Last weekend, the Coppell High School track and field team traveled to the University of Texas at Arlington as one of 64 schools competing in the Class 6A Region I Track and Field Meet. The team had a total of 16 qualifying athletes, each looking at a top two finish in their respective events which would propel them to the state meet being held at the University of Texas at Austin with events starting on May 13. 

But the meet did not go as well as they would have hoped. Of all the athletes that competed, only one qualified for the state meet. All others fell short of the qualifying cutoff. Coppell junior Skyler Schuller emerged as the team’s lone state qualifier in pole vault (first place) and high jump (second). While Schuller is not advancing in 300-meter hurdles, she did set a Coppell school record with her 43.71 seconds time. 

Several other Cowgirls performed well in their events even if they fell short to qualify for state. This includes junior Megan Judd, who finished fourth in long jump, and the girls 4×400 relay team, which finished in sixth. 

On the boys side, the Cowboys  had other strong showings with sophomore Michael Nance finishing fourth in pole vault and junior Andrew Mullen finishing sixth in the 3,200-meter dash. 

“It was a little rough for Coppell,” Coppell junior Vedant Bhattacharrya said. “Last year, we sent a lot more people to the state meet. It just wasn’t as strong this year and we’ve had to deal with a lot of injuries.”

Bhattacharrya nearly qualified for the state meet himself, finishing his 1,600-meter dash in just over four seconds. Unfortunately though, such a performance got him third place, just shy of qualifying.

Follow @WalterBotell and @SidekickSports on Twitter.