Your Lady Pirate Track team traveled to Columbus early Wednesday morning, April 20, 2022, to participate in the 27/28 3A Area Meet.
We didn’t start our morning as we had hoped as one of our athletes didn’t get on the bus after multiple attempts. So, five girls that have worked through Saturday's, Spring Break and even through this past holiday, got on that bus in hopes of extending their season another week.
We were optimistic, especially in the 800m and 4x400m relay, with 3 of our 5 athletes taking part in both events.
But life happens…and you have situations like Wednesday afternoon. Just as we are going to make a move on last year's State runner in this event….we trip ourselves. Not one…but all of them. Somehow, we got close and the worst happened. But all 3 banged up and bruised managed to get up and finish the race. Marissa was the only one to get up in time and was able to finish in the top 4 to advance in the 800m. These girls that worked so hard on this event must now try and recompose themselves and finish the Meet. They were crying, cut up and bleeding and one had to be checked for a concussion. I asked them if they wanted me to scratch them from their remaining individual events and they said “NO.” Then they went on to have one of their worst 400m of the season. Though Calyssa Sevier wasn't part of the 800m, she saw the disappointment in her teammates and that played a small part in her showing as well.
After another lackluster performance from Calyssa in the 200m, I was worried that maybe that accident took too much out of all of us and Marissa would be our only Regional Qualifier.
But then the 1600m came. Eisabel Guerrero, not part of the 800m group, was coming in as the 6th seed and had one last chance to advance after finishing 6th in the 3200m. She proceeded to run a great tactical race in very windy conditions and managed to sneak into 4th and advance into next week's Regional Track Meet.
Maybe that was the spark that we needed. With one more chance to advance, these girls got themselves together and decided that their season would not end just yet. They went on to break our school record in the 4x400m relay for the second straight week by almost 2 seconds in very windy conditions with a time of 4:10.45.
I am incredibly proud of these girls for overcoming an exceedingly difficult situation. It was one of the hardest things to see and be a part of and it took a lot of me as well. But so is life, and how we respond to those situations will help us build resilience and overcome adversity in the future.
All 5 of those girls will now compete at the Regional Meet in Seguin on April 29th and 30th in hopes of finishing in the top 2 of the 16 participants in each event to advance to State.
4x400m Relay Area Champions (Moriah Gomez, Calyssa Sevier, Marissa Lopez, Samantha Mujica)
Eisabel Guerrero (4th in 1600m)
Full Results:
http://milesplit.live/meets/471377
Individual Lady Pirate Results:
3200m:
Eisabel Guerrero - 6th
800m:
Marissa Lopez – 3rd
Moriah Gomez – 6th
Samantha Mujica - 7th
400m:
Calyssa Sevier – 5th
Moriah Gomez – 6th
Marissa Lopez – 8th
200m:
Calyssa Sevier – 6th
1600m:
Eisabel Guerrero – 4th
1600mR:
Marissa Lopez, Samantha Mujica, Calyssa Sevier, Moriah Gomez – 1st