Senior Emilee Smith went into the Texas Relays at the University of Texas-Austin this year with one thing on her mind – clearing the bar. A year earlier, the same track had been too intimidating.
At the Texas Relays, however, Smith was determined to overcome the mental block that plagued her while competing in pole vault at the 2025 State Championships. As a junior, she qualified for State but did not clear the bar during the meet.
“We went to the Texas Relays this year,” Smith said. “Competing at UT again, it was a little stressful going in. I was like, okay, I just need to clear a bar and not be scared of UT anymore.”
Smith recorded a jump of 11 feet, 2.5 inches at the Texas Relays. The meet helped prepare Smith for her final competitions.
At the Region Meet May 2, Smith finished second with a jump of 12 feet. She advanced to State for the second year in a row, along with seniors Dakoda Dement (shot put) and Madi Staggs (300 meter hurdles). The three will compete at State in Austin on May 15.
Smith was not the only one to overcome hurdles on the way to qualifying though. Weather conditions delayed the Region Meet.
Staggs was originally going to run her preliminary race for hurdles on May 1, but did not compete until the next day.
“Me and coach (Aimee) Graff had been planning on it being postponed for Friday because of the weather,” Staggs said. “The whole week, it said 100% chance of rain. We didn’t know why the UIL officials didn’t already cancel it before Friday. So I wasn’t really thrown off my game or anything because I just kind of put it in my mind already that I probably wasn’t even gonna run Friday.”
The weather postponed all events that took place on May 1 to May 2.
Finals for running events took place on May 3, where Staggs finished second with a time of 44.07. As she crossed the finish line, Staggs threw her hands up in excitement and immediately began to find coach Cody Cook.
Emotions were high at the meet, but now Staggs will spend time looking into her races and make final preparations before the state meet on May 15.
“We’re really gonna look into my race at regionals and stuff and dissect it so that I can do everything right,” Staggs said. “Hopefully bring back a medal of some sort.”
Smith, Staggs and Dement were all prepared for the possibility of the weather delay, however, Dement found it to be especially challenging. The delay required Dement to compete in both shot put and discus on Saturday. Usually the two events are split between two days.
“It was kind of weird having to throw on the same day because you had to go from shot immediately to discus,” Dement said. “You hardly had any time to warm up for discus because of that. But, it was basically like any other track meet. The same ring, same shot.”
Dement finished second in shot put with a throw of 55-05.75 and will also compete at the State Meet. In addition, he finished fourth in discus with a throw of 150-04.
“I would definitely love to PR again,” Dement said. “Not only that, but (I want to) break the 60 foot mark, which I’ve been trying to fight for the entire year, but I haven’t really been able to get there.”
