Track and field: Garcia and Flores on track for Region I-2A showdown

Two state champions.

Crane's Isidro Garcia won the Class 2A state title in the 400-meter dash last year. Floydada's Aarrhon Flores won the long jump title, a second-place medal in the 100-meter dash and a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash.

Both runners won medals as the anchor legs for relay teams.

And this year they're running the same race.

Flores and Garcia turned in the top two qualifying times in the 200-meter dash during the first day of the Region I-2A Championships on Tuesday to set up the meet's most fascinating matchup in the finals.

"It's going to be a tough one," Flores said. "Garcia ran a good race today. I'm looking forward to it."

Moving the Region I-2A meet back two weeks - the UIL cancelled the original meet due to the spread of North American flu - gave Flores time to get healthy. Flores had been fighting back spasms suffered after a wayward long jump at a meet in Post.

He's fine now. Flores won the regional long jump title with a leap of 22 feet, 1.5 inches, and he turned in the best time in the 200 with a blistering 21.36 seconds. Garcia won his heat in 22.03 seconds.

"He ran a faster time than I've ever ran today," Garcia said. "Aarrhon's going in with the faster time, but I'm hoping I can get him."

Fans at Ratliff Stadium better not leave their seats during the 200.

>> MISSED OPPORTUNITY: Crane boys track and field coach Henry Anderson thought his 400 relay team had a chance to make the state tournament.

For the first three legs of the race, the sprint relay took the lead and started to prove Anderson right. But as Cody Black tried to hand off the baton to anchor leg Carlin Grammar, the baton fell to the ground.

"It was devastating," Anderson said. "I think we could have won the heat. It's hard to not get it out, when we felt good about moving on. You never know when things like that are going to happen in the sprint."

In search of a spark, Crane rebounded to set the meet record by setting a meet record in the 800 relay in 1:28.96 and then obliterating the field with a time of 3:22.16 in the 1,600 relay.

Losing the sprint relay dealt a severe blow to Crane's regional title hopes, though. Crane is currently in a tie for 12th with 4 points, although the Golden Cranes will make up a lot of ground on the track today.

Sweeping the top two spots in the pole vault, though, has put the Lady Birds in the lead with 22 points.

"Any time you have something like that happen, it jump-starts the rest of the team," Anderson said. "I think the girls have a legitimate shot at it."

>> SUDDEN DEATH: Only the top two finishers in any regional event can qualify for state.

But with three athletes left in the girls high jump - Merkel's Carly Szabo, Clyde's Amy Withrow and Denver City's Breann David - all three missed their leap at 5-6.

The stalemate forced a jump-off. Forced to clear 5-4 again, all three cleared the height. At 5-5, all three missed the height the first time. David missed her second jump, but the other two came back to clear 5-5.

David reached 5-5 on her third attempt, but by that time it didn't matter. Szabo and Withrow are headed to state.

"All of our legs were dead tired at the end," Szabo said. "We were so tired at the end that we didn't care who won. We knew we made it."

Szabo eventually cleared 5-6 again to win the Region I-2A title.

>> AT THE LINE: Coming off of a sixth-place finish at state last year, Colleen Adams was the favorite to win the girls 3,200-meter run on Tuesday.

And with 200 meters left, Adams looked like she had a commanding lead.

Adams couldn't hold on.

Spearman's Sutten Garnett chased down Adams on the homestretch to win the event in 12:09.87, a mere step ahead of Adams, who finished second in 12:10.02.

Both athletes will have a chance to test each other again in Austin.