Both Sealy track and field teams captured the top spot in the team competition of the Area Championship hosted at T.J. Mills Stadium and Sealy Junior High last Wednesday, April 14. Sealy athletes earned 10 gold medals and qualified for 37 events in the Regional Championship this weekend at Challenger Columbia Stadium in Webster.

The Lady Tigers won outright behind five gold medals while the Tigers used a first-place finish in the final event to tie El Campo, the team that won the district championship two weeks prior in the same stadium.

Head coaches Brateicka Mock and Giles Montgomery said after the meet that the work the athletes put in was what pushed them to the top finishes on the track and in the field.

“Everything lined up,” Mock said. “The kids competed, it’s a testament to what all the coaches have done all year to get these kids ready and prepared and the kids came out and did exactly what they were supposed to do.”

“Our guys have just worked their tails off, watching the mile relay – and everyone performed well – but watching the mile relay is kind of a culmination of what we do all week long,” Montgomery said. “Our discus boys took 1-2 and talking to Coach (Russell) Dziadek, they struggled at first. But there at the end, they pulled it out and that’s it, sometimes you’re not always going to be coming out firing on all pistons but man, they finished strong and that’s all we ask of them. When it comes down to it, do your job and finish.”

The top four in each event qualified for the regional championship at the end of this week and Tiger athletes will represent Sealy in 37 events after 30 total medals were collected. The Lady Tigers racked up 17 medals across five golds, six silvers and six bronzes and the Tigers earned 13 between five golds, six silvers and two bronzes.

Two Tigers won multiple medals between Xavier Olvera’s golds in the 800- and 1600- meter runs and Daniel Medrano in the 800- and 1600-meter run (silvers) and the 3200-meter run (gold). Taniah Coleman, Annabelle Williams, Allyson Guerrero, Ella Ward and Julia Jurecka all earned multiple medals for the Lady Tigers.

Coleman, a freshman, qualified for regionals in all five of her individual events after she won silver in the triple and long jumps, earned third in the 100- and 400- meter dashes and finished fourth in the 200-meter dash.

“She’s an athlete, there’s nothing more to it,” Mock said. “When you’re blessed with that kind of God-given talent and you put in the work on top of it, it makes competition days that much easier. She deserves it and she’s going to be tough to deal with these next couple of years as long as she keeps working as hard as she can to get better.

Guerrero won the 1600- and 3200-meter runs, Williams won the 800-meter run and earned bronze in the 1600-meter run, Ward earned silver in the 300-meter hurdles and bronze in the 100-meter hurdles and Jurecka won bronze in the shot put and discus events to add to the Lady Tigers’ medal count.

It was just last year when the coronavirus pandemic’s onset canceled the remainder of the spring athletics season and both coaches acknowledged how special it was to have a performance like last week’s.

“After my first year here, I got pregnant so I was having my baby around this time two years ago and I missed that and then we missed last year with (the pandemic) so it’s really exciting to be going to regionals with this group of girls,” Mock said. “Again, the work they’ve put in to put us as coaches in a position to be taking them, it’s exciting. I know it’s a busy time for everybody, our kids are involved in so much but to still come out here day in and day out and compete the way they did I couldn’t be more proud.”

“Seeing that we didn’t have a track season last year, we really didn’t know what we were going into coming into this season but I feel blessed and honored to be able to work with these kids,” Montgomery said. “These guys are scrappy, we know these guys might not be the biggest or fastest on paper but man these guys show up every day and get after it and I’m blessed to be able to coach those guys.”

The Area Championship was the last in a string of five track meets hosted at T.J. Mills Stadium where the latter of which was able to have more fans in attendance after the University Interscholastic League loosened capacity restrictions.

“It’s one of those things that it was tough to put on so many track meets but to put this on at home and to get second in district at home then turn around and get co-champs, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh did that really just happen?’ because El Campo took first in district and now we’re co-champs with them, I would have never thought that,” Montgomery said. “We had a good crowd and I loved the energy the crowd brought.”

Both head coaches said running that many meets would not have been impossible had it not been for the rest of the coaching staff surrounding them.