Track

Continued from page 1 sophomore Marissa Agee came into the state meet as the number one seed due to her regional championship time of 2:15 which also broke a Howe school record.

It's been 27 years since Howe has had a state champion in track. 1992 Brad Turner made it back back state titles with his high jump of 6'-10". Howe's other state champions are Tania Bement (shot put and discus) and Kyle McKinney (shot put). Two Howe girls were vying to be the first runners from the school to ever claim the title of state champion. Bethany Masters, a senior, qualified in the 300-meter hurdles due to her runner-up finish at the regional meet two weeks ago.

The meet, held at the University Texas in Austin, had an unusual short straight-away and longer curves on each end. Agee, who at 6 pm on Friday night, finished sixth overall with a time of 2:17.56. The state champion Jayden Fiebiger of Wall High School finished with a time of 2:14.80.

Masters' run was at 9 pm and she finished with a time of 45.51 which was good enough for fourth place overall behind the state champion Sheveonia Smith of Atlanta High School who ran a 44.56.

"Once I got on the track, I thought I'd be really nervous, but I just looked around and was like, 'wow, I'm never going to be anywhere like this again', it was so cool and I said, 'let's go run and see what happens,'" said Masters immediately following the race.

Although she clipped the final hurdle, she said it didn't make a difference in the race other than a finish of a tenth of a second.

"I'm not even mad that I didn't medal, but it's over and that 's kind of sad," said the senior athlete who will be heading to McPherson College to run track alongside her brother Brent Masters.

The sophomore Agee said her 800meter race was a lot different than all of her previous races just because of the tight competition.

"Everyone was still in a pack together on the first lap and even until the last 200 (meters)," said Agee.

She felt frustrated and was secondguessing her strategy on the first lap, but soon realized that her inexperience of being a sophomore will play a valuable role going forward as she uses that as building experience.

Coach Mike Segleski was extremely pleased with both performances from his track athletes.

"I know (Marissa) was incredibly disappointed, but I think it was a good experience for her," said Segleski. "It was an incredible season and I'm very proud of her."

He was also glowing about Masters and her performance throughout the year and says her leadership will be extremely missed in the future.

"I'm so proud of both of them," said Segleski.