By Mireya Quintana
This past Saturday, our Van Horn Eagles track team competed amongst the best runners and jumpers in the state of Texas. What started as a day filled with nerves, ended as one that will go down in history! At 10:00 a.m., senior Bryce Virdell entered the Mike A. Meyers stadium for the last time to compete in the long jump. The rain couldn’t stop Virdell from receiving a bronze medal and being named the 3rd best jumper in Texas for Conference 1A.
On the other side of the stadium, the returning State Champion, Elijah Gaines, prepared to compete in the boys high jump for the last time. The senior easily reclaimed his title as the best jumper in Conference 1A and walked away with his second gold medal in the event.
Virdell and Gaines clearly set a positive tone for the day because our Eagles were not done medalling yet. Going into the 4x100m relay, the team of Caleb Hinojos, Elijah Gaines, Cy Garcia, and Bryce Virdell were ranked 7th. However, as soon as the race began, it was clear that wouldn’t be the result. After an amazing start from Caleb and 3 sets of perfect handoffs, our Eagles finished in second place with a time of 43.71.
The momentum carried to the final event of the day for our Eagles. Throughout the 4x200m relay, it was clear that the boys were in contention for the gold medal. After seamless handoffs and PR splits from Hinojos, Gaines, and Garcia, Virdell received the baton ahead of the predicted winner, Paducah. Although Bryce ran an amazing last leg, Paducah’s anchor (the 2023 200m dash State Champion) was able just barely to secure the gold.
Our Eagles ran a season’s best time of 1:31.0, which shatters the old school record for the 4×200 set back in 2009. The phenomenal performance from our team of 4 Eagles earned them the title as the State Runner-Up for the 2023 track season. This is a first for the Van Horn boys track program!
