4B
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton Record-Chronicle
2013-14 Area Standouts ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Jacob Perry SANGER, SR. Perry has run at a high-level for a long time at Sanger. But the senior long-distance runner carried over his success from the cross country season into the spring and onto the track. Perry, who will continue his career at Texas A&M, finished his senior year with a gold medal in the 3,200-meter run at the 3A state track and field meet. Perry followed that up with a silver medal in the 1,600, an event he didn’t qualify in as a junior. Perry’s long distance prowess and sustained success established him as one of the area’s premier athletes. Perry will try to carry the things that made him successful in Sanger down to College Station this fall.
COACH OF THE YEAR Roddy Adams GUYER GOLF Roddy Adams has been around Denton golf for a long time. In almost 23 years of coaching and 14 years as a head coach in the district, Adams led both the Guyer girls and boys golf teams to the state tournament. It was the first time a school from Denton ISD accomplished the feat, and the girls team was the first DISD girls team to reach state since 1986. The girls finished last at state in 12th, and the boys finished in sixth in a landmark year by a program spearheaded by one of the area’s best coaches. With most of this year’s girls state qualifiers returning next season, Adams and the Lady Wildcats will have a chance to improve on their state results in 2015.
Photos by Al Key and David Minton/Denton Record-Chronicle
SOCCER Luis Muro
Hannah Alspach
GUYER, SR.
GUYER, SR. Alspach closed out a stellar high school career with 21 goals and 12 assists for the Lady Wildcats. Alspach was named District 11-4A’s most valuable player after her second straight 20-goal season. The midfielder will continue her career with Auburn, a year after she helped Guyer win the 2013 4A state championship.
Muro was a scoring threat at the top of Guyer head coach Cody Schroeder’s formation. Muro scored eight goals and had four assists in District 11-4A play to help the Wildcats finish third and reach the area round of the 4A playoffs. Muro was named 11-4A’s offensive player of the year.
TRACK AND FIELD Reese Thompson
Candalyn Lyons
ARGYLE, SR. It’s not hard to see why Texas recruited Thompson as a decathlete. The future Longhorn came home from the 3A state track and field meet with a gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles with a personal record of 14.12 seconds. He also finished sixth in the pole vault, an event he finished third in as a sophomore.
GUYER, SR. As a senior, Lyons helped Guyer bring home the silver medal in the 800-meter relay and the bronze in the 400 relay. The speed that helped Guyer earn its first girls track state medals was evident when Lyons finished fifth in the 100. Lyons signed with Tulsa on a track scholarship in May.
GOLF Nick Louy
Piper Gleadhill
ARGYLE, SR. Louy was one of the main reasons Argyle reached the 3A state golf tournament three years in a row. This year, Louy had two top-five finishes and another finish in the top 10, while posting a scoring average of 78.75. The outgoing senior will continue his golf career at Iowa Western.
GUYER, JR. Gleadhill’s consistently low scores anchored a solid Guyer girls golf team that became the first Denton ISD girls golf team to reach the state tournament in 28 years. Gleadhill averaged an 87 on the course, pacing a Lady Wildcat squad that will look to improve on this past year’s performance.
SWIMMING AND DIVING Tristen Parish
Bri Broussard
GUYER, SR. Parish made history at this year’s 4A state swim and dive meet when the senior finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 58.13 seconds. Parish’s silver medal was the first state medal in Guyer’s brief school history. Parish will swim next year at Ouachita Baptist.
DENTON, SR. The Denton senior played a huge role in helping the school’s girls 200-yard medley relay team come in first place at regionals and reach the state meet. She was also quick on her own. Broussard finished second in the 100-yard backstroke and broke a 23-year old school record.
TENNIS Brandon Couch and Shashwat Tripathi
Sarah Sprabary and Mackenzie Ripple
ARGYLE BOYS DOUBLES The Argyle boys doubles pair didn’t start out well at the 3A Region II meet. Couch and Tripathi dropped the first set of their match against Princeton’s Kyle Collins and Eli Anthony but recovered to the win the match and advance to the quarterfinals, where they lost to Athens’ Jake Bywaters and Nolan Whitley.
KRUM GIRLS DOUBLES Sprabary and Ripple were one of the many Krum representatives at the Class 3A Region II tennis meet, but the girls doubles pair was one of the few to find success. Sprabary and Ripple advanced to the quarterfinals and lost to Frisco Lone Star’s Madelyn Howard and Liana Jo, who lost in the regional finals.
From Page 1B
Karters and we all know where are kids are — they’re with us on the track.” Racers are drawn to NTK because of that family environment. Engberson estimated that 75 percent of the racers are children, but the parents are fans, too, and either race or volunteer time to the club. Amye Engberson, Dan’s wife, volunteers with marketing and often is there with their daughter, Emily, to cheer Andrew. Chris Williams, who was at the first NTK race 27 years ago, is there now with his wife, Lisa. Their daughter Hannah, 15, will be a sophomore at Guyer in the fall and has been racing since she was 7. Hannah is a threetime national champion. “It’s hard to put into words — there’s just nothing better than driving really fast,” Hannah said. “It’s an amazing feeling when you are racing, and I love to travel and meet new people.” More often than not, your fiercest competitor is your biggest supporter. “I remember one race where Andrew broke his axle. Next thing we knew, everyone was jumping in to help him get ready for the next race,” Amye Engberson said. “They had his axle replaced in 10 minutes.” NTK has come a long way. The original track was a 1/3-mile layout, and the design was
Guyer sophomore and racing veteran Hannah Williams gets a wheel off the ground at North Texas Kartway. carved out using a Volkswagen Beetle. The rest of the 16-acre property was barren, and races were timed with stopwatches. Over time, the membership added stadium lights, a two-story tech barn with permanent drive-on scales, a scoring tower and the paved pit runner. “By putting all that money back in, that’s how we’ve been able to make NTK what it is today,” said Tom Harris, a board member who works the tech barn. “This is the best bang for your buck. I’ve got an 11-year-old kart and it’s still competitive.” NTK has race classes determined by driver age and engine type. The track features two straightaways where karts can reach 60 to 80 mph. Drivers are required to wear approved race suits, gloves, rib vests, neck braces, full-face helmets with a working visor and high-top shoes.
“When I first came here, it was a track in the middle of nowhere. We used to bring stuff out in crates,” Chris Williams said. “Some of our best memories as a family have been when we are racing here.” NTK boasts a mix of recreational and competitive racers, some of whom search for sponsorships to compete at regional and national events. A kart can cost between $1,000 and $10,000, and families will spend more on tools, trailers and other essentials. “It’s been a learning experience,” Dan Engberson said. “Some of these karts run on a lawnmower engine; others have six speeds. There have been weekends where it was raining off and on and all I did was sit on my knees and swap out tires. Yes, it takes time and it can get expensive, but it’s worth it.” The only glaring problem for
Photos by David Minton/DRC
The green flag waves at North Texas Kartway on July 5 in Denton. NTK is effectively getting the word out to drive new membership. Last year the club had 232 member families; in 2007 that number was 240. This year, it sits at 182. Much of that is because of location. NTK is more or less hidden behind North Star Dragway and CTC Auto Ranch, both of which sit right off the I-35 service road. NTK has one small sign at Memory Lane. “We try to get the word out at festivals and parades,” Amye Engberson said. “We’d love to see our numbers grow, because the more members we have, the more competitive our races are and the more fun it is.” The racers who are out there now agree on one thing — there
Dan Engberson checks the tire pressure on his son’s kart. is no substitute for NTK. “It’s a cool sport and there is competition wherever I go,” An-
drew Engberson said. “I just love it, and as it turns out I got pretty good at it along the way.”