Sports

After suffering their first loss of the season in their first game that went all four quarters against Jonesboro, the Newcastle Bobcats returned to their dominant form with a 63-0 win Friday, Sept. 22 over the Northside Indians.

The home team Indians went into the game with a perfect 4-0 record on the season but went up against one of the top 10 teams in Class 1A in the Bobcats. Newcastle dominated from start to finish to get back in the win column.

In Graham’s final tuneup before jumping into district play, the Lady Blues took care of business and kept up their winning ways with a 3-0 sweep of the Cooper Lady Cougars by scores of 25-13, 25-18 and 25-21.

The two teams came into the Tuesday, Sept. 19 match-up trending in completely opposite directions.

Graham had won its last three matches in a row, winning the most recent two without losing a set in either. Cooper, meanwhile, had lost four of its last five matches, with the only win coming by way of forfeit from the opposing team.

As most sports teams near the midway point of their seasons, while others are close to playoffs time, level of play increases and these student-athletes elevate with it. For the week of Thursday, Sept. 14 through Wednesday, Sept. 20, Georgia Martin of the Lady Blues volleyball team and Brayden Riggins of Steers football earned Athlete of the Week selections.

The Graham High School cross country teams competed this week in the Wyatt Dickerson Invitational in Alvord. Both teams had a strong showing at the meet held Wednesday, Sept. 20.

The Steers varsity team came in third place as a team in the 5K run out of 11 teams total, as they continue to make improvements throughout the season.

The Lady Blues varsity team finished seventh out of nine teams with an overall better score and solid grouping among their runners.

Jesus Lucio led the way for the Steers with a fourth place overall finish out of 91 boys runners.

As the regular season for Graham’s tennis team nears its end, the Steers and Lady Blues earned a big win Tuesday, Sept. 19 over the Bowie Jackrabbits. Graham took the overall decision by a score of 16-3 in a dominant victory for the team.

The varsity squad only has two matches remaining on the regular season schedule so every win counts and the team did so with relative ease Tuesday. Both the boys and girls had big wins in this road contest.

The Graham Junior High School girls’ cross country team placed 6th yesterday, with the boys’ team finishing 12th. The teams competed Wednesday, Sept. 20 in their third meet of the year at the Wyatt Dickerson Invitational in Alvord.

The teams will compete again next Wednesday, Sept. 27 at the Brock Invitational in Weatherford. The invitational begins at 4 p.m. with the 7th grade girls team.

It did not take long for the Graham Steers to take control of their matchup Friday, Sept. 15 with the Iowa Park Hawks. The Steers rode a powerful offense and a lockdown defense to a 67-6 win over the Hawks and moved to 4-0 on the season.

Coming off an emotional high after sweeping Abilene Christian on Tuesday, Sept. 12, the Graham Lady Blues kept things rolling with a sweep of Windthorst. The Lady Blues dominated all facets of the game Friday, Sept. 15 as they won 25-16, 25-17 and 26-24.

The Lady Blues have now won eight straight sets dating back to the final two sets of their win over North Central Texas Academy on Friday, Sept. 8.

The Graham Junior High School cross country teams competed Wednesday, Sept. 16 at the Lipan Indian Invitational in their second meet of the season.

The eighth grade boys led the way as they finished first as a team while the seventh grade boys took seventh and the seventh grade girls took sixth place in their respective races. The eighth grade girls didn’t have enough participants to qualify for the team scores.

Graham ISD recently released renderings of the baseball and softball field renovations that will be carried out this fall and winter.

Each field is being fitted with a specialized synthetic turf and should be ready by the time the Graham High School baseball and softball seasons start in the spring.