Josh headed back to state

Can you say STATE BOUND!!!

No, Josh did not defend his 3200m title from last year and he did not even finish second, but he did get third place in the most amazing 3200m race I have ever witnessed. But wait a minute, last night I said the top two runners would advance to state and Josh got third?

Before I explain, let me just tell you that Josh ran the fastest 3200m of his life and completely shattered his previous best time of 9:41 by running a 9:29.53 according to my stop watch. I think the official time will be like a 9:29.68. First and second place times were in the 9:26 range which were both personal records for those two guys as well.

We are also thinking that Josh’s 9:29 will set the new Forney High School record for the 3200m too.

Now back to the third place thing. After the race, Josh’s coach came up to us and told us that this year the UIL is going to allow a ninth runner to go state. There are four regions and the top two will automatically advance so that is eight runners. The ninth runner will be the fastest third place time from the four regional meets and if you haven’t figured it out yet, Josh has the fastest third place time in Class 4A by six seconds. Therefore we will be making a return trip to Austin in a couple of weeks for the state meet.

As the race unfolded it, it quickly became a six man race. By the time the last lap came around it was down to a three man race and a sprint to the finish. The three were battling back and forth as Brady Turnbull from Frisco Liberty took about a 10 meter lead. Tyler Chappell from Cleburne and Josh were fighting back and forth for second. By the time they hit the final straight away, Josh and Tyler had reeled in Brady. With about 20 meters to go, Josh ran out of gas and Tyler nosed out Brady for first place.

Josh was disappointed but only for a couple of seconds until he saw his time posted on the scoreboard and then you would have thought he had won it. He was thinking at that time, if this was going to be my last 3200m run, then at least I went out running my fastest time ever. As it turns out, he will still have one more 3200m race and it will be at the place you would like for your high school career to end…the state track meet in Austin.

Oh by the way, he still has one more race to run later today and that being the 1600m. It is scheduled for 8:00 tonight at Fouts Field on the campus of UNT in Denton. The 1600m promises to be just as exciting of a race as Brady and a kid from Highland Park name Philip Todd have the fastest times in the region but Tyler and Josh should be right there with them. After tonight, anything is possible.

For those in the DFW area, if you don’t have anything up tonight and want to drive to Denton, come on. You are sure to get your monies worth.

As always, I will let you know what happens. Now I have to try to calm down and go to bed.

Brent
Brent Taylor
306 Cherrywood Trail
Forney, TX 75126
(H) 972-552-9688 (C) 214-934-8146
blog: rbrenttaylor.blogspot.com