It was like an Oprah giveaway show as all three Anderson Trojans won silver medals at the UIL State Track and Field Meet this past weekend.
Zayden Sharp, Faith Murphy, and Colby Huntress all earned silver medals to complete the largest single state championship haul of medals for the Trojans and the first multiple medal championship since Stacy Clack won both the 100m and 200m in 1988 and 1989.
Friday started with a bang, as Zayden Sharp jumped out to a quick lead in the Boys 5A Long Jump Championship. Sharp leaped 23-11.25 on his first jump to take the lead, then extended it with a leap of 24-4.25 on his second attempt. After four rounds, he held a significant lead over Frisco Heritage’s Cordial Vann by over six inches.
Vann, however, took the lead in the fifth round with an incredible jump of 24-11.
Sharp would try to answer and responded with a massive jump of 24-7.25 on his final attempt, but it wasn’t enough. His silver medal would match the school-best finish in the event, tying Ian Robertson, who also earned silver at the 1997 State Championship for the Trojans.
Sharp finishes his career with school records in the 100-meter Dash (10.4) and Long Jump (25-4).
Due to inclement weather, the track portion of the meet was postponed to Saturday morning. But when it resumed, it resumed with a duo of silver medals coming in less than five minutes.
The first came from senior Faith Murphy, who matched her silver a year ago. She grabbed second in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:08.44, behind Smithson Valley’s Mia Perez’s 2:07.60. She becomes only the second Trojan girl to win a medal in back-to-back State Championships since Clack in 1988-1989.
Murphy also competed in the 1600-meter run, but did not finish after suffering an injury on the third lap of the race while in third position.
The University of Arkansas signee finished her brief two-year career as a Trojan with school records in the 400-meter dash (56.44), the 800-meter run (2:07.14), the 1600-meter run (4:55.45), and the 3200-meter run (11:17.84). She also claimed school records in Cross Country for the 3200m (12:46.60) and 5000-meter run (19.07.54) and led the Trojan women to their first-ever Cross Country team appearance.
Not to be left out of the fun, junior Colby Huntress also earned a silver medal just a few minutes later, finishing second to Caden Gary of Lucas Lovejoy in a time of 1:52.27, lowering the school record he set at the 5A Region 3 Championship just a few weeks ago.
Huntress rallied from fifth place after an initial 400 in 56.66 to close in 55.61 and grab the silver.
He did not have much time to rest and immediately had to focus on the 1600-meter run. That race was a very peculiar tactical race for the first few laps. At the halfway point, Huntress sat in sixth, coming through in a pedestrian 2:15.47. The race picked up steam at that point, as he closed the final 800 meters in 2:06.57, finishing in fourth place in a time of 4:22.03.
The 12 points earned by Huntress were the most by an individual AISD athlete at the meet, edging out LASA’s Eva Cragnolino, 12-11.
Huntress and Sharp’s combined 20 points were good enough for the Trojan boys to finish 10th in the team standings, the highest ever for the boys’ squad since the school’s Prairie View Interscholastic League days of the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
