4B Sunday, July 29, 2012 Denton Record-Chronicle

In a year where Argyle enjoyed success in almost every one of its team sports, Bell helped the Argyle varsity boys golfteam do something it had never done before — reaching the Class 3A state tournament. Argyle finished second to the2011 state champions Prosper in the regional championships to reach its first state tournament. Bell was able to navigatehis young squad through a taxing regional bracket. And in their first year, at state the Eagles came up four strokes shy of athird-place finish and 11 strokes shy of first-place Fredericksburg. Argyle entered Day Two of the tournament with the sec-ond-best team score but were unable to squeeze out a top-three showing. With all five of his best players coming backnext season, Bell may be well on his way to building a strong program in Argyle.

Denton Record-Chronicle2011-12 Area Standouts

ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Johnson’s accomplishments throughout her time at Argyle were capped off when she won the Class 3A pole vault gold medalin Austin, winning the event with a mark of 13 feet, 1 inch. Johnson broke the 3A state record by an inch, and missed thestate record by six inches. The single accomplishment is magnified when compared to Johnson’s previous successes. Startingin her sophomore year, when she won the event by an entire foot, she went on to win three straight gold medals, a true markof dominance in any single event. Each year she improved on last year’s height, finally reaching the 13 foot mark at the statemeet in May. Johnson qualified for the state meet with a height of 13-6. The next closest qualifying mark was 17 inches short-er than Johnson’s height. Johnson is already enrolled at Auburn, where she’ll look to continue her success.

Jessie JohnsonARGYLE, SR.

COACH OF THE YEAR

Barahona earned Offensive MVP honors in District 7-5A and was one of the main reasons the Wildcats earned a playoffberth last season. Along with Harrison Gorman, Sean Diamond and Edgar Jimenez, Barahona played an integral role in aneffort to maintain a consistent scoring attack. Guyer entered the playoffs as the final seed from 7-5A and was bounced outof the first round of the playoffs by a Plano squad that won District 8-5A and advanced to the regional semifinals. Barahonais headed to play at Metropolitan Community College-Maple Woods in Kansas City, Miss., according to the school’s website.

SOCCER

Brooke Robertson, Laine Lowry, Taylor Mueller and Darby Hargroves almost brought Argyle a gold medal in the 4x400meter relay at the 3A state championships. The relay squad finished second with a time of 3:57.35, less than threeseconds behind Waco Connally’s squad. The 4x400 team bested the 3:59.49 mark it used to qualify for state. Theteam joined Jessie Johnson as the school’s female representatives at the state meet. Ben Woolums, Reese Thompson,Spencer McCloud and Dalton Ledford represented Argyle on the boys side.

Despite all the laughing and joking he did off the track, Fuggett justified his nonchalant attitude by anchoring Ryan’strack team last season. With the departure of Aaron Scott, Fuggett helped Ryan’s 4x200 and 4x400 meter relayteams to reach the state meet. Fuggett, a standout in both football as well, holds Ryan’s high jump record and is apart of three relay school records. Fuggett is attending Bakersfield (Calif.) College to play football and run track, withhopes of possibly attending the University of California or USC afterward.

Sterling FuggettRYAN, SR.

Argyle’s 4x400 meter relayARGYLE

TRACK AND FIELD

Denton’s varsity girls squad, comprised of Payton Andress, Jill Jordan, Stephanie Swenson, Stephanie Mobley andLindsey Heal, led the Lady Broncos to a District 4-4A Championship and pushed Denton into the regional tournamentfor the third straight year. Andress, Swenson, Mobley and Heal were all named to the all-district squad. Led by headcoach Mick Maxey, Denton had a very deep and evenly-talented squad. With Andress, Jordan and Swenson graduat-ing, it will be up to Mobley and Heal to continue the success Denton’s enjoyed the last few years and lead the LadyBroncos in their trek to state.

In reaching the first state tournament in school history, the Argyle boys varsity golf squad leaned on its depth to finishthird in Austin. Hunter Thompson, Blake Lyle, Colton Katzen, Nick Louy and Lance Roden comprised a young squad thatfinished four strokes short of a medal finish. The Eagles relied on a balanced attack from all five boys, giving the teamextra insurance, as the top four scores are counted. Thompson and Lyle will be the only seniors on the team next year.Katzen and Louy will be seniors while Roden will be a sophomore, giving the Eagles a great chance to return to statenext season.

Argyle Boys VarsityARGYLE

Denton Girls VarsityDENTON

GOLF

Ray joined Mikey Winfrey as Ryan’s delegates at the state swim meet. Ray received one of eight call-up spots to swimin the 200-yard individual medley. The selection made Ray the only swimmer to qualify for the state meet in swimmingand water polo in the 21 years Chris Cullen has coached the Denton ISD swim program. Ray, who will continue herswimming career at Texas-Permian Basin, is one of the most well-rounded and versatile swimmers, Cullen said. Ray’sversatility allowed her to swim in the IM, an event she typically doesn’t swim. She still made it to state.

Denton sophomore D.J. Lang was one of of two Broncos to qualify for the state swim meet, joining Cody Knappand Denton’s 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relay teams. Lang broke a school record in the 200freestyle at this year’s district meet, and earned swimmer of the year accolades as well. Denton ISD head swimcoach Chris Cullen said Lang, who primarily swims freestyle events, improved as the year went on and put upsome of the fastest times at regionals. Lang, who will be a junior next season, will be a welcomed return next yearand will look to improve on this year’s results.

D.J. LangDENTON, SOPH.

Kathryn RayRYAN, SR.

SWIMMING AND DIVING

Stevie Harris and Lindsey EcclesRYAN, SR.

Harris and Eccles have been two of the biggest reasons why the Lady Raiders were a threat to win the Class 4A statetitle over the past two seasons. While Ryan was unable to reach the state tournament for the second straight season,Harris and Eccles’ play provided Ryan’s offense with an immediate spark when needed. The duo were both namedDistrict 11-4A co-MVPs in one of the toughest districts in the state. Harris will play at Midwestern State next fall,while Eccles will ply at Dallas Baptist.

Picking up where their older siblings left off three years ago, Krum’s Chris Atterberry and McKenna Barber reached thestate tournament in the Class 2A mixed doubles championships, going all the way to the state championship gamebefore losing in three sets to Ingram Moore’s Ali Sheriff and Tyler Moore. Atterberry and Barber, along with ZachRipple and Tyler Sargent, represented Krum at the state tournament for the seventh straight season. Last year wasKrum’s last in Class 2A for the present future, as the Bobcats will be moving up to Class 3A next year, increasing thelevel of competition and making an eighth-straight appearance at state that much harder.

In a year where Argyle seemed to be good at about every sport, Maddie Schorlemmer and Lacy Blake showed thestate why they were favorites to win the Class 3A tennis girls doubles championship. The duo won the title in theirfourth appearance in state, defeating Abilene Wylie’s Shelby Corn and Whitney Frazier 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. The winagainst Wylie capped an undefeated run for the doubles partners while only dropping three sets all year.Schorlemmer will continue playing collegiately at Midwestern State in the fall. The pair added to the program’sgrowing tennis accomplishments, as Zack Santagate took home the boys singles title in 2011.

Maddie Schorlemmer and Lacy BlakeARGYLE GIRLS DOUBLES

Chris Atterberry and McKenna BarberKRUM MIXED DOUBLES

TENNIS

Corey BarahonaGUYER, SR.

Brady BellARGYLE GOLF HEAD COACH

Sadler penalty hands Indy victory to KeselowskiBy Chris JenkinsAssociated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — BradKeselowski planted an emphat-ic kiss on the yard of bricks atthe finish line, becoming thefirst driver to celebrate a win atIndianapolis Motor Speedwayin NASCAR’s NationwideSeries.

Elliott Sadler was fuming,certain that he should havebeen celebrating instead.

Keselowski took the leadwhen Sadler was penalized forjumping a late restart, thenheld on to win a controversialfinish to the inauguralNationwide race Saturday atthe historic 2.5-mile track.

Keselowski said winning atIndy was special because of thetrack’s tradition.

“I’m glad to be some smallpart of that,” Keselowski.

Sadler passed Keselowski ona restart with 18 laps to go, butofficials ruled that Sadler wenttoo early and black-flaggedhim.

Sadler stayed on the track forseveral laps, apparently hopingofficials would reconsider thepenalty, before finally comingin with 12 laps to go and givingup the lead to Keselowski.

An agitated Sadler saidKeselowski spun his tires on

the restart — a brief loss oftraction that would slowKeselowski down — and Sadlersaid he had no other choice butto surge forward because carswere stacking up behind him.

“You tell me what the proto-col is if the leader beats me tothe restart line — which he didand it’s on video just as clear asday — and then he spins histires,” Sadler said. “It’s just likemissing a shift. Do I stop andwait for him to get his shiftright or do I stop and let himget his tires? Oh, yeah, by theway, I’m getting pushed by the3 car, who’s also getting pushedby the 43 car.”

Keselowski said he hadn’tseen a replay, but his percep-tion at the time was that Sadlerwas far enough ahead to justifythe penalty.

“They just want it to be closeand fair,” Keselowski said. “Itwas obvious that [Sadler] beatus by more than that. That’sNASCAR’s call.”

Sam Hornish Jr. was second,followed by Ty Dillon, DennyHamlin and Austin Dillon.

Sadler finished 15th but heldon to the Nationwide pointslead. He leads Austin Dillon by

one point.Danica Patrick’s day ended

early after she collided withReed Sorenson on lap 39.

It was another strong run forHornish as the 2006Indianapolis 500 winner is try-ing to rebuild his racing reputa-tion after a couple of rough sea-sons racing stock cars.

Hornish was happy to see hisPenske Racing teammate win,but disappointed he wasn’t theone in victory lane.

“I guess if there’s a guy I canhandle losing to, it’s Brad,”

Hornish said. “But I want towin. To be that close, it wouldhave been nice to be able to dothat. There’s always next week,but there’s never a chance towin the inaugural [Indy]Nationwide race again.”

Kyle Busch dominated thefirst half of the race, but gotshuffled back in the field duringa round of pit stops on lap 63and Hornish took the lead.

Keselowski then passedHornish for the lead with 29laps to go, and a caution cameout shortly afterward. Busch

was fourth on the subsequentrestart but spun out right afterthe race went green. He man-aged to avoid major damagebut lost his shot at the win.

Sadler then shot pastKeselowski on a restart with 18laps to go — but Sadler wasblack flagged for jumping thestart.

With his crew pleading withNASCAR officials, Sadlerstayed on the track instead ofcoming into the pits to servethe penalty. Sadler finally camein with 12 laps to go, fuming

over the radio to his crew as hegave up the race lead and hand-ed it back to Keselowski.

Adding Nationwide to Indywas part of an effort by officialsto drum up interest and boostsagging attendance at theBrickyard 400.

But the addition ofNationwide to the weekendschedule didn’t prove to be animmediate hit with fans, as thegrandstands were largelyempty Saturday. Officials esti-mated attendance at 40,000.

Any fans who came to seePatrick race didn’t get to seemuch of her.

Patrick appeared to tapSorenson’s back bumper goinginto Turn 1, causing the backend of Sorenson’s car to slidesideways. Sorenson nearlysaved it, but his left-front wheelgot into the infield grass, caus-ing him to spin out. Patrickthen hit Sorenson’s car, causingheavy damage.

“I got pretty close and Imight have tapped him,”Patrick said in a televisioninterview. “I’m not sure.”

Patrick said Sorenson slowedunexpectedly.

“I didn’t mean to take himout,” Patrick said. “I don’t knowif he’s still going or not, but I’msorry.”

Associated Press/Bill Friel

Danica Patrick’s car, left, slides to a stop after making contact with that of Reed Sorenson

and the wall during Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series Indiana 250 at Indianapolis

Motor Speedway in Indianapolis.

Motor sportsNASCAR Nationwide Indiana 250