Sports Texoma

BONHAM — Having all previously competed at the regional track meet, Bonham seniors Myran Roundtree, Michael Johnson and Dustin Ingold knew this would be their last chance to reach state.

Johnson did not compete last season after reaching regionals as a sophomore, but returned to the high jump pit this year. He won the Region II title, taking a three-way tie after clearing six feet, four inches on his first attempt.

“I didn’t think I had a chance because of taking last year off,” said Johnson, who has several college options, including McMurry University. “I had beaten the guy who got second before so I knew I had a spot.”

Roundtree, who has made it to the region meet in the triple jump all four years,  never finished higher than fourth. But this time he won the Region II title in the long jump at 23 feet, nine and a quarter inches and in the triple jump with a leap of 47 feet, four and three quarters inches — both personal bests and by comfortable margins.

“I think I’m placed third or fourth in the triple jump,” he said. “I’m sure that I can medal.”

Roundtree, who has yet to lose in either event this spring, will jump both times on Friday while Ingold and Johnson compete on Saturday.

“I’m glad I wasn’t by myself,” said Roundtree, who is headed to Wayland Baptist University next season. “I was happy someone else was going with me.”

Roundtree just missed qualifying in a third event. In the preliminaries for the 200, he had the second-fastest time but slipped to third in the finals.

Ingold, who has a scholarship to Dordt College in Iowa for both track and football, qualified for state with a second-place finish in the 100 meter dash, just 0.02 seconds behind Colton Keener of Mount Vernon despite stumbling on his third step of the race.

A clean run this weekend will put him in the running for a medal. Last year he finished fifth at the region meet.

Bonham last sent three competitors to the state meet in 2006 and pole vaulter Wade Hayes was the most recent state champion in 2005 — the only Purple Warrior to take gold in the last two decades.

Johnson or Roundtree would be the school’s first jumping champion since Rob Wiggins in 1989 while Ingold could join Mitchell Bennett, who won the 100-yard dash in 1978, as the only Bonham athletes to win an individual sprint title.