The Fort Stockton 1,600-meter relay team is the fastest 4A team in the land. The Panthers team of Aryan Hernandez, Marco Garcia, Jesus Hernandez, Zane Hodges won the event in a time of 3:17.19 outpacing Aubrey by four tenths of a second.

During the race, Aryan Hernandez started out in Lane four and was in a dead heat with runners from Dumas and Celina after the first 400 meters. Garcia took over the second leg and led the entire leg with Celina on his tail, but the Bobcats overtook Jesus Hernandez in the first 100 meters of the third leg. Zane Hodges took over on the final leg, with Celina in the lead and Aubrey making a strong move in third place. Hodges grabbed the lead from the start and maintained it for the entire 400 meters to capture the state championship as Celina faded to fourth and Aubrey took second.

The win, combined with a second-place finish by Hodges in the 300-meter hurdles and third place finish in the 110-meter hurdles earned Fort Stockton a third place tie overall in the team standings and was the highest-placed team out of Region 1.

Fort Stockton broke school records in all three events.

“These young men have competed at a high level all year long,” said coach Vic Ivy. “Their hard work during the season paid off for them.”

Hodges, the regional champion in both the 110 and 300 hurdles, placed third in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.05 seconds, 0.15 of a second behind second place Matthew Tyeskie of Kilgore. Jarvis Anderson of Taylor was the state champion with a time of 13.64 seconds.

Hodges was second in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 37.40 seconds, about one-anda- half seconds behind state champion Anderson. Angel Munoz of El Paso Riverside was about a half-second behind Hodges for third place.

“Zane and Jesus completed great 4-year track career for the Panthers,” Ivy added. “The team and coaches would like to thank all of those who supported us during this season, for without it, we would not have been able to accomplish what we have done this season.”