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Track notebook: Celina boys repeat as 3A champs; Frisco Lone Star girls earn first team title

AUSTIN — The Celina boys repeated as the Class 3A UIL state track and field champions Saturday, and the Frisco Lone Star girls won their first team 3A title.

Celina senior Ben Thiel defended his gold medal in the 300-meter hurdles to propel the team into first place. Thiel ran away from the pack at the first turn, and he won by nearly two seconds with a time of 36.85.

“It’s a huge accomplishment for us and for Celina,” Thiel said of the team title

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Thiel was also the anchor of the Bobcats’ 4x400 relay, which successfully defended its state title with a time of 3:16.15. Tyler Finke helped the cause with a gold medal in the shot put.

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Celina had 54 points to beat West Orange-Stark’s 36.

Frisco Lone Star used a fourth-place finish in the 4x400 relay to edge Waco La Vega and hang onto the team title.

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Lone Star had 49 points to La Vega’s 32 when the final relay began. La Vega won in a state-meet 3A record 3 minutes, 49.75 seconds to gain 20 points. Lone Star’s fourth-place finish earned it eight points to bring its total to 57.

Lone Star took silver in the 4x100 relay and bronze in the 4x200 relay. Chassity Love took silver in the long jump, and B’Ria Wagner took fourth.

Northwest pole vaulter breaks state record: Fort Worth Boswell's Lakan Taylor broke a six-year-old state record Friday with a vault of 13 feet, 8 inches to win 4A gold. One day later, Justin Northwest junior Desiree Freier one-upped Taylor with a vault of 13-9 to win 5A gold for the second year in a row.

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“When I heard she broke it yesterday, I was like, ‘Oh boy, I have to break it tomorrow,’” Freier said. “And I did.”

Breaking a state record was all Freier had left to prove at the state meet. She won silver as a freshman in 2011 and gold as a sophomore last year.

Freier’s career-best vault before Saturday was a 13-7 at her area meet this season. She won state last year with a 12-9.

Freier was tested Saturday by Waco Midway’s Annie Rhodes, who successfully vaulted 13-6 on her second attempt. Freier was unsuccessful on her first two attempts at that height but landed the third.

“My nerves were really bad, but I just had to push through it,” Freier said.

Dallas Gateway wins girls A-DI title: With a pair of record-breaking relays, charter school Dallas Gateway emerged as the girls Class A Division I state champion.

Gateway set the A-DI record in the 4x100 relay with a time of 47.89 seconds. The same team — Mykailah Goodwin, Jessica Samuel, Alisha Pearce and anchor Breanna Dockery — also set the A-DI record in the 4x200.

The 4x200 time of 1:41.99 beat runner-up Panhandle by more than three seconds.

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Gateway finished the meet with 48 points, winning the title over Panhandle (44) and New Deal (38).

Domanic takes gold in 3,200: Hebron senior Robert Domanic started and ended his senior year in much the same way.

He was the 5A cross country champion in the fall, and Saturday he won the boys 3,200 meters in 8:57.95. He also won the 1,600 later in the evening in 4:07.49.

Domanic beat out Southlake Carroll’s Joe Sansone by more than five seconds.

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Italy sophomore sprints to two golds: Kortnei Johnson won gold in the 100 and 200 and broke a 32-year-old record in the 200.

Johnson, a sophomore at Italy, ran the 200 in 23.94 seconds to break the record set by Miami’s Susan Bean in 1981.

Follow David Just on Twitter at @DavidJustDMN.