ran a time of 10:24.68 in the 3200m run for second place and took third place in the 1600m run with a time of 4:51.12. McCampbell finished seventh in the triple jump with a distance of 39’7″ and was seventh in the 200m dash at 24.47.

On the Lady Bronco side, senior Abby Johnson finished second in the 400m dash with a time of 1:00.66 and fourth in the 200m dash at 27.76. Carlee Johnson ran a 2:38.66 in the 800m run to advance and Taylor DeGrate had a good run in the 100m hurdles to finish second with a time of 16.76. Berkeley Alexander took sixth in the discus with a throw of 98’10″ and seventh in the shot put with a distance of 32’6″. Allyson Grahn took eighth place in both the 1600m and 3200m runs with times of 7:01.47 and 14:51.96 and MaRae Hall ran seventh in the 400m dash with a time of 1:10.28.

“All of the athletes competed very well and I am very thankful and proud for the way they competed,” coach Johnny Nino said. “Caleb Cobb dropped his time in the 800m a full eight seconds from a personal best of 2:10 to a personal best of 2:02. He made up his mind he was going to run with the Canadian runner and it was a two-man race to the finish.

“The last time he raced the Canadian runner, Caleb lost by about 120 meters. He ran a really good race. Charles Mason is moving on in the 100m and long jump and he is getting better at both events. Bryce Grahn is moving on in the 3200m and the 1600m. I appreciate the hard work that all the track athletes have put in this year,” Nino said.