From left, Avery Gary, Chism Carpenter, Stephan Jazdyk, Marco Munoz and Ricky Keese show off some of the medals they earned at the district meet and others from a recent Comanche meet. The Badgers were also responsible for setting several new school records. PHOTOS BY CLAY WHITTINGTON Beating the competition is important, but surpassing perceived personal limitations is true success.

Despite failing to win any gold medals as a team at the 2010 Hill Country District Meet, the Lampasas Middle School track program had a memorable year. The boys broke 10 school records over the course of the season, including seven at the district meet.

The Lady Badgers also set some new milestones by tying one record and setting three new school records at the district meet on the Lampasas High School campus Monday and Tuesday afternoon.

“I was really happy with the effort that our kids gave above anything else,” LMS Athletic Director Jim Burks said. “We strive each year to have our kids in shape and able to compete. Our coaches and kids have bought into this, and the results have spoken for themselves.

Presli Peters placed fourth in the long jump, leaping 14-10 3/4. The seventhgrader also finished in the top five of four other events. “The continued fall of school records is testament to the kids’ hard work.”

The seventh-grade Badgers snapped five LMS records to help the team place fourth, while the eighth-grade boys finished third after erasing a pair of records.

Lampasas’ eighth-grade girls broke three records en route to second place, falling one point shy of tying champion Dripping Springs. The seventh-grade Lady Badgers finished fifth overall, as Blake Webb equaled the school’s best pole vault at 7-0.

Although the new records are cherished by the Lampasas athletes and coaches, one of the most prized accomplishments from the district meet was the fact three of the four squads eclipsed the 100-point plateau. Lampasas and Hill Country were the only two schools to pull off the feat.

Left: Seventh-grader Mason Morris placed third in the triple jump by recording a leap of 33-3 1/2. Above: Stephan Jazdyk won the pole vault with a height of 10-0. Last year, Lampasas was the only school to have all four of its teams score at least 100 points.

“We as a program have scored 100 points or close to it in every meet the last three or four years since we changed the way we are working out,” Burks said. “[LHS Athletic Director Joey McQueen] has supported us, and we have raised the expectations of all the athletes at LMS.”

Coach Aaron Nuckles can attest to the change.

“When I was in school here, we would go over to Copperas Cove and Temple, because that was who we ran against, and we would come home with 35 points,” Nuckles said. “And we’d be happy with it.

“Now, we’re bringing home [over a hundred]. It’s a change of attitude.”

It is also a changing of the guard with the Badgers’ old shot put, 800-meter run, 100, 1600 and all three relay records falling on the district stage.

For the seventh-graders, Brady Robinson snapped the 2006 shot put record of 35-9 1/2 by recording a throw of 36-0 1/2.

Andrew Barr trimmed close to one second off the 2006 800 record (2:31.47) by finishing in 2:30.61, while Tyler Farries broke the seven-year-old 100 record (12.70) with a 12.44 performance.

The 1600 school record of 5:53.05 was claimed by Lance Moore with a time of 5:38.11.

In the 4x200, the quartet of Scott Lewis, Blake Graham, Stephan McCarter and Brady Robinson posted a time of 1:49.18, over one second better than the old time of 1:50.40 set in 2008.

The eighth-grade Badgers erased two relay records as Avery Gary, Chism Carpenter, Marco Munoz and Stephan Jazdyk eclipsed the 2001 4x100 showing (47.65) with a time of 47.48.

Then Ricky Keese joined Gary, Munoz and Jazdyk to beat the old 4x400 record by finishing in 3:49.93. The old record of 3:52.40 was set in 1986.

“I didn’t think that mile relay [record] would ever fall,” Nuckles said. “But they worked hard every day, they got better, and there you go.”

Ironically, only one of the record-setting performances earned the Badgers a gold medal -- the 4x400.

“That shows you how good the competition was,” Nuckles said.

The boys did return with some gold around their necks, however.

Seventh-grader Stephan McCarter (110 hurdles, 18.05) and eighth-graders Stephen Jazdyk (pole vault, 10-0 and 110 hurdles, 16.92), and Gary (200, 23.64) each won their events.

The trio of McCarter (long jump, 17-10 1/4), Jazdyk (pole vault, 10- 6) and Gary (200, 23.37) all broke individual school records earlier in the season.

For the Lady Badgers, Sierra Rash added six inches to the old eighth-grade school record in the pole vault by clearing 7-6 at the district meet.

Classmate Michaela Ellison finished the 800 in 2:33.65 to beat the old milestone of 2:36.53, and Catherine Bloomfield leaped into the record books with a 15.68 showing in the 100 hurdles, beating the old benchmark of 16.25.

Bloomfield won a gold medal for her performance in the 100 hurdles and was part of the first-place 4x200 relay team, joining Katy Carroll, Faith Veroneau and Angelica Sanchez to record a time of 1:55.22.

Between the seventh- and eighthgrade girls’ teams, Lampasas earned 14 top-three finishes.