Nicole Humphries (L) and San Juanita Lean (R) win the 2024 UIL 6A girls 800m and 1,600m races
UIL Track and Field State Championships
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UIL 6A Girls 800m
Shadow Creek's Tiffany Mugubi made sure that the UIL 6A Girls 800m was not going to be a sit-and-kick race by taking out the first 200m in 28 seconds. Mugubi's pace pulled along the rest of the pack and by the end of the first lap Flower Mound's Nicole Humphries over the lead with a 1:02.47 lap.
Humphries continued the hard charge she began at the end of the first lap into the second lap and only Austin Anderson's Faith Murphy was able to go with her. Humphries nearly ran an identical second lap and won in a time of 2:06.24 which breaks the 6A State meet record and is only 3-hundredths of a second off the overall meet record.
Murphy stayed with Humphries and ran the second fastest final lap to grab the silver medal in 2:07.14. Edinburg North's San Juanita Leal won the 3200m earlier in the day but got caught in traffic early in the race and was still in eighth place halfway through. She worked her way up and eventually slid into third place with a great time of 2:08.88.
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UIL 6A Girls 1600m
San Juanita Leal of Edinburg North backed up her 2023 1600m UIL 6A State title by running away from the field this year and winning in a time of 4:42.30.
The victory capped off an impressive day for Leal as she won the 3200m and took third in the 800m earlier in the meet. In the 800m, she got stuck in the pack early in the race which prevented her from going after a title in that race but she did not allow that to happen in the 1600m.
Denton Braswell's Macy Wingard held the early lead through about 600m before Leal took the lead for good. Leal's Region IV foe, Emma Wade of Cedar Park Vista Ridge, one of the few in UIL 6A to qualify for the state cross country meet as well as the state track meet in every high school season was the only runner to go with Leal on the third lap when she posted a 71-second lap.
At the bell, Leal took off and left everyone behind as she closed in 1:07.43 while Wade held on for the silver medal with a time of 4:50.13. Wingard was able to hold off Klein Cain's Felicity Hamilton for the bronze medal.
