Sports

The Lady Bulldog basketball teams landed on the shoreline of a new season last Friday and “burned the boats”, meaning there is no turning back.

Members of Hamilton’s Class of 2021 gather following the annual traditional senior walk covering the length of the field accompanied by Kenny Chesney’s “The Boys of Fall” following Hamilton’s final home football game last Friday night. The seniors are pictured holding a flag in honor of classmate Blain Bankston. Staff photo

Lady Bulldog cheerleaders joined numerous Hamilton fans in traveling to Whitney last Thursday to support the bidistrict qualifying Lady Bulldog volleyball team. Pictured (l-r) on the front row, Kassidy Collett, Campbell Lengefeld and Grace Killian. On the back row, Skylar Carr aka Sparky, Cortland Mehaffey, Kady Weatherford and Chloe Dolloff. Staff photo

Hamilton Bulldog basketball fans will have the opportunity to purchase tickets for the 2020-21 basketball season beginning Monday, Nov. 2.

REGION BOUND: Voted by his peers as the state cross country coach of the year multiple times, Hamilton cross country coach Brandun Massingill has led both the state-ranked Bulldog and Lady Bulldog cross country teams to the Region II cross country championships to be hosted by the University of Texas in Arlington at the Jesse Owens Memorial Complex located at 9191 South Polk Street in Dallas next Tuesday, Nov. 10. The Lady Bulldogs will begin their quest for the state championships at 11:30 am next Tuesday, followed by the Bulldog regional run at noon in Dallas. According to the Cross Country Coaches’ Association of Texas, Hamilton’s Lady Bulldogs are the top-ranked team heading into the Region II championships. The Lady Dogs are ranked fourth in the state, and in addition to being joined in Dallas by District 12 runner-up Meridian, the Lady Bulldogs will also be accompanied by sixth-ranked Stamford and seventh-ranked Lipan. The top three teams from the state’s four regions will advance to the state championships to be held in Round Rock on Tuesday, November 24. Region I’s Gruver, who had previously been ranked first in the state, fell to fifth in the latest poll behind Hamilton. Gruver was leapfrogged by now first-ranked Sundown, also from Region I. Region I is perhaps the most competitive region in all of Texas. In addition to first-ranked Sundown and fifth-ranked Gruver, the region also includes ninth-ranked Roscoe and tenth-ranked Wellington. In Region 4, Mason pulled off a major 2A-District 29 upset over San Saba in the District 29 championships held in San Saba on October 19 to move up to a second in state ranking ahead of third-ranked San Saba. Mason and San Saba are joined by eighth-ranked Shiner from Region 4 in the top 10 rankings. Currently, no teams out of Region 3 are ranked in the top 10 on the girls’ side. Hamilton’s now fifth-ranked Bulldogs will face possibly the most competitive 2A region in Texas next Tuesday in Dallas. With just three teams from the region advancing, Hamilton’s fifth in state-ranked Bulldogs will race against third-ranked Poolville, fourth-ranked Seymour, tenth-ranked McLeod and District 12 runners-up Valley Mills. Other teams ranked in the top 10 include Region 4’s first-ranked Port Aransas and seventh-ranked Harper. Region 3 includes a pair of top 10 teams, including second-ranked New Summerfield and sixth-ranked Tenaha. Eighth-ranked Sundown and ninth-ranked New Home are both from Region I. Other than Hamilton, Sundown is the only other 2A school in Texas to have both their girls’ and boys’ cross country squads ranked in the top 10. Pictured (l-r) with their team district title trophy and listed with their individual district finishing positions, Lady Bulldogs Kaatje Jarrell (1st), Campbell Lengefeld (2nd), Madison Henkes (3rd), Mia Coker (4th), Grace Carson (6th), Grace Killian (15th) and Fernanda Olalde (17th). Bulldogs, pictured (l-r), following their district championship stomp include Caleb Lengefeld (1st), Dawson Melde (2nd) , Taylor Long (3rd), Caden Hopper (6th), Joseph Polster (7th), Ben Cooper (8th) and Landon Thompson (16th). Courtesy photos by Mary K. Gardner

TOUCHDOWN: Caleb Lengefeld hauled in a fingertip grab off the arm of Colby Bailey for a 53-yard touchdown to give the Bulldogs an early 7-0 advantage over the visiting Rio Vista Eagles last Friday night. Staff photo by Chad Collett

BI-DISTRICT QUALIFIERS: The Hamilton Lady Bulldogs played a bi-district playoff match versus Bruceville-Eddy in Whitney on Thursday of last week to cap a successful 15-11 season. With a winning 10-2 district record, the Lady Dogs finished behind only Tolar in District 11-2A to punch their playoff ticket. Bruceville-Eddy placed third behind district winner Crawford and runner-up Bosqueville in District 12-2A. Now 16-8 on the year, Bruceville-Eddy was scheduled to face the 24-3 Poolville Monarchs on Tuesday of this week in the area round of the playoffs. Poolville went 14-0 in district to claim a District 10-2A title. After dropping the first two sets by competitive scores of 20-25 and 22-25 last Thursday in Whitney, the Lady Bulldogs snapped back to take the third set 25-23. Bruceville-Eddy prevailed in the fourth 25-16 to bring the 2020 Lady Bulldog season to an end. It marked the final match for seven Hamilton seniors, including Trinity Craig, Sawyer Wright, Emiley Hale, Taylor Collett, Lexie Clark, Morgan Mehaffey and Macie Parrish. It too was the final time for junior setter Jaley Reich to don the red and black for the Lady Bulldogs. Reich will be joining her parents who recently made a move from Hamilton to Oregon. Pictured (l-r) following Hamilton’s bi-district match, front row-Fernanda Olalde, Lexie Clark, Lily Emeyabbi, Taylor Collett, Trinity Craig, Morgan Mehaffey, Averi Poe. Back row-Alissta Thedford, Emiley Hale, Sawyer Wright, Kelton Wright, Jaley Reich, Macie Parrish, Hadyn Heers and head coach Andrew Heers. Staff photo

With temperatures dipping into the forties accompanied by rain, the District 12-2A cross country championships on Monday at the Perry Country Club in Hamilton transformed into a real tough mudder. The wintry conditions failed to slow down Hamilton’s mudrunners as both the varsity boys and girls dominated the competition in claiming district titles.

Hamilton High School recognized nine seniors prior to their final regular season volleyball match versus Bluff Dale on Tuesday of last week in Hamilton. The Lady Bulldogs toppled district foe Bluff Dale in three decisive sets to nail down a 15-8 season record and a 10-2 district record. The Lady Dogs finished behind only Tolar in the final district standings. Hamilton will advance to the bi-district round of the playoffs as the District 11-2A runners-up and are set to play Bruceville-Eddy in a first round match to be held in Whitney on Thursday at 7 pm. The Lady Dogs dropped a practice match in three games to Thorndale last Friday and were scheduled to host Abbott on Tuesday of this week for their final warmup before Thursday evening’s playoff. Seniors pictured prior to Hamilton’s win over Bluff Dale include (l-r) Karsyn Smyth, Trinity Craig, Sawyer Wright, Emiley Hale, coach Andrew Heers, Taylor Collett, Lexie Clark, Morgan Mehaffey, Macie Parrish and Sydney Thedford. Staff photo

The Hamilton Bulldogs will play host to the Rio Vista Eagles Friday night at Kooken Field with playoff implications on the line. Following a much-needed bye week, the Bulldogs hope to return to the gridiron with all aboard. Hamilton’s roster had been riddled with injury and decimated by COVID-19 quarantines, leading to an unexpected 44-8 district loss in Tolar two weeks ago. “We should have most everyone back on Wednesday of this week,” said head Bulldog football coach Casey Jones. “That’ll at least give us two days to put in our game plan versus Rio Vista.”