Senior sprinter Maryjayne Gonzales had just ran a 12.37 in the 100 meters, her personal best, .23 seconds faster than her average time in the previous five meets, and the fastest recorded time at MacArthur since 2009 in girls track. She just ran the best sprint of her life, but her face did not reflect it. That’s because she wasn’t satisfied, she came in fifth in a race where only the top four move on to Regionals. Two tenths of a second separated her and fourth place.
“I thought that I could do better than that, and losing by such a short amount of time makes you not satisfied, so I was really hoping to go to Regionals,” Gonzales said.
Her track career was over.
Five days passed, then her phone rang. It was her coach with some news.
“She said that one of the Judson girls scratched, so that pushed me up to go to regionals. I was crying because I wasn’t satisfied with just going to area, and when she told me that it felt like I got a second chance to at least have another meet and do better than just area,” Gonzales said.
Then three days later, Maryjayne ran in the regional meet. She placed in the prelims and qualified for the region final. She came in 8th in the Region to cap her terrific year.
Fellow senior Cynthia Gonzales just signed to do field events for UTSA next year. Cynthia has been the number one girl in shot put and discuss for the last three years. Now, as a senior, the urgency to get to state is real, and she capitalized on this opportunity. She had a convincing regional meet as she came in 2nd, which shows that she has the potential to place very well at state.
The track and field team had a down year by their standards, apart from the two girls above. As a school Mac only had three athletes advance to the Area, the other was long jumper Ashton Woods, and as a team the boys finished 7th in the district and the girls finished 6th.
Cynthia will compete in the State meet on Friday, May 13. This is the first time that Mac has boasted an track and field athlete at state since 2013, making this event that much more special to her and the school.
