Sports

The track and field season is nearing its end for many individuals, but this week the Steers and Lady Blues participated in the District 6-4A meet at Mineral Wells, where many athletes put themselves up against other top competition.

The meet was held over two days — Monday, April 1 and Thursday, April 4 — with events getting divided up to accommodate the large number of competitors. This article contains the results from Monday, which included about half the field events and the running preliminaries.

A few days after making program history with their first bi-district playoff win, the Graham Lady Blues took on San Elizario, one of the top-ranked teams in the state, and saw their season come to a close with a hard-fought 2-1 loss in the area round of the playoffs.

After Graham defeated Borger to earn the team’s first playoff win ever, the Lady Blues traveled to Midland for a neutral site game with the Lady Eagles, who came into the matchup ranked No. 2 in Class 4A in the Texas Girls Coaches Association poll.

In their final regular season meet before the district meet at Mineral Wells, the Steers and Lady Blues track teams headed to Stephenville to compete in the Col Mobley Optimist Relays.

The day was full of sports for multiple Graham teams, as girls soccer, baseball and softball all had games later in the day, so some athletes were missing. But all those who competed put on excellent performances and represented the school well Thursday, March 28.

The Graham Lady Blues have shown all season long that they can win games in different ways. Their offense has demonstrated an ability to explode for wins of 10-plus runs, but they’ve also won a fair share of low-scoring games, as well.

When the team traveled Thursday, March 28 to Glen Rose for another district matchup, the Lady Blues came home with a low-scoring 2-0 win in a game dominated by pitching on both sides.

Every game the Steers have had with Stephenville this season has involved a heavy dose of quality pitching. Last Thursday’s game was no different, but Graham came out on the losing side of a 4-3 final score to the Yellow Jackets.

The two teams battled each other the entire game as the outcome wasn’t decided until the final inning. Each team scored three runs through the first six innings and it wasn’t until Stephenville’s turn in the top of the seventh inning that the visitors scored the go-ahead run to take the win.

Spring is a busy time for Graham sports with multiple seasons overlapping as they close in on the end of the school year.

Baseball and softball are in the thick of their district schedules while other sports are either in the postseason or wrapping up their seasons with final competitions. This past week, Olga Morales of the Lady Blues softball team and Jagger Nees of the Steers golf team earned selections as Athletes of the Week for their respective performances.

Olga Morales, shortstop, Lady Blues softball

With the long season coming to a close, the Steers golf team finished fourth place at the district competition and freshman Jagger Nees advanced to the regional tournament with a third place overall finish.

Over two days of tough golf at the Diamondback National Golf Club in Abilene, the Steers played some of their better golf of the season, particularly on the second day when they had the second best team score.

The Stephenville Yellow Jackets have been one of the top baseball teams in Class 4A all season long. The Graham Steers got their second chance at taking on the Yellow Jackets and came home with a masterful 1-0 win this week.

Just a couple days removed from a heartbreaking loss in their district opener at Stephenville, the Lady Blues softball team bounced back with a huge 12-0 win over Brownwood this past Monday, March 25.

Due to the run rule, the game ended after five innings since the Lady Blues were up by more than 10 runs over the Lady Lions. Graham’s explosive offense primarily came in the third inning where the team scored 10 of their 12 runs to put the game out of reach.

Chances to make history don’t come around often. For the Graham Lady Blues soccer team, a program in its seventh year of existence, that opportunity came Monday in Wichita Falls in a bi-district playoff game against the Borger Lady Bulldogs.

After a wild, windy afternoon of soccer, which included two overtime periods and a penalty kick shootout, the Lady Blues claimed their first playoff win in program history with a 4-3 PK victory over the Lady Bulldogs.