Track and field: Day 1 notebook from District 2-5A Championships

>> THAT'S PRETTY HIGH, GUYS: Midland High's Ryan McRight and Lubbock High's Nathan Slaughter hit pretty lofty standards in their respective events Thursday.

McRight, a senior, elicited a pretty loud cheer by clearing 16 feet while winning the boys pole vault.

Only six other vaulters have cleared the 16-0 barrier in Texas this season, though one is another vaulter from Region I-5A - Southlake Carroll's Hayden Clark.

Slaughter did his jumping without a pole and cleared an impressive 6-8 for an easy victory.

Of course, it looks like Slaughter will have to keep up that kind of leaping since two other high jumpers from Region I-5A also are going pretty high. Plano East's Toddrick Allen has cleared 7-1 this season and Allen's Uzoma Nwachukwu has cleared 6-8.

Either way, the boys pole vault and boys high jump both look like highlight events for the Region I-5A Championships in Lubbock on May 1-2.

For the record, Amarillo High's Micah Nolan cleared 5-6 in the girls high jump, which also ranks among the state's leaders.

>> RUNNING AND RUNNING: Lubbock Coronado's Donovan Torres cruised to the boys 3,200 title in a time of 9 minutes, 37.31 seconds, which isn't bad considering he spent more time passing other runners than holding off competitors.

The second-place finisher was Lubbock High's Isaac Palencia is 10:14.07, with Odessa High's Eric Carrasco in third at 10:27.07 for the race's third regional berth.

"This is what I've been looking for all year," Carrasco said. "My fastest time is 10:15 and I wanted to break that, but I can do that at regionals."

As for Torres, he hopes to go at least 4:25 in the 1,600 today.

In the girls 3,200, San Angelo Central's Shelby Swartz surprised herself by winning in 12:08.83.

She surged on the seventh lap and finished by almost seven seconds ahead of Lubbock Coronado's Maddie Kaufmann.

"It hasn't really hit me that I won," said Swartz, a third-place district finisher last year. "I've had a groin injury pretty much this whole season and it just now has started to get better, so I didn't expect much. I'm surprised I won."

>> YES, IT'S SPRING IN WEST TEXAS: The opening day of the meet finished a little later than expected thanks to the storms that are typical for this time of year.

A 44-minute delay was endured during qualifying for the boys 300-meter hurdles, but a break allowed the completion of the session.