Track and Field: Cepero Memorial Meet notebook

>> WILD GOOSE HUNT: Shelby Chancellor has never thrown the javelin before.

Never really had the chance. Not until she entered the 5th annual Dan Cepero Memorial Track and Field meet this weekend.

Chancellor, a former Permian athlete who graduated in May and signed a national letter of intent Friday morning to compete at New Mexico Junior College, only had one problem.

She didn't know where to find one.

"We went on a wild goose hunt trying to find a javelin," Chancellor said. "We wanted to throw it, because I wanted to have a chance at the scholarship."

Five scholarships were awarded Saturday to graduated seniors about to enter their freshman year in college.

To get an extra event on her schedule - she was the only competitor in the young women's division in the shot put, discus and the javelin - Chancellor and her father, Carl, the Permian girls track and field coach, found a random javelin in the Permian storage room.

Then father and daughter headed to Ratliff Stadium to learn how to throw it.

"We only threw it for about 10 minutes before I competed," Chancellor said. "My dad showed me how to cradle it. I didn't run or anything, I just threw it."

Chancellor tossed the javelin 52 feet, 5 inches, put the shot 33-6 and threw the discus 109-9.

>> SUMMER WORK: Permian's Tynesha Gamble and Bianka Cortez had their track and field seasons ended at the Region I-5A Championships in May, the second consecutive season both had fallen one stage short of the state meet.

Trying to improve for a run to Austin next spring, both Cortez and Gamble have been competing in summer track and field to keep getting better.

"Next year is my senior year, and I'm determined to make it to state," Gamble said. "I couldn't just sit on my butt all summer. I had to come out and actually do something."

Running at the Cepero meet Saturday, Cortez won the 400, 800 and 1,600 for the Flying Lyons track club in the intermediate girls division. Gamble won the 100, finished second in the 200 and ran the second leg on the Flying Lyons sprint relay.

Cortez has already seen improvement.

"My stride has gotten a whole lot better," Cortez said. "I felt a lot better than I did during school."

That improvement should pay dividends next spring.

>> REHAB ASSIGNMENT: Omar Barnes isn't running at 100 percent.

Competing at the Region I-5A Championships in May, Barnes, then a sophomore at Midland Lee, strained his hip.

But that didn't stop Barnes from taking home four gold medals from the Cepero meet. Barnes won the long jump, the 200 and the 400 in the intermediate boys division.

"I can run pretty well," Barnes said. "But I can't really top out, and when I jump, I can't get any lift."

He can still move fast enough for gold.

>> TRIPLE THREAT: Plenty of athletes won three events in their age divisions at the Cepero meet.

In some cases, winning three events didn't require beating a huge field of competition.

Colby Lyons, Rahkiem Petterson and Doshane Shaw found a way to stand out anyway. Competing in their respective age divisions, that trio swept the 100-meter dash, 200 and 400 titles at the Cepero meet Saturday.

Competing for the Odessa Flying Lyons, Lyons pulled off the sweep in the sub-youth boys division, Petterson won the primary boys division for Tall City Christian and Shaw added the bantam girls division sweep to the Tall City Christian haul.