Breathing heavy, wind blowing in his hair, sweat dripping down his back, senior Resiser Johnson pushes through the last stretch of his race. Despite the burning in his legs, he goes faster, knowing he has to show up for his team.
On March 30, four Bowie track athletes competed at the Texas Relays race in the 4×800 meter relay race. With a time of 8:04, the team qualified for the Nike Track Nationals in June. Johnson is one of these athletes, along with junior Joshua Flournoy, junior Samuel Kehler, and junior Ethan Mangels.
“I was surprised at first because I had no idea we were going to make it,” Johnson said. “We barely qualified for the Texas Relays, but there we had a really good race. When we heard back it was just such a great feeling and we were all very excited.”
According to Johnson, the team’s comradery has played a crucial role in their ability to compete well and qualify for the national meet.
“We’re all really close and were very competitive with each other,” Johnson said. “We want to run faster than each other, which helps us get better and better because we are always trying to be faster than one another.”
In preparation for the meet, the relay team has been training with an outside group called Born to Run (BTR). With this group they work on their speed, tempos, and sprints.
“I think we’re going to do great at nationals,” Flournoy said. “I think we’re ready. All of us are primed and doing good. We’ve been training really hard and running well. So, I think it’s going to be a really good time.”
In addition to the 4×800 relay team qualifying for nationals, four more track athletes qualified for the UIL State Track Meet in the 4×100 meter race. These athletes include junior Owen Langdon, senior Matthew Martinez, senior Griffin Crawley, and senior Julian Whitby.
“We were all very excited,” Langdon said. “Waiting for it was very nerve-racking, but when we found out it was crazy. It was unexpected for the most part, but it was definitely a great moment together.”
Their qualification marks the first time that a Bowie 4×100 team has qualified for the state meet since 1997.
“One of the biggest motivators for us this season was having that underdog mentality the whole time,” Martinez said. “Nobody really thought that we would make it past the District meet, let alone Area. Then, once we got to Regionals we kind of felt like we had nothing to lose. Nobody really thought we were going to do anything.”
In order to have success this season, the relay team needed to make changes to their usual routines.
“One of the main things that was different is that we had three seniors on the team. This group made a commitment to finish strong,” track coach Brandon Pittman said. “For the speed events we need as many of the athletes as possible to come out from the other sports to be good, and this year we did.”
According to Pittman, one of the most notable reasons behind both relay team’s success this season has been their mentality and work ethic throughout the entire year.
“It was fun coaching this group of athletes,” Pittman said. “They came to work every day with great attitudes and competed in practice, which is why they improved so much during the year. They challenged each other daily with friendly trash talk and when as a coach you don’t have to challenge the athletes, because they challenge each other, you know you have a chance to be great.”
