The Brentwood Christian School track and field team traveled through the piney woods of east Texas for this year's TAPPS 2-5A district meet, hosted by Brook Hill School on Thursday.
The girls team, led by gold medal runs from sophomore Ava Johnson (200), junior Harper Counts (3200) and the 4x100 relay team, was able to secure a second-place finish, behind only Grace Community School (Tyler).
BCS qualified numerous athletes for the regional meet, set for April 24 at the University of Texas at Arlington, in nearly every event. In the sprints, Johnson set a new personal record (PR) in the 100-meter dash, followed by a victory in the 200 and an anchor leg of the 4x100 where she tracked down three runners who were in front of the Lady Bears at the final handoff. Brentwood narrowly defeated Brook Hill with a time of 50.98 in the sprint relay.
Elsewhere, Harper Counts set a school and PR in the two-mile for a second consecutive week, clocking in at 10:57. Sister and junior Hailyn Counts wasn't far behind, picking up a silver medal in the event and earning clutch points for the team toward the final standings.
The Counts sisters also did well in the mile, with Harper Counts missing out on gold by one one hundredth of a second and Hailyn Counts taking bronze.
Other standouts emerged in the field events, where junior Caitlin Welsh finished second in both the long and triple jump and sophomore Lynden Worley took second in the high jump. Sophomore Anu Oguntade also qualified in the long jump, finishing fourth.
On the running side, Worley made it through to regionals with a fourth-place run in the 200, Welsh qualified in the 100 hurdles, and Oguntade made it through in the 300 hurdles. BCS also got all three relays through, finishing top four in both the 4x200 and 4x400 and winning the 4x100.
There were numerous near-misses for the top-four mark needed to move on to the next meet, including senior Charis McGaughy in the shot put and 300 hurdles (fifth and sixth, respectively), Worley in the long jump (fifth) and senior Afton Harlan in the 100 hurdles (sixth).
It has been a strong season once more for the defending TAPPS 4A state champions, and the group will look to qualify a high number of runners to the state meet in two weeks in DFW.
For complete results, navigate each event and team using the link below.
