Kayli Rowland's streak of making the UIL state track and field meet remains intact. The Lubbock-Cooper senior rose up just in time to keep it that way.

Rowland, sitting outside the cut line before her last discus throw in the preliminaries, used that last attempt to take the lead, then threw a little farther in the finals and won a gold medal on Friday's first day of the Region I-5A meet at PlainsCapital Park/Lowrey Field.

"It would have been a disappointment if I hadn't performed, because I've made it to state freshman, sophomore and junior year," she said. "If I didn't make it senior year, that would have been very unfortunate."

Rowland's winning throw, on her last attempt in the finals, went 139 feet, 8 inches. She got off to a shaky start, though, safely getting in her first attempt for about 109 feet and then throwing out of bounds on the second. In danger of going home empty handed, she then threw 135-0 from the front of the ring with no spin windup.

"The finals were a little shaky, too," she said, "and then I ended up getting 139, so that was good."

The UIL Class 5A state meet is May 10 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin. Rowland knows the route, having gone to state her first two years of high school with Ropes and then, after transferring, again last year with Cooper. She was fifth in the discus at last year's 5A state meet and is now grateful for a fourth trip.

"It's a relief," she said, "and it's just excitement, because you get to go compete with the best people in the state. Regionals is probably where the most pressure is on, because once you get to state, you're kind of like, 'Hey, I made it here. I can't be upset, really.' There's a lot of pressure at regionals, but now it's off, because I'm going."

NeNe Phenix, who qualified for state in all three jumping events last year, didn't clinch anything Friday. The Coronado senior finished third in the triple jump with a mark of 38-3 1/2 and cleared 5-4 in the high jump but lost a jump-off for third place, finishing sixth.

"It hurts a lot," Phenix said. "I'm in a lot of pain, but there's only so much you can do. You get six jumps. You go out there and perform, and sometimes people just outperform you. It hurts, but I have four years of college to better myself."

The door's not closed on Phenix just yet.

In each event, the third-place finisher with the best time or mark from the four regional meets qualifies for state as a wild card, so Phenix has a chance to get in that way. She still has the long jump on Saturday as well.

Last year at state, Phenix won the high jump, placed fifth in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump. This season, though, an ankle injury caused a setback for three to four months.

"It's just been rough this season," she said. "I think it's been a lot mental, with my injuries and stuff. I missed so much more high jump, so coming in, I'm probably like five meets behind everyone else. I'm really striving to better myself next year, because it's not the end of the world. This isn't the end of the world."

Saturday's Region I-5A schedule has field event start times of 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon and running-event finals from 2:30 p.m. to 4:55 p.m.