Port Arthur Memorial freshman Paris Martin looks at the scoreboard after running the anchor leg in a winning 4x100-meter relay Wednesday at Barbers Hill. From left: Derria Eden of Texas City, Ke’Asia Hall of Nederland, Martin, and Capri Wilson of Goose Creek Memorial. Wilson previously competed at PA Memorial. (I.C. Murrell/The News) 4-17-19

MONT BELVIEU — Port Arthur speed — and field work — never left Eagle Stadium.

The Memorial Titans earned two field titles and swept the relay races Wednesday in dominating the Area 11-5A meet. Memorial won its second meet in a week at the Barbers Hill ISD facility with 166 points, with host Barbers Hill coming in second with 84 and Galveston Ball third with 78.

“Anytime you get to area, you want to win,” Titans coach Darrell Granger said. “These kids have been working hard. They’ve been doing whatever I asked them to do. We made some changes and put some people who weren’t on there last week, and that’s the outcome.”

Among the changes, Granger inserted freshman Troy Dixon in the anchor leg of the 4×100-meter relay team and moved sophomore Tyrence Augusta up to the third leg to replace Jatavian Neal. Sophomore James Ward and senior Micheal Odoms kept the first two legs in that unit.

Together, those Titans rebounded from a second-place finish in last week’s District 21-5A meet to win the area title with a time of 41.92 seconds, just beating Nederland’s district-winning time by 0.05. Nederland’s team of sophomore Josh Mazyck, junior Logan Nguyen and seniors Adam Roccaforte and Quin Stafford ran 42.20 Wednesday and came in third.

Odoms said there was no chip on the Titans’ shoulder from last week.

“We realized what we did wrong,” he said, “and we came back here and fixed all that. Now, we got first place.”

The Titans’ 4×200 quartet — with Ward, Odoms and Augusta still the first three legs and Jatavian Neal the anchor — was more than 2 seconds faster than runner-up Crosby. To cap off the night, the 4×400 group of Lamont Freeman Jr., Jatavian Neal, Allen Santos-Williams and Alex Ned breezed to victory in 3 minutes, 21.80 seconds, more than 3 seconds head of runner-up Friendswood.

Youth has served Memorial’s girls 4×100 unit just as well. The team of senior Aniya Duhon, juniors Coreyanna Gorrer and Amaria Joubert and freshman Paris Martin turned in a time of 49.29 seconds, 0.31 faster than runner-up Crosby.

“We started off rocky, but we knew we had a team that was hard-working, and we just had to pull it together to make it to the next round,” Gorrer said.

Memorial was second to Barbers Hill in district girls 4×100.

“We just had to encourage each other because we knew we could make it to the next round,” Gorrer said.

 

TITAN DEPTH

Memorial picked up three more boys and girls titles in the field events. Landin Jackson long-jumped 22 feet, 3 inches to beat teammate James Ward by 2 inches, while Dejaunte Conner of PNG earned the fourth and final qualifying spot for the April 26-27 meet at Challenger Columbia Stadium in Webster.

Titans freshman Kristopher Ross beat sophomore teammate and district champion Tre’Vonte Caines in the shot put. Ross, who was second to Caines last week, threw 54-2.

“It’s great to have a well-rounded program,” Granger said. “We’ve been working to get that at Port Arthur Memorial. We’ve always been a sprint team, but now we’re going diverse with field events, jumping, throwing, and we’re continuing that success on the track.”

Maya Flax gave the Lady Titans a win in the shot put with a 36-2 toss. Rayana Caldwell of Texas City was second at 34-1, followed by Iyanna Brannon of Memorial at 34-0.25.

The Titans helped their cause in the team standings with second-place finishes in five of the individual running events and a third in the 400-meter dash. Memorial had two entries each qualify for the Region III meet in all three dashes, the 800-meter run, the long jump and shot put.

 

MID-COUNTY GREATNESS

Jacie Droddy of Port Neches-Groves was a three-time winner for the second week in a row.

After winning the long jump at 17 feet, 7.25 inches, the Texas A&M signee improved to 17-10 to beat Cleveland’s Kyra Allen by 2 inches. Allen was third in districts.

Droddy then won the 100 meters in 12.04 seconds, beating Capri Wilson of Goose Creek Memorial by 0.2. Wilson was a standout at Port Arthur Memorial the past two seasons.

In the 200 dash, Droddy held off a late charge by Chardae Van Zandt of Crosby for her third gold. A’Nyriah Scott of Memorial earned fourth place.

Nederland was victorious in the triple jump, thanks to Destinie Jeane’s 36 feet even. Marian Duncan of Baytown Lee came in second, and PNG’s Sanaria Butler, who made a last-ditch sprint to earn the bronze in the 400 meters, took third.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews