Sports

After a successful season that sent the Texan baseball team to the playoffs, ten players made the all district team. Nearly every starting position player and two pitchers made some level of the season honors.

“It shows that we have some depth and guys coming back,” Head Coach Dane Saucier said.  “Going 6-0 through the second round of district – it opened some eyes from the other schools. Once we got to full strength we were pretty good. I think having the depth with our younger guys, the more games they played the better they’ve got. It showed what we had and how we got better as the season progressed.”

Named to First Team All District were pitcher Cole Spillar, first baseman JoJo Weeks, designated hitter Caden Kowalski, outfielder Antonio Jaime and third baseman Gavin Gonzales.

On the second team were pitcher Lucas Snoe and shortstop Gus Abel. 

At a mere eighteen years old, Wimberley senior golfer Kellen Gray has already amassed a sparkling resume of personal accomplishments that would make a veteran CEO of any company proud.

In his two years in Wimberley, Gray has been tabbed as a District 26-4A All District Boys Golf First Team member after receiving an All State Honorable Mention nod last year as a junior. 

It is a foregone conclusion that he will earn an UIL All State 4A First Team Award as one of the top 10 golfers in the State of Texas.

The highly decorated golfer just recently completed his second year as the only Wimberley Texan player to advance to the State Championship Tournament since 1994.

Wimberley High School golf has spent the last two years making school history, and last week capped off another record-breaking season.

It was a banner day for the Wimberley golf program as the Lady Texans placed third at the state championship, the best finish in WHS golf history, and Texan golfer Kellen Gray placed sixth individually.

“The young ladies have made history for Wimberley High School in back to back years as being the only girls golf team to compete at the state level,” Head Coach Jeff McDorman said.

Going into the final day of the tournament, the Lady Texans knew they had to shoot a 346 as a team to finish in third place. That is when senior Kendal Luis stepped up in the last round of her high school golfing career. 

The Wimberley Lady Texans softball team will begin their post-season run as the third place representative in District 26 4-A after a hard-fought win over LaVernia 6-4.

The two teams were forced to compete in an extra knockout game after they finished with identical 8-6 records during the regular season.

A late season three-game losing streak – including an upset loss to previously winless Canyon Lake - put the Lady Texans behind the eight-ball and cost them a shot at a district title despite splitting their season series with league champion Navarro and sweeping second place Cuero.

LaVernia settled for the district’s fourth and final playoff spot.

The Lady Texans held a full game lead over Navarro entering the second round of district play.

The Texan and Lady Texan track team will send a combined 18 athletes to the UIL Regional track meet after a strong showing at Area.

“They had a really good showing overall,” Coach Josh DeMarco said. “The boys and girls both. It’s really hard to pinpoint one individual over another because everybody that we took had such a great showing.”

The Lady Texans had qualifiers in eight events with Mikayla Sanders setting a school record while placing first in the 400 meter dash with a time of 59.45 seconds.

“She has been trying all year and she ran a great race,” DeMarco said. “It was more will and competitiveness. When you have kids with that kind of drive inside of them it is easy to train them, because they are going to push themselves in practice which translates.”

Both the Texan and Lady Texan golf teams set season records this week as they dominated the district championship. 

The Texans shot a 303 on Monday afternoon following up last week’s 304 as a team. Both were season lows for the golf team on their way to a 79 stroke victory over the second place finisher in district.

“They are peaking at the right time,” Coach Jeff McDorman said. “They are doing really well. We just have to carry it through to next week, because if we can throw in those scores, we a have a good chance at getting out to go to the state tournament.”

Kellen Gray threw up the best round in district play by shooting even par over two days. In the first round, Gray shot a two-under 70 and followed that up with a two-over 74 this week.

Wimberley senior Maggi Linker already possesses many of the tools it takes to make a real difference in the world someday.

And she is still two months shy of her high school graduation.

The accolades continued to roll in for Maggi long after the Lady Texans basketball season was completed nearly a month ago.

Linker was among those named to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches All-Region and Texas High School Coaches Class 4-A All-State team which featured the best players from all over the state.

High praise indeed for a gifted student-athlete who plans to attend Trinity University in San Antonio where she will play volleyball for the Tigers and opt to retire from basketball.

The Navy Texan golf team placed fist at the Ro-Hawk Invitational golf tournament held at Northcliffe golf course last week, but the program as a whole as grown large enough to field two teams. The Red Texan golf team managed to place sixth. 

In fact, Wimberley took first, second, third and fourth place in the tournament. 

Joe Meyers placed first out of 72 participants with a score of 76. Kellen Gray placed second with a 77 and Noah Woods placed third with an 83.  Samuel Valadez rounded out the first place Navy team. 

The Red team was made up of Cade Stoever, Trevor Richter, Sean McFerrin and Landry Harris. Stoever led the team with an 83 and placed fourth.

Austin - For the first few minutes of Monday’s NCAA second round match-up with No. 10 seed Missouri, the Texas Longhorns seemed to feel the pressure of getting back to the point where their season ended in 2015.
But once they got rolling, the Lady Tigers offered very little resistance.
Sophomore guard Ariel Atkins tied a career high - scoring 22 points and grabbing seven rebounds - as the Horns pounded the Tigers 73-55 to advance to the Round of 16 against UCLA on Saturday afternoon in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Top-seeded and unbeaten UCONN will square off with Mississippi State in the other semi-final from Bridgeport on Saturday.
A crowd of 2,345 onlookers watched as Texas missed their first seven shots and had trouble getting out of the gate against the bigger, more physical Tigers who lead the SEC in rebounding.

Austin - Too big. Too strong. Too much.
The No. 2 seeded Texas Longhorns used a strong third quarter to sprint past undermanned SWAC champ Alabama State 86-42 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament played before a sparse crowd of 2,645 at the Frank Erwin Center on Saturday night.
Junior Ariel Atkins scored eleven of her fifteen points during a 26-5 third quarter run that effectively put the Lady Hornets in their hip pocket and afforded them the opportunity to face No. 10 Missouri (26-9) in the second round of the NCAA Bridgeport Regional Bracket.
The Tigers eliminated BYU 78-69 in the opening game of the night.