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ORANGEFIELD — It may be spring break for some area students, but for many of Nederland’s student-athletes it was business as usual. A small group of track and field athletes representing Nederland High School made the trip across the Neches River to Orange County on Thursday afternoon to participate in the Mike Gentry Bobcat Relays at Orangefield High School.

The boys team finished in first place overall with 122 points, while host Orangefield finished second with 106 points. The Nederland girls team finished in sixth place with 38 points. The boys got off to a hot start with the field events as Tait Stoker won the discus 139-feet, while teammate Tyler Tolbert finished second with a throw of 132’ 7”, while Le’Marque Melancon placed fifth in the shot put with a throw of 39’8”.

In the boys high jump, Troy Sedtal finished third with a height of 5’ 8”, and then placed sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 37’ 10.50”. The running events began with the 3200 meters and Nederland’s Jake Banegas placed third with a time of 11:46.94, while Ezra Thompson finished in second place in the 800 meters in 2:11.88 and Hunter Solomon finished in fifth place in 2:15.78.

Slade Sheppard won first place in the 110 meter hurdles by more than one-half of a second with a time of 15.59 seconds. He also finished in second place in the 300 meter high-hurdles in 40.56 seconds. The Bulldogs rolled through the 100 meter dash as Isaiah Hernandez won the event in 11.09 seconds, while Landon Alpough placed third in 11.47 seconds and Evan Harper finished sixth with a time of 11.83 seconds. Jaxon Redman won the boys 400 meter dash by more than 1.6 seconds with a time of 51.63 seconds, while teammate Troy Sedtal finished in fifth place in 55.38 seconds. Evan Harper added a fourth place finish in the 200 meter dash with a time of 23.87 seconds.

The long distance runners helped secure the team win for the Bulldogs as Richard Marie won the race in 4:57.24. Hunter Solomon was second in 4:59.15 and LukeMcGuire finished in sixth place with a time of 5:22.71. The boys 4 x 400 relay team of Hernandez, Sunday, Thompson and Sedtal finished second in 3:38.84.

In the girls field events, the only Lady Bulldogs athlete to secure points was Meagan Wilson, who placed sixth in the triple jump with a distance of 32’ 3.50”.

In the girls running events, Ella Mecom gave Nederland a first place win in the 800 meter run with a time of 2:33.19, while the 4 x 200 meter relay team of Dupuy,  Wilson, Clark and Mendez finished in sixth place with a time of 1:54.70. Marie Hawkins won the girls 400 meter dash in 1:02.94, while Ella Mecom added another first place victory with a time of 5:36.37 in the 1600 meter run. Mecom, Hawkins, Clark and Michels placed third in the 4 x 400 meter relay with a time of 4:46.00 to end the night.