Ellis County Sports Your source for Ellis County Sports News
By Travis M. Smith | KBEC Sports
An offseason of history continued for the Life Waxahachie Lady Mustang track-and-field team Friday, as a second senior signed her National Letter of Intent.
Jayda Jones has officially inked her commitment to Fort Scott Community College in Fort Scott, Kansas.
In doing so, she became the second-ever Life Waxahachie student-athlete to sign an NLI during the fall early signing period and did so in front of coaches, teammates, friends and family inside the library at Life Waxahachie.
Jones joined teammate Kayla Jenkins (Texas Southern University) in the Life Waxahachie history books as one of two Mustangs to accept — and sign — an NLI for a full-ride scholarship during the early period.
Phillip Redrick, the head track-and-field coach at Fort Scott, tweeted that Jones is “one of the best runners (that) I have signed in my short career.”
And Jones is certainly one of the more versatile sprinters on the well-decorated Life Waxahachie girls’ track-and-field team.
The now-senior most recently ran on all three relays — 100-, 200- and 400-meter — for the Lady Mustangs at the 2019 4A state championships. Her time and capabilities ultimately helped the Lady Mustangs to a third-place finish, their highest-ever in a state championship meet.
Jones ran with Ashley Benton, Tonee Thompson and Dejah Fuller and finished in 3:55.34 in the 4×400-meter race, which was good enough for third place by more than four seconds. The Lady Mustangs were just off of the pace set by Texarkana Liberty-Eylau (3:54.09) and Canyon (3:55.23).
Jones also ran the anchor leg for the Lady Mustangs in the 4×100-meter relay race that finished fourth in a time of 47.82 behind Dallas Carter (46.57), Liberty-Eylau (46.65) and Kennedale (46.94).
And, in the 4×200-meter relay, Thompson, Benton, Williams and Jones placed fourth in a time of 1:41.10. They finished behind Liberty-Eylau, who won the race in a new state record time of 1:38.59. That time bested the previous state-low set by the Liberty-Eylau program of 1:39.00 in 2011.
Giddings ( 1:41.01) was second and Fort Worth Dunbar was third (1:41.06) in the 4×200-meter relay.
For Jones, those efforts in Austin came just a few weeks after she finished third in the 4A Region III championship in the 200-meter run.
As a sophomore, she set a school record in the 400-meter dash at the 4A state championship meet with a time of 57.94. Her time was just a few steps behind Fort Worth Benbrook’s Danika Washington (57.08), Anna’s Tamaya Tutson (57.59) and Robinson’s Jordan Anglin (57.85).
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Travis M. Smith, @Travis5mith
tsmith@kbec.com
