Sports

Drip Lacrosse wrapped up their regular season against Austin High on Thursday night at Chalmer’s Field. With the Austin skyline in the background and fans sitting in truck beds around the field, the Tigers jumped out to 2-0 lead on goals from Brett Williamson and Brendan Linan. The Maroons found the back of the net late in the 1st period to close the gap to 2-1. The 2nd quarter belonged to Austin High as they had 7 more goals while limiting the Tigers to only 4 shots on goal. Williamson picked up his 2nd and 3rd goal of the game and the Tigers trailed 8-4 at the half.

Dripping Springs High School tennis players Whitney Robbins and Lexian Andrushko have qualified for the University Interscholastic League State Tournament.

Last Saturday the Lady Tigers scheduled a couple of games with two good teams to better sharpen the team for the coming playoffs. This doubleheader was played at the Lady Tigers field. The two teams were Boerne and Georgetown, two teams heading for the playoffs as well. DS would lose both as Boerne came back to win 6-4 and Georgetown started fast to win 10-6. We will probably see the Lady Eagles in the playoffs. Boerne is Class 4A. A Monday district game with Veterans Memorial produced an 8-3 win. The game was played on Monday to free up athletes for the district track meet on Tuesday.

Weather has presented uncomfortable playing conditions for most of the spring sports. For the District track meet held at New Braunfels Canyon, it was mostly windy days although other threatening weather did not materialize. As expected Boerne Champion could not be brought down while DS was doing their best to hang in there and give them a race. As has been the case for years, a weak showing in the field events just puts the Tigers too far behind to overcome the total points. BC won both varsity divisions and the JVG division while the Tigers trailed for second place and the Lady Tigers were fourth. Both Lady Tigers 1600 runners broke the previous school record and Brant Melton sparked the boys with gold efforts in the 800, 1600 and 3200 races and the 800 relay took the other gold with a near school record.

It has been a great year for the two Dripping Springs soccer teams and the end looked bright. However, in the end, the soccer teams ended up reversing last year's positions. Last year the Tigers were stopped 1-0 by Brownsville Porter and the Lady Tigers went on to win the state title. This year the Tigers (25- 3) were able to defeat Sharyland 2-0 and then got their revenge with a 2-0 blanking of Porter to send them to state for the first time since 2010. The big game for the Tigers was the Rouse quarterfinal game in which pen alty kicks advanced the Tigers after the 1-1 score.

The Tigers baseball team is having a hard time getting a win streak together in a district that has many evenly matched teams. This race should go down to the wire. The Tigers edged Kerrville Tivy 1-0 but have not been able to figure out the Hays Johnson pitcher as he took his second victory over the Tigers 6-2.

Saturday night the Dripping Springs Boys Lacrosse team took on Washington Skyline. Pregame festivities included introduction of the seniors and their parents. 3 seniors will continue their lacrosse at the next level and many listed this year’s victory over Lake Travis as a favorite lacrosse memory. This senior group would lead the way for Drip on the night.

Dripping Springs softball is at the top of the heap and trying to remain there as they finish the final four games in district play. Their last two games were a 3-2 win over Boerne Champion and an easy 11-0 whitewash of Alamo Heights.

The Dripping Springs golf teams participated in the District 26-5A golf tournament held at the Vaaler's golf course near Blanco. In golf, it is a brutal battle to be able to advance to the regional tourney. Only two teams get to qualify for that honor. For the second year in a row, the DS Tigers found themselves just on the outside looking in as the third place finisher. In addition to the top two teams, the top two golfers not on those teams also advance to regional. Tanner Wardlaw was the No. 2 overall medalist and therefore is the lone Tiger to advance and certainly has a good chance to play well enough to make it to state. On a historical side note, Tanner's grandfather, Olen Wardlaw, played on the first Tiger golf team in 1966 along with Poe Shelton, Greg Phillips, Bill Crisp and Gary Garnett. Their effort netted the first district championship team in golf. The Lady Tigers struggled mightily at the district tourney.

In the final pre-district meet of the track season, the two DS JV squads participated in the Unicorn Relays. The girls placed second and boys fourth. Here are those results.

The Lady Tigers faced three district opponents and after the results had held their own and took a one-game lead over Canyon. A 2-1 loss to Kerrville Tivy seemed to put DS behind the eight ball. It was their second loss. They took care of business by downing Hays Johnson 9-4. Now they would face Canyon, who also had two losses. This meant the winner would take the lead. Canyon started fast but faltered as the Lady Tigers took the win 8-3.

The track season seems to have only begun and yet it already is in its final stages. The four DS track teams participated in the final invitational track meet before starting on the meaningful cycle leading to the state meet in May. They competed with five other schools in the New Braunfels Unicorn Relays. The Tigers varsity won the meet in a close battle with three other schools. The Lady Tigers had a good battle for second before finishing third. Both 400 relay teams set new school records. The JV results will be in the next issue. The district meet will be held at New Braunfels Canyon on April 12,13.