Everything was perfect for Gilroy’s 4×100 relay until an injury:
Now a reshuffled group takes on state’s best.
It takes roughly 40 to 43 seconds to get around the track. Four sprinters and three handoffs.
Stay in your lane, don’t drop the baton and cross the finish line first, or at least not last.
Listed, those few guidelines make a 4×100 relay race comparable to a Fourth of July challenge between cousins; first one to touch the picket fence gets to chuck a water balloon at the losing team.
Not in the least.
The controlled chaos that ensues in less than a minute as eight teams of four barrel around the track huffing and puffing packs the most entertainment into the shortest amount of time.
David Guenther, Julius Travis, Romeo Travis and Jourdan Soares know a thing or two about fast. Together they formed the swiftest 4×100 relay team to grace the track at Gilroy High School. Their 42.42 second exhibition of speed at the Central Coast Section Championships last week was a school record and gave the boys a section championship in the event – the first ever at GHS.
Now, for the first time in history a 4×100 relay team is representing GHS at the CIF State Track and Field Championships.
However, the foursome that hits the track today at Buchanan High School in Clovis for the preliminary heats will look different.
Less than an hour after anchoring the relay team last Friday, Soares injured his knee on his first attempt in the long jump final. The unforeseen turn of events sent shockwaves through his teammates, who knew immediately they needed to find a substitute.
“I was like, ‘oh no, this is bad,'” Guenther, a junior, said in retrospect at practice Wednesday. “Once I saw that he couldn’t get up, I started thinking of our replacements.”
Junior Eric Martinez will be that person. A pole vaulter during the season, Martinez all of a sudden finds himself anchoring the 16th fastest relay team in the state.
“I’m ready for it,” Martinez said. “I’ve been training. I just gotta do what I gotta do. (Jourdan) has big shoes to fill. But I’m excited to go to state.”
Second–year sprint coach Nick Rodriquez molded the original foursome into the championship-caliber machine that it became. It was a work in progress, he said, but really came around toward the end of the season. Rodriquez spent the last week, reshaping his creation with the edition of Martinez and expects the guys to give it their best race. Clocking another personal record is at the top of the list.
Despite the lineup change, the Mustangs possess something that will carry them through their first appearance on the state stage – trust in what they are doing and trust in one another.
“They are really good friends with (Eric) already. He is a team captain too, so I’m not really worried that much about it,” Rodriquez said. “He was out here during the season supporting them. There is no trust issue here.”
The importance of trusting each other isn’t taken lightly by the guys either, and in some respects, their bond kept the team together through early troubles.
“If you don’t have trust, you basically don’t have a relay team,” said junior Romeo Travis. “In the beginning of the season our team kept dropping the baton because we didn’t have trust in one another. But we ended up doing really good after we built up that trust.”
They will need to heavily rely on that trust – and the baton exchange – if they want to advance to Saturday’s finals.
“We are as comfortable as we can be,” junior Julius Travis said.
The “G” that extends across the front of their jersey is reminiscent of the Superman logo – faster than a speeding bullet. That is impossible, but their time is the 16th fastest in the state, sandwiching them basically in the middle of the 27–team field in Clovis. The top time in California this season is 40.78.
“It’s going to make us push to try and get a PR and move up in state,” Julius Travis said of the heightened competition the Mustangs will encounter.
Julius will also compete in the 100– and 200–meter dashes. Going into the meet, his 10.67 is eighth best in the state in the 100.
“I have to do my part in the relay because I don’t want to let these guys down then at the same time to well for myself and make it to finals in the other events,” he said.
Preliminary heats of the field events kick off at 3 p.m. followed by the running events at 5 p.m. Saturday’s finals are scheduled to get underway at 4:30 p.m.
