IT’S PRETTY CLEAR | Nelson, Hunter the Whataburger / ETBlitz Players of the Week!

Gladewater's Peyton Hunter, pictured here after winning the 100 meter dash at the regional meet at Whitehouse. Hunter won something bigger than that: she won two SILVER medals at the UIL State Track & Field Championships in Austin last week! Peyton and Kilgore's Braydon Nelson (pictured below, on the medal stand) are this week's Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week! (Above photo courtesy of GLADEWATER ATHLETICS FACEBOOK PAGE; photo below courtesy of T.J. GILLEN-HALL) — Gladewater’s Peyton Hunter, pictured here after winning the 100 meter dash at the regional meet at Whitehouse. Hunter won something bigger than that: she won two SILVER medals at the UIL State Track & Field Championships in Austin last week! Peyton and Kilgore’s Braydon Nelson (pictured below, on the medal stand) are this week’s Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week! (Above photo courtesy of GLADEWATER ATHLETICS FACEBOOK PAGE; photo below courtesy of T.J. GILLEN-HALL)

There’s no need to wonder who’s behind the mask this week.

There’s no question what’s behind curtain number one. And no detective needed.

When you medal in the fashion that Kilgore’s Braydon Nelson and Gladewater’s Peyton Hunter did at the state track meet, your qualifications don’t need to be checked at the door.

Both Nelson and Hunter were just two of hundreds of student athletes from the ETBlitz.com coverage area – let’s clarify that, first of all: Kilgore, Henderson, Sabine, Gladewater, White Oak, Tatum, West Rusk, Arp, Troup, Overton and Leverett’s Chapel – who had a grueling track and field season.

At the end of that season, for just a few, a very few, there’s Oz: the University Interscholastic League State Track & Field Championships, at Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin, every season, the first week of May. The way the UIL booked things, this year, all of the athletes from the ETBlitz area would be there on one day: Thursday.

The challenge for both Nelson and Hunter: compete in more than one event, similar to that of Troup’s Trae Davis (who had four!). Nelson was to compete in the Class 4A boys shot put that morning at 11 a.m., and then four hours later, in the discus at 3 p.m.

Hunter’s events, being sprints and relays, were all after 5 p.m., a huge challenge.

Nelson hit his very best, his best-ever, actually, early-on in the shot put, a throw of 56 feet, 4 ½ inches, beating his previous best by 2 ½ inches. And that stood for almost the duration of the contest.

Almost.

Unfortunately for Braydon, but fortunately for Stephenville’s Creece Brister, Brister summoned up his best throw for one of his last, a throw of 57 feet, 3 ¾ inches. None of his others would’ve beaten Nelson’s – Nelson’s best was better than Brister by at least a half-foot, until Brister hit the big one, what would be the gold medal throw.

So Nelson finished second, and got to stride to the podium for a silver medal, second-best in the state, still an unbelievable and outstanding, just a phenomenal achievement.

But Nelson had time to sit, and to rest. And to wait.

And to get determined.

Three o’clock came and Nelson warmed up with all of the other competitors for the 4A discus. Nelson took his turn and Brister, too, was in the field. Brister, though, would not be a factor in this event.

Gilmer’s Lucas Cano sure would be.

Nelson – whose personal best in the discus is 192 feet – threw 178 feet, 6 inches on one of his early throws. Cano got by him, a throw of just over 182 feet.

Nelson scratched a couple of times. You only get six throws, total.

He scratched with his fifth, meaning he’d only have one left.

Right before Nelson’s last throw, McCager Smith of Athens hit a big one, just over 180 feet. That knocked Nelson down to third, still in medal position, but now not for silver, but bronze.

Nelson, a senior, a football signee headed to North Texas, went to the circle knowing he had one last throw, one last chance, to hit his best throw.

One chance to hit the throw he would remember, one way or another, for the rest of his life.

And he did it.

Nelson did it! A throw of 188 feet, 1 inch, putting him in front of Cano’s throw by almost six inches!

Cano still would have one last opportunity. And he was ruled to have scratched.

Nelson brought home the gold medal, then, in discus, and the silver in shot put.

And for his performance last Thursday in the UIL State Track & Field Championships, Braydon Nelson is our Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Boys Player of The Week for April 29-May 4.

While Nelson had to walk up to the circle and actually compete on his own, he still had a team: coaches T.J. Gillen-Hall, D.Q. Scott (who won a silver medal at shot when HE was a senior at Kilgore in 2014), and Josh Lyons.

And Gladewater’s Peyton Hunter had that, too.

Peyton had her girls – Gladewater’s girls track team was so successful all season, carrying that throughout the year, not only through the regular season but through district, area and the regional meet.

And state!

Hunter and Jerrica Gilmore, Paytin Thompson, Hadassah Balcorta, Kyla Lincoln and all the Bears make quite a team. And they took that team, in the form of a couple of relays (the girls 400 meter in Class 3A, and the girls 800 meter relay) and that show to Austin.

Hunter also lined up to run the girls 300 meter dash.

And “all” they did was medal.”

Hunter medaled, silver in both!

The 400 meter relay took silver in 47.48 seconds – Gilmore, Thompson, Lincoln and Hunter, with only the team from Goliad (46.89) finishing faster.

Hunter had to go wait, but her wait was NOTHING like Nelson’s. She was called back into action quickly – that’s the way it is with the running events – and had to answer the bell QUICKLY, and did so, getting in her blocks for the 3A girls 100 meter dash.

Hunter was off and so were Universal City Randolph’s Taylor Nunez and Starrmia Dixon of New Diana, and all of the girls in the event. Hunter, who had dueled with Dixon on and off all season, would get the better of her this time, only edged out at the finish line – barely – by Nunez, who won the 100 in 11.46 seconds. Hunter crossed the stripe ion 11.91 seconds, good for silver, with Dixon in 11.93 the third medalist.

For her performance at the UIL State Track & Field Championships, Peyton Hunter is the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Girls Player of The Week for the week of April 29-May 4.

Two deserving honorees, don’t you think?

We’re working to the end of this school year’s player of the week honorees. But Whataburger is always there!

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For a look back at any of our previous Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Players of the Week, here’s our list:

By the way, all of his success makes Braydon Nelson a FOUR-TIME Whataburger / ETBlitz Player of the Week! That one may stand for quite a while. Congratulations to Braydon for his most recent one, for all four of them, and most of all, for his state medals, and congratulations to Peyton Hunter for her two state medals, and to her Gladewater relay teammates for theirs, as well.

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