Sports

The Wimberley Texan 7-on-7 football team has qualified for the state tournament. 

On one hand, the achievement is consistent with the Texans’ past performance, as the 7-on-7 squad has qualified for the tournament for several years in a row. On the other hand, this team isn’t quite the same as in the past.

“It’s not that these guys don’t have talent,” Head Coach Doug Warren said. “It’s just that they are so young. I wasn’t sure if we could make it this year, but they came together. It was kind of unexpected, so I’m really proud of these guys.”

Former Wimberley Texan football player Charlie Will Tuttle was selected to play for the 2015 U.S. Men’s National Team that will compete in the fifth International Federation of American Football (IFAF) World Championship on July 9-18 in Canton, Ohio along with Texas State Bobcat graduate Andy Erickson.

All games will be played at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium and available via live stream or ESPN3. Matchups are July 9, 12 and 15 with consolation games and the medal round on Saturday, July 18. Kickoffs are noon, 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. on July 9, 12, 15 and 18 to determine gold, silver and bronze medal winners.

The Texan baseball season has come to an end after losing to a ranked El Campo team in back to back games on Friday in the UIL State Playoff Area finals.

In the first game, El Campo jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but the Texans responded. They scored three runs of their own in the bottom of the first to tie the ball game up.

“Once that happened, I thought we would settle down since we were back where we wanted to be,” Head Coach Dane Saucier said. 

For a moment, it seemed like Wimberley did settle down but in the top of the third they gave up three more runs. The Texans were unable to mount a comeback.

The Texan baseball team closed out the regular season on a high note winning the last five games of the season. Last week, Wimberley clinched second place in district play with a 7-2 win over Navarro and followed that up with a 7-4 victory against Cuero. 

“We got another good pitching performance (after Justin Gray’s perfect game on Monday) from Mason Andrews,” Head Coach Dane Saucier said. “He did a good job and was very efficient. He didn’t throw many pitches and threw a lot of strikes. The guys played good defense behind him.”

Andrews pitched all seven innings with six strikeouts.

Gray had another multi-hit performance and led the team with two RBI. Gavin Gonzales led the team in hits with three.

It’s been years since the Lady Texans had a golf team make it to the UIL State Tournament, but just competing wasn’t enough. The team nearly medaled with a fifth place finish among the 12 teams that made it all the way to State. 

“Considering it’s our first time to be there, this was a very good showing,” Coach Jeff McDorman said. “Now they know what to expect to get to the medals. This was a great accomplishment.”

Overall, the team finished with a two-day score of 769.

The team was lead by freshman Faith Kilgore, who shot an 89 on both days of the tournament for a two-day score of 178.

The Texan baseball team extended their win streak to five games after beating Cuero 6-2 last week to gain sole possession of second place. 

“It was a good win for us,” Head Coach Dane Saucier said. “The guys are coming together and playing better together. That was the big issue. We had older guys that I knew the potential was there, and we had some seasoned guys who we knew would be there. We also had some new guys and getting those guys to gel together and figuring out everybody’s role on the team to get everyone on the same page was important.”

The Texans knew it was going to be tough going into the game. They were facing D’Mond LaFond, a pitcher who is just a junior but committed to play for the Rice Owls last season, on the mound. 

There is one word you can almost guarantee wasn’t yelled by a Wimberley Texan during last week’s district championship and that’s “FORE!”

Both the boys and girls golf team were named 4A District-26 champions, and even further, the Texans second team took third place.

“It’s been a while since we won district,” Head Coach Jeff McDorman said. “It felt good to get the trophy.”

The Texan golf team has placed third for a number of years, but they were able to make it over the hump this season. The Lady Texans have been runners up in district for the last four years, so it was a special moment for both teams. 

The Lady Texan softball team took two losses to start out district play before coming back and beating an old rival, La Vernia, 10-2.

The first game of district was Navarro, which Wimberley lost 4-2. 

“We were short due to an injury to one of our top players and then we lost another during the game,” Head Coach Chris Farias said. “Navarro has a pretty good pitcher, and they played solid defense. We tried to make a run, but it was too little too late.”

The Lady Texans were down 4-0 in the sixth inning freshmen Zorina Weed and Jaqueline Johnson each scored a run. Weed scored after hitting a triple early in the inning. 

Wimberley followed that game up with a 3-1 loss to Cuero while the team was still facing injury problems.  Weed was one of the players the Lady Texans were missing.

With the playoffs on the horizon, the Lady Texan soccer team needed one more win to stay in a tie for second place (with Fredericksburg) in District 28-4A.  The final district game came against Canyon Lake on Friday March 20th.  Rain fell for hours but just before the scheduled kickoff at 5 p.m, the weather held off and allowed the game to be played in relatively good conditions. 

The Lady Texans scored first in the game, when Taylor Blass and Kylie Wilson combined together up the left side of the field to put together an attack into the Hawks defensive end.  Wilson played a ball right into the 18 yard box where teammate Caroline Biggers was making a run  behind the Canyon Lake defenders.  Biggers’ shot went right past the diving Canyon Lake goalkeeper and the Texans led 1--0. 

The Lady Texan track team broke a 14-year-old school record in the 4x200 meter relay last week in the Hays Rebel Relays with a time of one minute, 45 point 65 seconds to take the gold medal. 

“The team that held the record previously is the only relay team in school history that has been to state,” Head Coach Lacey Jo Lambert said. “So we have a special group.”

As a team, Wimberley placed second in the meet behind Hays, even though they were facing a slew of larger school. 

“This is the first time in a meet this year that we were the smallest school,” Lambert said. “It pushed our girls a lot.”