By David Wolman
Two days after winning the Garland ISD Volleyball Tournament for the third time in the last four years, Plano East earned the No. 6 ranking in the Texas Girls Coaches Association Class 6A state poll, which was released on Monday morning.
Katy Tompkins is the top-ranked team in Class 6A, Austin Westlake checks in at No. 2, Aledo at No. 3, defending Class 6A Division I state champion Byron Nelson at No. 4, Cy Ranch at No. 5, followed by Plano East at No. 6.
Plano East comes into this week with a 9-0 record.
After defeating Woodrow Wilson in four sets during their Aug. 11 season opener, the Lady Panthers won all eight matches in Garland, capped off with a 2-1 win (25-14, 23-25, 28-26) over Class 5A’s No. 15 Frisco Memorial in the championship game.
Plano East plays at former district rival Prosper Rock Hill tonight and will return to action Friday and Saturday at the Allen Texas Open. The Lady Panthers will commence pool play against Frisco Heritage at 10:15 a.m. Friday, followed by matches against Sachse (12:45 p.m.) and Cornerstone Christian (3:15 p.m.).
]]>By David Wolman
PLANO – Plano East and Sachse’s cross country teams have high expectations for this season, and Saturday’s season opener at Hoblitzelle Park shows there is the potential for both squads to be contenders in their respective districts and regions.
The Plano East Lady Panthers, fresh off winning their first district title since 2017, had a strong showing with a third-place finish in the girls’ division with 81 points at the Plano ISD Invitational.
Senior Meena Mulford showed that she is ready to lead the Lady Panthers to big things this year, capturing third place with a time of 12:01.
Senior Brooke Tierney further highlighted Plano East’s depth within its upper classes, taking 16th with a 13:27. Junior Louisa Christensen placed 20th in 13:29 and senior Katy Salyer was just feet behind Christensen and went on to earn 21st place in 13:29. Junior Reagan Diggs placed 27th in 13:45 and junior Sophia Nguyen rounded out the Lady Panthers’ efforts with a 35th-place finish with a time of 14:05.
Plano East’s boys captured second place in the boys’ division (66 points) was fueled by a fifth-place finish by senior Isaac Updike (10:27). Senior Deyan Bhakta finished in 11th with a 10:42. Sophomore Levi Rowe, a returning regional qualifier, placed 13th in 10:47. Sophomore Grant Updike ran to 18th place in 11:05 and senior Michael Sharp was 19th in 11:08. Sophomore Aiden Allen finished just outside the top 20, placing 21st in 11:15. Trinabh Madadi, a junior, placed 26th in 11:26 and sophomore Joshua Cruz was 30th in 11:30.
Stay informed and support your local community newspaper — subscribe to Murphy Monitor.
By David Wolman
Plano East head football coach Tony Benedetto and his coaching staff used all of the spring and summer to acclimate themselves to walking to the practice field.
With ongoing renovations to the baseball and softball fields as well as the construction of a new athletics center that will allow the Plano East basketball and volleyball teams to play freshman, junior varsity and varsity games in different gyms, players and coaches had to walk around the fences that have been built up around the construction area on Monday morning for the first day of fall practice.
The construction has forced the coaching staff for the Plano East football team to temporarily move their office to the former locker room of the softball and volleyball teams.
The athletic center was scheduled to be completed in July but is delayed and a completion date is still to be determined.
Construction and all, Plano East is just happy to be back playing on its practice field. Last year, the Panthers held their practices at Tom Kimbrough Stadium, located 3.4 miles, or a 10-minute drive, from the high school campus.
“It’s nice, especially for juniors and seniors to go here and not have to bus and drive to practice,” Benedetto said.
After several players warmed up at 7 a.m., the team’s remaining players and coaches arrived at the field 20 minutes later to officially commence the fall 2026 season.
Players lined up in the south end zone, yelled out chants of “oh” and clapped twice before spreading out across the length of the field for stretching.
The players were then split into their position groups.
Linemen worked on one-on-one blocking drills and calling out blocking assignments. Wide receivers competed in one-on-one drills against defensive backs and catching passes from the quarterbacks. Both the wide receivers and running backs also attempted to hold onto the ball for 20 yards while two defenders attempted to rip the ball out of their hands.
Benedetto is eager to see how Plano East’s offensive line grows over the next three weeks, a unit that doesn’t return any starters. The Panthers lost one player to transfer to a Houston-area school, and another isn’t returning to the team. Benedetto said there is a likelihood of starting one senior, three juniors and one sophomore along Plano East’s offensive line.
“The spring was a huge learning curve for the guys, with all of them having only played lower-level football,” Benedetto said. “Offensive line coach Kyle Sanders had them here every single day after workouts. They are moving with more energy and confidence today.”
Senior quarterback Josh Gordon looked like a No. 1 quarterback after spring ball and all of his passes Monday had a lot of zip and accuracy.
Sophomore running back Treyce Seldon, who recorded 1,231 all-purpose yards and 10 total touchdowns as a freshman, is looking more confident and has added 15 pounds of muscle.
Plano East’s wide receivers have been very competitive in practice. Juniors Colt Shannon and Tyson Seldon are tall-bodied receivers, which is something the Panthers haven’t had in recent years.
Shannon and Seldon should make Plano East’s offense more explosive than last year, a season in which the Panthers finished 2-8 after back-to-back six-win seasons.
Plano East will host Highland Park at 7 p.m. Aug. 20 for a scrimmage. The format will be 10 plays on offense for each team.
“Highland Park is a great scrimmage because it exposes the details kids may overlook,” Benedetto said. “You may find things like not being in the right gap or eyes not in the right place. That humbles us and gets us ready for week one.”
Stay informed and support your local community newspaper — subscribe to Murphy Monitor.
By David Wolman
Plano East remained one of the premier athletic programs in Plano ISD during the 2025-26 school year.
The Murphy Monitor is proud to introduce the third installment of a three-part series celebrating the best teams, athletes, moments and performances from this past school year. The categories and winners for the second annual C&S Media High School Sports Awards were chosen by sports editor David Wolman, with winners being published over three weeks.
Part 1 (July 16) included the Biggest Story, Breakthrough Moment, Newcomer of the Year and Best Team
Part 2 (July 23) highlighted the Best Game, Best Finish, Biggest Upset and Multi-Sport Athlete of the Year.
Part 3 (July 30) wraps up the series with Coach of the Year, Most Improved Athlete, Best Male Athlete and Best Female Athlete.
These are the winners of the third installment of the series.
Co-Coach of the Year: Cristy Cooley, girls’ soccer, and Robert Reed, cross country
Cooley and Reed have enjoyed plenty of success during their time at Plano East and this past school year proved to one of their best collectively.
Reed coached the Lady Panthers to their first district title in cross country since 2017, while Cooley helped guide Plano East to its first appearance in the third round of the playoffs in girls’ soccer since 2008.
One year after Plano East ended a long playoff drought that dated back more than a decade, Cooley watched her Lady Panthers conjure their first extended postseason under her watch. Plano East shut out Hebron 1-0 in bi-district, cruised to a 7-1 win over Arlington Martin at Kimbrough Stadium in the area round. In the Region I-6A Division I semifinals, Plano East saw a late rally come up just short in a 3-2 loss to eventual Class 6A Division I state runner-up Keller.
As for Reed, he oversaw a much-improved cross country team. The Lady Panthers improved from sixth place in District 6-6A in 2024 to first place in 2025. Plano East and Prosper tied for first in the final team standings, but the Lady Panthers won the tiebreaker. Plano East also qualified one boy runner, Levi Rowe, for regionals after he captured sixth overall in 16:11.
Reed also coached a state qualifier in track and field, Caitlyn Tran.
Co-Most Improved Athlete: Caitlyn Tran and Malachi Terry, track and field
In a program that has numerous state qualifiers and champions over the years, Tran and Terry became the latest Panthers to qualify for state.
Tran’s journey to Austin was of the record-breaking variety.
The SMU signee became the first Lady Panther to ever finish the girls’ 100-meter hurdles in less than 14 seconds, and she broke the school record three times this year.
For as well as Tran was running, getting through to state wasn’t any easy task, especially with the top three hurdlers in Region I-6A residing in the same district. Tran persevered, capturing second place at regionals with a time of 13.94 seconds. At state, she placed fifth in 13.9 seconds.
Terry, a New Jersey Institute of Technology signee, also left his mark, twice breaking the school record in the boys’ 200-meter dash.
He was focused once the postseason began and rode that momentum to a state berth. During the regional meet, he earned an automatic state qualification after he captured second place in a time of 21.06. At state, he took eighth with a 21.05.
Best Male Athlete: Bilal Habib, wrestling
Getting to the point of becoming a regional champion required Habib, an incoming senior, to overcome previous heartbreak.
Habib came up one win short of qualifying for the state tournament in each of the two previous seasons. Despite falling just short during his freshman season, he was encouraged by how far he advanced. After losing again in the consolation semifinals as a sophomore, Habib was frustrated but determined to work harder.
That heartbreak was turned into joy this year.
Habib went 4-0 to capture first place at 106 pounds at the Region II-6A meet and earned a spot on the medal stand at the state meet at the Berry Center in Cypress after capturing fifth overall.
Best Female Athlete: Arianna Robinson, girls’ basketball
Whether it was competing for Plano East or representing the United States U17 women’s basketball team internationally, Robinson continues to show she is one of the nation’s top high school prospects in the Class of 2028.
Earlier this month, Robinson helped lead the Americans to gold in the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) U17 World Cup in Brno, Czechia. She scored 14 points in an 82-73 victory over Spain in the championship game. It was the second straight year she helped Team USA win a FIBA tournament, having placed first in the 16U World Cup in 2025.
Robinson’s championship pedigree was noticed on the high school level.
This past winter, Robinson, a 4-star prospect who holds more than 20 college offers, helped lead Plano East to an undefeated district championship.
Named the MVP of District 6-6A, Robinson averaged 26.4 points per game, became the school’s all-time leading scorer and set Plano East’s single-game scoring record with 40 points in a 67-53 road win at McKinney on Jan. 6.
Stay informed and support local journalism — subscribe to Murphy Monitor.
By David Wolman
Plano East remained one of the premier athletic programs in Plano ISD during the 2025-26 school year.
The Murphy Monitor is proud to introduce the second installment of a three-part series celebrating the best teams, athletes, moments and performances from this past school year. The categories and winners for the second annual C&S Media High School Sports Awards were chosen by sports editor David Wolman, with winners being published over three weeks.
Part 1 (July 16) included the Biggest Story, Breakthrough Moment, Newcomer of the Year and Best Team
Part 2 (July 23) will highlight the Best Game, Best Finish, Biggest Upset and Multi-Sport Athlete of the Year.
Part 3 (July 30) will wrap up the series with Coach of the Year, Most Improved Athlete, Best Male Athlete and Best Female Athlete.
These are the winners of the second installment of the series.
Best Game: Plano East volleyball team defeats Lake Highlands in five sets
Beginning this fall, Plano East and Lake Highlands will compete as rivals in District 7-6A.
If their previous match was a sign of things to come, the rivalry could produce many more memorable matches.
Last fall, during a Class 6A Division I area-round match, Plano East trailed Lake Highlands by eight points in the fourth set, but Simone Heard said there was still plenty of belief amongst the Lady Panthers. That same belief was noticeable when Plano East trailed by two points on three different occasions in the fifth set.
All that belief and discipline paid off, as Heard provided the finishing touches on a thrilling 3-2 win (24-26, 25-13, 25-22, 23-25, 15-12) over Lake Highlands at Sachse High School.
Plano East struggled to defend Lake Highlands’ taller hitters at times, but the Lady Panthers put everything together midway through the fifth set. Trailing 5-3, Plano East finished on a 12-7 run, with a Marisabelle Sias dig near the net helped swing the momentum in her team’s favor.
Best finish: Dennis’ late goal clinches playoff berth for Panthers boys’ soccer team
First came a Gatorade bath for first-year Plano East head boys soccer coach Justin Bailey.
Then came the words that the Panthers had been waiting to hear since 2018.
“We’re going to the playoffs,” he said.
Plano East’s players erupted in celebration after earning a 2-1 playoff-clinching win over Plano at Clark Stadium on March 6.
After a one-hour delay for lightning in the area stopped the game with 12:12 remaining in the second half, Plano East faced its tensest moment of the night.
When play resumed, the score was tied 1-1. Plano East needed just nine seconds to score. A throw-in by alum Jordy Rocha was headed back into the field of play by a Panthers forward. Alum midfielder Myles Dennis ran aggressively toward the ball in the middle of the field and placed a header into the back of the net for a 2-1 lead.
Biggest upset: Defense paces Plano East boys’ basketball team to win over No. 6 Plano
Plano East earned a lot of significant wins during Matt Wester’s eight seasons as head coach.
Although the Panthers’ 47-37 win over Plano on Dec. 6 didn’t match the magnitude of Plano East’s 2024 Class 6A state championship victory over Stony Point, any win over a crosstown rival is significant. It was especially meaningful because the Wildcats entered ranked No. 6 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Class 6A poll.
Defense helped Plano East to defeat Plano and earn first place in the 13th Annual Craig Bowers Memorial Tournament in Royse City.
After the Wildcats jumped out to an 11-10 first-quarter lead, the Panthers outscored Plano 37-26 over the game’s final three quarters while limiting the Wildcats to 15 points over the second half and 27.3 percent shooting for the entire game.
Moustafa Abualneel, who was named to the all-tournament team, led the way offensively, finishing with 13 points in 14 minutes.
Multi-Sport Athlete of the Year: Simone Heard, girls’ soccer/track and field/volleyball
Even though soccer wasn’t Heard’s primary sport, coaches not only recognized her athletic ability, but also asked her if she can play for them.
Such was the case this spring when Plano East head girls soccer coach Cristy Cooley asked Heard to join the team and play goalkeeper for the first time in several years.
Heard didn’t miss a beat as she made timely saves during the Lady Panthers’ run to their first regional semifinal since 2018.
Of course, her primary sport is volleyball. Her senior season was her best. Named the District 6-6A MVP for the second consecutive season, Heard, an outside hitter and a Georgia Tech signee, provided an offensive spark for a Plano East team that finished the 2025 season in the Region I-6A Division I Final. She finished with 679 kills, 47 blocks, 436 digs and 40 service aces.
Heard was a standout track and field athlete, helping lead Plano East’s girls 4×100 relay to first place in the district and an appearance in the Region I-6A meet final.
Stay informed, and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to The Murphy Monitor
By David Wolman
For the second straight summer, Plano East incoming junior guard Arianna Robinson represented the United States in a FIBA (International Basketball Federation) tournament.
Robinson scored 14 points and the United States’ 17U National Team finished Sunday’s game on an 11-0 run over the final 4:34 to rally for an 82-73 victory over Spain and secure the gold medal in Brno, Czechia.
The title marked the Americans’ seventh championship in the tournament’s eight editions. Last year, Robinson helped the 2025 USA Women’s U16 National Team win gold at the 2025 FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup in Irapuato, Mexico.
The United States finished this year’s tournament with a 7-0 record. The Americans went a perfect 3-0 in Group A, earning victories over Ivory Coast (117-24), Australia (74-72) and Latvia (105-53). In bracket play, the U.S. dominated Mexico (112-36) in the Round of 16, topped Slovakia (77-57) in the quarterfinals, cruised past Canada (86-60) in the semifinals before completing a perfect tournament with a late-game rally over Spain in the championship game.
Robinson came up with several crucial plays for the United States during their late fourth-quarter run.
She converted two free throws with 2:06 left to give the Americans a 76-73 lead. After a Spain turnover led to a basket by Nation Williams, Robinson made a driving layup for a commanding 80-73 lead with just 46 seconds remaining. A steal by Micah Ojo set up Robinson’s layup.
The Plano East star averaged 10.1 points, 2.1 steals, 2.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game over the seven games in Czechia.
Robinson is coming off a standout sophomore season in which she helped lead the Lady Panthers to an undefeated district championship, became the school’s all-time leading scorer and set Plano East’s single-game scoring record with 40 points in a 67-53 road win at McKinney on Jan. 6.
Her 26.4 points per game ranked among the highest averages in Texas. She was named the District 6-6A MVP.
Stay informed, and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to The Murphy Monitor
By David Wolman
Former Plano East head football coach and athletic director Johnny Ringo is one of seven coaches who will be inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor Saturday. The event will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
“It’s a reflection of the opportunity to work with great coaches and coach so many great young men over the years,” he said. “It’s quite an honor and very humbling.”
Ringo built a distinguished career as a Texas high school football coach and athletic administrator whose career includes head coaching stops at Uvalde, Irving MacArthur, Coppell and Plano East. He garnered District Coach of the Year honors and was The Dallas Morning News Coach of the Year.
Plano East marked the final leg in Ringo’s legendary 29-year coaching career. He moved on to Highland Park Independent School District and served as athletics director from 2013 until his retirement in June 2022.
Most of Ringo’s coaching stops involved a rebuild, but not at Plano East. Ringo inherited a program in 2004 that had consistently made the playoffs under Scott Phillips and John Crawford. Phillips won 26 of his last 28 district games at Plano East before leaving for the same job at Odessa High in 2002.
Ringo led Plano East to more success in his nine seasons. The Panthers made the playoffs five times during his nine seasons, with their best season under Ringo coming in 2006. Plano East finished 10-3, won eight straight games after opening the season with a 30-29 loss to Mesquite and made the third round of the postseason.
Plano East outlasted Rockwall 31-24 in the bi-district round of the playoffs, edged Tyler Legacy 21-18 in the area round before falling 31-27 to Austin Westfield in the third round.
Ringo’s Panthers played three different quarterbacks in 2006 – Rico Smalls, Dallas Bush and Jeff Emens. They also got 2,494 combined rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns between Bush, Smalls, Chris Slater and Philip Oladjeji.
The Panthers also boasted a stout defense that held opponents to an average of 14.46 points per game.
“We just had great kids,” Ringo said. “We had 420 kids playing high school football at Plano East, which was unheard of. We had tremendous involvement with the kids and parents. That year, we had great kids playing for us. It was a really special year.”
In addition to the great relationships that he built with the other coaches, faculty and members of the community, Ringo also lauded the relationships that he had built with former Plano East head coach Tom Kimbrough and former Plano Senior High head coach John Clark – Kimbrough and Clark both have stadiums in Plano ISD that are named in their honor.
“They were just very business-like in everything they did, but they were great about helping and guiding us,” Ringo said. “They were tremendous mentors and role models and great examples as far as how football should be played.”
Ringo was elected to the THSCA Board of Directors from 2008-11, served as the President of the THSCA in 2012-13, and was recognized as one of MaxPreps’ Top 100 High School Coaches.
Robert Brown, Steven Cerny, Mike Hedrick, John King, Weldon Nelms and Dennis Parker are the other six coaches who will join Ringo for induction into the THSCA Hall of Honor Saturday.
Stay informed, and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to The Murphy Monitor
By David Wolman
Plano East recently completed its final season in District 6-6A, capping another successful year across its athletic programs.
The Murphy Monitor is proud to introduce the first installment of a three-part series celebrating the best teams, athletes, moments and performances from this past school year. The categories and winners for the second annual C&S Media High School Sports Awards were chosen by sports editor David Wolman, with winners being published over three weeks.
Part 1 (July 16) includes the Biggest Story, Breakthrough Moment, Newcomer of the Year and Best Team
Part 2 (July 23) will highlight the Best Game, Best Finish, Biggest Upset and Multi-Sport Athlete of the Year.
Part 3 (July 30) will wrap up the series with Coach of the Year, Most Improved Athlete, Best Male Athlete and Best Female Athlete.
These are the winners of the first installment of the series.
Biggest Story: Plano East prepares for new District
The sports landscape will look a lot different going forward for the Panthers.
At the University Interscholastic League’s bi-annual realignment meeting, Plano East will say goodbye to District 6-6A and join Plano and Plano West in District 7-6A, and also renew rivalries with Coppell, Lake Highlands, Richardson and Berkner. JJ Pearce will also compete in District 7-6A.
Plano East was last in the same district with Lake Highlands, Richardson and Berkner from 2006-08, and was with Coppell in District 6-6A from 2020-24. The girls’ soccer team faced Coppell in the bi-district round in 2025, while the boys met the Cowboys in the first round this season. In February, Plano East lost 69-56 to Coppell in bi-district in boys’ basketball.
Breakthrough moment: Girls’ cross country team wins 1st district title since 2017
Several minutes after the conclusion of the girls’ varsity race at the District 6-6A cross country meet, Plano East head coach Robert Reed was still parsing through the results.
The Lady Panthers had already secured a team berth in the Region I-6A meet, but Reed wasn’t sure whether Plano East had won the district title or if a tiebreaker would decide it.
Ultimately, that tiebreaker went in Plano East’s favor.
Plano East and Prosper both finished with 52 points, but Plano East claimed its first district title since 2017 thanks to a faster time from its sixth runner.
Reagan Noel finished fourth with a time of 18:46 to pace the Lady Panthers. Meena Mulford was seventh in 19:21, Brooke Tierney took 12th, Louisa Christensen was 14th and Alina Nguyen took 15th. Dyan Tecuatl’s 22nd placing proved to be the tiebreaker that allowed Plano East to finish in first place. Kate Salyer captured 47th place.
On the boys’ side, incoming sophomore Levi Rowe placed sixth in 16:11, earning his first trip to regionals.
Co-Newcomer of the Year: Emerson Bailey, softball; Treyce Seldon, football
Although both the Plano East football and softball teams missed the playoffs, each squad had a freshman that made a solid impression.
Bailey stepped in at catcher and in the infield and was a difference-maker both at the plate and in the field.
Named the District 6-6A Utility Player of the Year, Bailey finished her first season in high school with a .342 batting average, 25 RBIs and 10 runs scored. Defensively, she committed five errors on 81 chances for a .938 fielding percentage and was credited with 57 putouts and 19 assists.
Meanwhile, it didn’t take long for Seldon to emerge as the go-to option on offense for the Plano East football team.
Named the district’s Offensive Newcomer of the Year, Seldon rushed for at least 89 yards in each of his first four games with one touchdown in each game. He had three straight 100-yard rushing performances, including a season-high 185 yards and three touchdowns in a 57-55 double-overtime loss to Princeton. He finished the season with 870 rushing yards and 10 scores.
Best team: volleyball
When the seniors for the Plano East volleyball team stepped on the court for the first time four years ago, they walked into a program that won just two district matches the previous season.
They helped engineer one of the area’s quickest turnarounds.
After helping lead Plano East to back-to-back appearances in the third round of the playoffs in 2023 and 2024, the Lady Panthers took things one step further last fall. They advanced to their first regional final in 17 years.
Although Plano East fell to nationally ranked Byron Nelson in the regional final, the Lady Panthers finished 31-11 and won at least 30 matches for the third consecutive season.
Stay informed, and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to The Murphy Monitor
By David Wolman
With only one month separating Michael Godwin’s first day on the job as head coach of the Plano East boys basketball team and the start of the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Showcase, Godwin wanted to keep things simple.
Godwin implemented only a couple of minor schematic changes, but the biggest thing that he told his players as they prepared for the Showcase was to play hard and play hard for each other.
The Panthers did both at the June 27-28 event in Cedar Hill and Duncanville, and they turned that into a 3-0 record – earning wins over DeSoto Kingdom Collegiate (62-58), Spring Dekaney (43-26) and Baytown Sterling (54-47).
“We just played good Plano East team basketball over the weekend,” Godwin said.
Read the full story, stay informed, and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to The Murphy Monitor.
By David Wolman
Plano East enjoyed another successful year in athletics, and the seniors who donned black and gold during the 2025-26 school year were key contributors to their respective teams.
The Murphy Monitor will review the accomplishments of some of the top seniors from the Class of 2026.
Alexa Perreira, girls’ soccer
All the seniors for the Plano East girls’ soccer team wanted was a playoff win.
Not only did the Lady Panthers defeat Hebron 1-0 for their first postseason win since 2009, but Plano East also conjured a playoff run that lasted three rounds deep. Perreira scored the game’s lone goal midway through the first half. During Plano East’s next game, a 7-1 rout of Arlington Martin in the area round, Perreira netted a hat trick.
Plano East’s playoff run came to an end in the regional semifinals following a 3-2 loss to Keller.
Named to the District 6-6A first team as a senior and the district’s Co-Newcomer of the Year as a freshman, Perreira, a North Texas signee, also stepped in at goalkeeper in addition to her starting role at forward.
Caitlyn Tran, track and field
District 6-6A featured the top three runners in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles in Region I-6A – Tran, Princeton’s Sydney Smith and Plano’s Morgan Olschewsky. Smith entered the regional meet ranked first, Tran second and Olschewsky third.
Tran did more than enough to earn her first-ever state berth after the SMU pledge ran to second place with a time of 13.94 seconds. Tran was the district runner-up after clocking a 13.872 and took second at the area meet with a 13.73.
Tran, who placed fifth at state with a wind-aided time of 13.9, broke the school record in the 100 hurdles three times this season.
As a junior, Tran was the district runner-up, clocking a time of 14.42.
Malachi Terry, track and field
Like Tran, Terry was a first-time state qualifier, but his qualification came in the boys’ 200-meter dash.
Terry placed third in the District 6-6A meet and second in the area meet. He earned his spot in the state meet after running a second-place time of 21.06 seconds at the Region I-6A meet. His time of 20.96 at the area meet at Denton Braswell’s Carrico Stadium was a new school record.
Terry, a New Jersey Institute of Technology signee, placed eighth at the Class 6A state track and field championships in Austin with a 21.05.
He was also a regional qualifier in the boys’ 100-meter dash.
Moustafa Abualneel, boys’ basketball
The last remaining player of Plano East’s 40-0 state championship team, Abualneel did a lot of winning when he was with the Panthers.
Abualneel, a Henderson State pledge, came off the bench during Plano East’s run to the state title, but the Henderson State signee has been just as important a contributor since becoming a starter two years ago. The 6-foot-7 forward was honored on the District 6-6A first team as a senior after helping lead Plano East to a co-district championship and a 27-8 record.
One of seven seniors for Plano East, Abualneel helped anchor a stingy Panthers’ defense that allowed less than 50 points in 12 of 16 district games and to 47 points overall on the season. Alum Jayden Parker, a UT-Arlington signee, was the district’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Reagan Noel, cross country/track and field
Noel went from being a middle-of-the-pack junior varsity team runner and running a 5K time of 26 minutes when she was a freshman to contending for a varsity district title and an appearance in the regional meet.
During her senior season, Noel broke 19 minutes for the first time at Southlake Carroll and the following week at Lovejoy ran an 18:39. Her time of 18:39 was the second-fastest in program history, just 17 seconds behind Martha Brown’s school record of 18:22.
Noel later helped lead Plano East to its first district title since 2017. At the 6-6A meet, she took fourth place with an 18:46 – a performance that comes one year after she placed 46th in district.
Noel’s season and high school career ended at the Region I-6A meet. Her time of 18:46 would have qualified her for state had she competed in any of the other three Class 6A regionals. She placed 21st.
Simone Heard, girls’ soccer, track and field/volleyball
Heard’s primary sport has always been volleyball, but her athleticism has translated well to track as well as the soccer field.
Heard joined the Lady Panthers’ soccer team late in the season and she stepped in at goalkeeper and played an integral role in helping Plano East reach the third round of the postseason for the first time in 16 years.
Of course, Heard’s biggest success came in volleyball. She helped lead a huge turnaround for a Plano East program that improved from seven district wins during her freshman season to back-to-back appearances in the regional semifinals during her sophomore and junior seasons and an appearance in the regional final during her senior season.
Named the Most Valuable Player of District 6-6A in both her junior and senior seasons, Heard, a Georgia Tech signee, finished her four-year varsity career with 1,913 kills, 135 service aces, 199 blocks and 1,282 digs.
On the track, Heard helped lead Plano East’s girls 4×100 relay to two straight appearances in the regional meet, in addition to winning the district title this year.
Travis Agee, football
At 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds, Agee was a physical force on both sides of the ball.
Agee was a downhill runner who used his legs to churn out tough yardage and moved the chains for Plano East’s offense, while defensively, he excelled as an outside linebacker.
Although his numbers dipped his senior season because of the emergence of running back Treyce Seldon, Agee still made a big impact. As a senior, he rushed for 453 yards with five touchdowns. That came one year after a breakout junior year in which he rushed for a career-best 1,297 yards and seven rushing touchdowns. As a sophomore, Agee rushed for 528 yards and contributed 17 tackles (13 solo).
Agee finished his career with 2,278 rushing yards, 17 touchdowns, 47 tackles (32 solo) and two tackles for loss.
Plano East made the playoffs during Agee’s sophomore season, won six games during his junior season and won two games during his senior season.
Read the full story, stay informed, and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to The Murphy Monitor.