UIL girls state track and field: Swearingen second in 300 hurdles

AUSTIN Shartanae Swearingen didn't have to wait a year to redeem herself at the UIL Class 5A State Track and Field Championships.

But a weather delay of about two hours Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium sure didn't hurt the Permian High School junior as she became the first ECISD athlete to earn a medal at the meet since 2003.

Swearingen bombed early in the 800 meters with a seventh-place showing before coming back to earn a silver medal with a second-place showing in the 300-meter hurdles.

She ran a personal-best time of 43.09 seconds -- lowering her own program record in the process -- while earning the ECISD its first state track medal since Odessa High's Janalyn Givens took bronze in the girls triple jump and Permian's Jon McDowell won bronze in the boys 110 hurdles five years ago.

"The 800 wasn't so good, but I came back for the 300 hurdles and did what I had to do," Swearingen said. "I was really made and I took it out on the 300 hurdles."

Swearingen's meet began with her seventh-place showing in the 800, with a time of 2:15.18, almost a second slower than her qualifying time from the regional meet.

The beat kept on for Permian's girls the next race as fellow junior Porshia Fobbs finished eighth in the 100 hurdles in 14.70.

"I'm real disappointed (because) the time wasn't anywhere near my best," Fobbs said. "I have no clue waht happened."

While Fobbs will have to wait until her senior year to show her stuff on the sport's grandest stage, Swearingen still had another race to run.

After both girls had struggled early, they sat and chatted for about 10 minutes to console each other.

"We just talked about it," Swearingen said. "She helped me out by giving me strength and courage to have a better race."

The 300 hurdles field lined up for their race right before 7:10 p.m. when the UIL ushered the athletes off the track and the crowd of about 14,000 out of the stadium because of severe weather.

A thunderstorm ensued and the athletes were allowed back on the track around 8:20 p.m., with the 300 hurdles scheduled to run at 8:50 p.m. -- almost two hours after the original schedule.

Swearingen was strong from the outset -- which isn't normally her style in the race -- and finished only behind Lufkin's Amber Sellers, who won in 42.84 seconds. El Paso Hanks junior Brandi Wade was third in 43.35, well behind Swearingen's 43.09.

"I think the rain giving Shart the long recovery realy helped," Permian girls coach Carl Chancellor said. "I kept seeing the clouds coming, hoping they would hurry and get here so maybe we'd have a little longer recovery period. We talked about running the first four hurdles because I don't know anybody that can run the last four with her. She ran the first four extremely well. What a night."