Jake Waddingham

The starter went by at a blur, with his orange sleeve catching in my peripheral, as I started the bell lap of the 1500-meter run at Brook Hill High School.

The unusually warm April afternoon—at least for a Northerner—showed on my face. My cheeks were flushed with red, and my hair was pushed back from the wind.

No matter how hard I tried, my body would not let me go any faster. In the last 10 meters of the race, another runner passed by me just before I crossed the finish line.

Ross Renfroe used a strong finishing kick in the final lap of the 1500m at the Texas Relays to take second place in a time of 3:56.20.

“I was hoping for a fast field,” Renfroe said. “There was a little wind, so I played off the other runners until the last 400 meters.”

Renfroe reset his own school record, shaving a couple of tenths off his previous best.

First baseman Nick Clifton secured four of his six RBIs with a single swing of his bat on Tuesday in a nonconference matchup with Austin College at UT Ballpark.


Clinton’s grand slam propelled the Patriots to a 9-4 lead in the bottom of the fourth.

Justin Juneau, Hayden Chick and TJ Martin all drove in a run in the bottom of the seventh to secure the 14-4 win.

“The team that makes the fewest mistakes is almost always going to win the ballgame,” head coach Paul Wyczawski said.

In Suzanne Collins’ novel, “The Hunger Games,” the Capitol leader picks 24 gladiators at random from 12 districts across the nation.

The typical gladiator is a prizefighter, armed with a sword or another deadly weapon and compelled to fight to the death with an adversary. They fight for honor, respect and for the entertainment of the citizens and royalty.

There is no room for error in a battle to the death.

At 16 years old, Everdeen is not like the gladiators from ancient Rome.

The University’s baseball team earned its 22-straight win after pounding Jarvis Christian 27-2 at UT Ballpark on Tuesday night. The victory helped the team secure third in the national rankings put out by D3baseball.com, tying a school record.

In the bottom of the first, the Patriots put a six-spot on the scoreboard after Justin Juneau, Nick Clifton, T.J. Martin and Jake Ashley picked up RBIs.

Jarvis Christian would not find their way onto the scoreboard until the sixth inning.

Late in the second half of the American Southwest Conference tournament, Mary Hardin-Baylor University held a 56-46 lead with 9:02 left to play.

The Patriots had been struggling to break the double-digit deficit since the start of the second half, trailing by 12.

“I remember thinking I didn’t want it it to end,” junior Brandon Levine said. “We had a great group of seniors, and I didn’t want it to be our last game together.”

The University baseball team may have just opened American Southwest Conference play, but they are already in midseason form, collecting their 18th win of the season over East Texas Baptist University.

On Friday, the Patriots won 7-4 and completed the sweep during the double header on Saturday, winning 4-0 and 3-1.

Nick Clifton led the way with four runs batted in for the Patriots.

“It was a huge weekend because the conference season is critical for seeding,” head coach Paul Wyczawski said.

The University’s men’s and women’s golf teams finished in the top 10 in the national rankings at the conclusion on the 2010 nontraditional fall season, a five-week period during which NCAA officials allow spring sports teams to practice and compete.

The men finished the fall ranked eighth, and the women were 10th.

“Only one other team in the nation had the men’s and women’s team ranked in the top 10 at the end of the fall,” Patriot head coach King Campbell said.

Fair weather permitted the Patriot track squad to open the 2011 season at Grace High School on Feb. 11, after a week of poor weather conditions and the winter chill had forced them to take to the treadmills for several workouts.