Lady Apaches’ team on track to district success

GONZALES — Quietly, the Gonzales Lady Apaches track and field team have been grabbing tournament wins with a squad mixed with veteran savvy and young talent. But now that the team is headed to the district meet, head coach Cully Doyle knows that his team is going to be one to look out for in not only the district, but the region as well.

“Winning the last several track meets have been huge for our confidence,” Doyle said. “It’s not going to be easy going into district. The top three teams in are district are good. But we feel like we’re pretty OK too.”

The head coach talked about the different goals he had set for the team, but the biggest one was qualifying throughout each meet. The steps taken for getting to the state meet including going through district then area, regionals and finally state.

“Those are our stepping stones, those are our goals,” he said. “Our kids have to understand, that’s where want to go. We don’t want to finish at district, we hope we can take a bus load of kids to the area meet. Competition is tough, not going to lie. We understand that our district is really tough in track and field but we feel like we can run with them, jump with them, throw with them.”

Doyle named off multiple athletes on the track team that have done well over the season, one of which includes Haley Garza, a long-distance runner that’s clocked in finishes near the top of the region.

“Haley Garza has run 5:20 in the mile this year,” Doyle said. “That puts her kind of the top in the region, she’s not the top of the region yet but she’s kind of in the top three or four. I think she can go under 5:20 this year. If she does that, she’ll have a chance to go to state. With her I’m really excited. She’s sitting in the top three or four in the region. I really expect big things from her. She’s been training at a high level.”

Other runners such as Veronica Moreno, a freshman that ran well in cross-country, Romy Cantu, Krystalynn Buesing and Maura Garcia have had good times this season.

“[Buesing] is a very gifted runner,” Doyle said. “She’s probably going to end up running the 800. She’s one of our top 800 girls, next to Haley Garza, and she’s potentially going to be one of our strong legs in the mile relay.”

Doyle mentioned Cantu, a three-time regional qualifier, as a strong runner while also believing Garcia, who has ran a 5:56 mile, can get under 5:45.

Another returning regional qualifier the Lady Apaches will be leaning on is Shania Lloyd. Lloyd contributed to last week’s win at the meet at the Antonian Invitational and is expecting to continue this path competing in the 100-meter dash and the relays.

“I’m excited about her,” Doyle said. “We’re going to run her on the 4x100 relay. She’s probably going to run the open 200 as well. She really has a chance to qualify in three races this year, so we’re kind of excited about the opportunity for her.”

Madison Blundell is another runner Doyle propped up.

“She’s running really good in the 300-meter hurdles right now,” he said. “She’s a summer track kid that’s come a long way but she works really hard.”

Josie Stowers is a senior who not only sits in the top four in the 100-meter hurdles, but in the high jump as well.

Doyle also talked about Alexis Ramirez as their lead off for their 4x100-meter relay team.

“Big shoes to fill because last year we had Keaundra Cray leading off,” Doyle noted, “but Alexis is picking up those shoes and is really running with it good.”

For those who follow the Lady Apaches track team, one aspect of the program that Doyle and the team have prided themselves on are the field events. Ericka Hernandez was a state champion thrower last season and Doyle believes he has the talent to fill those shoes soon.

“Devon Williams is sitting number two in the region in the discus as a freshman,” he explained. “That’s big time. Got to do it the day it counts. We graduated the state champion, Ericka Hernandez, big shoes to fill. You can’t always just replace a state champion. We take a lot of pride in our field events, I think that helps us win a lot of track meets. This freshman really takes pride in taking a hold of that. In shot put she threw 37-10 as her best, I think she has a lot more in her. She’s sitting in the top of the region there as well, but the discus right now she’s sitting number two — on paper — in the region, threw 109-10 which is really good. We’re really excited for her, we hope and pray she has a good day as well, but again she’s a freshman and has a bright future.”

Analise Longoria is a senior thrower who hasn’t qualified out of district yet but this year has expectations to do so.

Another youngster Doyle is excited for is Alicia Ramirez who throws the discus.

“I think she’s going to surprise some people at the district meet,” he said. “Not too many people know about her but me right now. she’s throwing really well. I’m excited for her.”

Freshman Maggie Barnick has found success in the high jump while freshman twins Johnna and Tyla Dalton are “tearing it up on the track now,” Doyle said.

“They’re going to be five-event athletes for us at the track meet,” he continued. “They’re both long jumping and triple jumping. They’re really putting in a lot of work, again, summer track girls that have come a long way. They’ve been working really hard.”

With a deep team like the Lady Apaches, Doyle was unable to go through every athlete although he did mention the team will be counting on others such as Skylar Siptak and Rachel Staggs. But the main thing for the Lady Apaches is to continue their growth through not only training during the season, but going to these summer track meets and practices.

“The best programs are running at some level throughout the year,” Doyle explained. “It doesn’t have to be a high level all year, that’s hard, and I understand there are other priorities out there, but we got more and more quality girls running together in our summer program.”

The results are showing in the lower levels as well. The eighth-grade girls have yet to lose a track meet, winning all five of them before reaching district. The Lady Apaches hope to win the district title to sweep the season.

“We try not to use the word talent very often,” Doyle said. “We’re blessed with a lot of talented girls here in Gonzales. I’m not going to kid about that. I think we’re really blessed with the talent. However, there’s a lot of girls that we’re seeing that if they take just a little bit of talent and they work hard and they do that extra, they’re going to beat someone that’s sitting around all the time and so that’s the integrity of the program that I want and I think it’s huge.”

“At the end of the day, if you put in the work, you’re going to get rewarded for it.”

Good things are coming for the Lady Apaches. Doyle believes with the influx of great young track and field athletes coming in, success can be sustainable for years to come in Gonzales.