Joshua ran on the biggest stage of his young track ca
reer Friday and Saturday at the UIL 4A Region II Track and Field meet held at Fouts Field on the campus of North Texas State in Denton and came away with a top ten finish.
Josh came in 9th place in the 3200m Friday evening with a time of 10:14.73. The winning time was an amazing 9:31.78. The 1600m Saturday afternoon was a little different story as he ran a 4:55.02 which was good for 19th. He started out strong and tried to stay with the leaders, but by the 1/2 mile mark, had started to run out of steam. The winning time was 4:21.57 which was ran by the same guy that took first in the 3200m.
To put the regional meet in perspective, there are 58 schools who run track in Region II and if each school ran the maximum three runners in the 3200m and 1600m, that would be 174 runners for each event. To finish 9th in one event and 19th in another is quite an accomplishment and that is for a sophomore. The next two years should really be exciting for Josh.
One a side note...Our "little kids" have a 5th grade track meet coming up in a couple of weeks at their school. Zachary has said that he wants to run the 400 and 800 and that he is going to start running to get in shape. After supper he told us he was going to go run. He asked Josh what he needed to do to get ready and Josh's reply was, "run some miles." Zach hit the street running and was back at the house in a couple of minutes out of breath. He looked at us and said, I don't know if I can do that or not.
Even though the high school track season is over for Josh, his running season is not. A few weeks ago, he was invited to run with a Junior Olympic team out of Rockwall. This organization is the ground floor for the big time Olympics. After taking this week off, he will start working out with the team next week. His coach only takes 15 runners and she focuses on long distance runners so it should be a good training situation for him. They will have four or five meets in May and early June before two qualifying meets for the National Junior Olympics which will be held in July in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Junior Olympics run the international races which are 1500m and 3000m, not the 1600m and 3200m he has been running so his times should be faster. Josh is already talking about going to Omaha so we will see what happens. This will be a great opportunity for Josh to work with a true track coach and give him a reason to keep running and improving his running strength and ability. This will also be a great bridge between the high school track season and the cross country season this fall.
We'll keep you updated.
reer Friday and Saturday at the UIL 4A Region II Track and Field meet held at Fouts Field on the campus of North Texas State in Denton and came away with a top ten finish.Josh came in 9th place in the 3200m Friday evening with a time of 10:14.73. The winning time was an amazing 9:31.78. The 1600m Saturday afternoon was a little different story as he ran a 4:55.02 which was good for 19th. He started out strong and tried to stay with the leaders, but by the 1/2 mile mark, had started to run out of steam. The winning time was 4:21.57 which was ran by the same guy that took first in the 3200m.
To put the regional meet in perspective, there are 58 schools who run track in Region II and if each school ran the maximum three runners in the 3200m and 1600m, that would be 174 runners for each event. To finish 9th in one event and 19th in another is quite an accomplishment and that is for a sophomore. The next two years should really be exciting for Josh.
One a side note...Our "little kids" have a 5th grade track meet coming up in a couple of weeks at their school. Zachary has said that he wants to run the 400 and 800 and that he is going to start running to get in shape. After supper he told us he was going to go run. He asked Josh what he needed to do to get ready and Josh's reply was, "run some miles." Zach hit the street running and was back at the house in a couple of minutes out of breath. He looked at us and said, I don't know if I can do that or not.
Even though the high school track season is over for Josh, his running season is not. A few weeks ago, he was invited to run with a Junior Olympic team out of Rockwall. This organization is the ground floor for the big time Olympics. After taking this week off, he will start working out with the team next week. His coach only takes 15 runners and she focuses on long distance runners so it should be a good training situation for him. They will have four or five meets in May and early June before two qualifying meets for the National Junior Olympics which will be held in July in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Junior Olympics run the international races which are 1500m and 3000m, not the 1600m and 3200m he has been running so his times should be faster. Josh is already talking about going to Omaha so we will see what happens. This will be a great opportunity for Josh to work with a true track coach and give him a reason to keep running and improving his running strength and ability. This will also be a great bridge between the high school track season and the cross country season this fall.
We'll keep you updated.
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