The State team, flexing some muscle!
All these boys made state by time, place or as alternates. Sam made state in the 110 hurdles his first race of the season by time. He made state by time about 3/4 of the way through in the 300 m hurdles and he was an alternate for the 4x400 team. He was on the team when they made it by time on the second run of the season, but all the relays had to be run again, because one of their runners had been ineligible almost the entire year. It really messed up the team. These guys never treated him badly, however, which is a real credit to them. They were supposed to win state this year, but without him they couldn't re-qualify one relay and then all the things he was supposed to win or get second in they had no one else to replace him with. It was super sad and frustrating, but these guys kept a positive attitude the whole way!
Every year the coach get those who qualified for state a gift. This year it was black bathrobes. The kids loved them! Seriously, though, black, terry cloth robes in New Mexico heat?
Notice the difference from the picture above to the picture below? Sam grew his hair out all year. It was a huge afro. Everyone kept trying to get him to cut it, but he wouldn't. He waited until State. He said he was going to surprise everyone and run super fast once it was shaved!
These boys (the hurdlers) got taken out several times by various coaches for making the State team.
The Three Amigos and their coach- Best Coach Ever!- "what are you? Some kind of hurdle expert or something?" (quote from a parent of another team)
Sam got 2nd in the 110's- not his fastest time
And third in his 300 hurdles- definitely his fastest time and a new school record! Our fastest 300er was disqualified for a stupid reason. I'm sure he will take the school record next year. Then Ethan came out of nowhere and took 4th! So super psyched for him. He didn't qualify in anything until Districts and it was his last race to run- and then he goes crazy and gets 4th in State! Sam was only supposed to get 6th from his qualifying race the day before. So big win and big surprises for our team!
Last minute, Sam was put in to the finals of the 4x400. He was a little nervous and super tired from his two big performances already that day.
But they pulled it off with a 4th place finish! They had won or gotten 2nd every race that year, but with injuries and people being ineligible, they had to grab people from everywhere to make all the relay teams! Three of these guys were completely exhausted already!
Way to go Samuel- 2nd, 3rd and 4th in State!
We went from 7th the first day, to 5th the second day and by the end of the day, we had enough amazing surprises like Sam's 3rd and Ethan's 4th that we actually took home 2nd place in State. Last year we were 1st the first and second day, all the way to the final race, where we lost it by 2 points. 2nd place was super hard last year. This year there was nothing but smiles! With everything these boys had to go through to take that 2nd place, they deserved every bit of happiness they got from it!
Seniors! (which by the way had graduated 2 days before!)
