For the first time in five years, the Coppell track and field team failed to earn the district title. Instead, Flower Mound swept the women’s side, and Flower Mound and Hebron took top two in men’s varsity and junior varsity. 

The District 6-6A Track and Field Meet was at Marcus High School on Friday and Saturday. 

Coppell junior runner Vedanti Naktode attributes the team’s downhill performance to the different schools in the district. This year, Coppell competed against Lewisville, Flower Mound, Hebron, Marcus, Plano, Plano East and Plano West.

“It was really hard, because this year we got put into a new district,” Naktode said. “When I was a freshman, and we went to district, it was much easier compared to this year.”

While less competitive than previous years, the Cowgirls placed at second overall, led by sophomore Skyler Schuller (11-06.00), junior Kinley Wojick (11-06.00) and senior Veronica Turner (10-06.00) who won first, second and third respectively in pole vault. Sophomore runner Waverly Hassman (57.48) won the 400-meter, followed by junior runner Olivia Marez (57.55) in second place. Hassman (2:12.98) also placed third in the 800-meter. Sophomore Megan Judd (5-05.00) and Schuller (5-05.00) won first and second in high jump respectively. Schuller placed in several other events, including second in 100-meter hurdles (14.79), third in 300-meter hurdles (46.57), and second in long jump (18-06.00). 

On the boys side, junior Ryan Sewell (147-11) placed second in discus and senior Reese Pokluda (15-00.00) and junior Michael Nance (14-06.00) placed second and third in pole vault respectively. Senior Colin Proctor (4:21.36) placed fourth in the 1,600-meter and senior Evan Caswell (9:32.40) placed fourth in the 3,200-meter. At the end, the Cowboys racked up enough points to land them in fifth place.

In team relays, the girls placed second in the 4×400 (3:55.72), while the boys placed third in the 4×200 (1:30.78) and fourth in the 4×400 (3:27.20).

Since the athletes mentioned above placed in the top four of their event, they advance to the Class 6A Area meet, which will be hosted at Buddy Echols Field on Thursday and Friday. Last year, the district and area meets were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Coppell will be hosting the first area meet since 2019.

“Across the state, some of the times may be down a little bit just because everybody was struggling with the [pandemic], but it’s been great as a coach to see our kids come out and compete and really grow from that,” Coppell track coach Karl Pointer said. “Our numbers are up on both boys and girls sides in terms of kids participating, which is awesome.”

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