Five Albany High School athletes will be competing in the regional tennis tournament next Wednesday, April 17 at Odessa College in Odessa.

By Donnie A. Lucas The seventh grade boys track teams captured the district championship last Saturday in Roscoe, with the eighth grade boys finishing in second. The two girls teams both took third place.

Local tracksters continued to improve times and distances last week at the local meet in preparation for the District 8-2A meet set for Thursday (today). Albany is hosting the district meet. Field events are slated to begin with running preliminaries at 8:30 a.m.

The Lion baseball team dropped the first district battle last Friday to Hawley, 3-2, waiting until the last at-bat to score. Albany hosted the Eula Pirates Tuesday, winning 15-2 to improve to 4-1 in District 8-2A.

The Lady Lions dropped two straight games last week, falling to 1-3 in district competition. The team hosts a rematch with Baird on Friday at 5:00 p.m. and will travel to Stamford next Tuesday, April 9, also with a 5:00 p.m. start. Albany hosted Eula on Tuesday, falling 18-6 to the Lady Pirates.

As of press time, several Albany High School tennis players were already guaranteed spots at the regional level after day one of the district tournament on Tuesday, April 2 at Rose Park in Abilene.

Local junior Alayna Koemel was the sole Albany High School golfer who competed in the second round of the district golf tournament Monday at Maxwell Municipal Golf Course, maintaining her status as the second place medalist and advancing to the regional tournament.

Dax Neece, a 2018 graduate of Albany High School and a current member of the Texas Tech Red Raider football team, is getting a chance to play spring ball for Tech. Neece played a couple of downs last fall during the Red Raider game against Lamar on Sept.

All four junior high track teams competed in the local junior high meet on March 25, with the eighth grade boys placing fourth with 68 points to lead the Albany contingent. The seventh grade boys placed fifth with 38 points, while the eighth grade Lady Cubs were sixth with 47 points.

The Moran High School tennis team participated in the district match on Monday, April 1 in Eastland.   “The boys doubles team of Kobee Lapp and Harley Schafer will advance to the regional meet,” said coach Jo Hise.