Zapata advances to State in 110M Hurdles

Guido Zapata finished 2nd in the 110M Hurdles and 3rd in the 300M Hurdles.

Twenty-eight of the twenty-nine Warhorse and Arabian track athletes that either competed or went as an alternate at Regional this past weekend in Kingsville completed their 2018 season giving the best they had in hopes of moving on to the State Meet on May 11 and 12 in Austin. Many of the Warhorse and Arabian athletes ran, threw, or jumped their personal record or season record during the weekend competition.
The Warhorses finished 14th as a team with 16 points. According to Head Track Coordinator Coach Lynn Cozby, “Region 4 is a tough region but our kids accomplished what they set out to do by setting personal records for themselves. Although most did not qualify for finals, each had a great mindset going in to the competition and each did their best; that’s all that we can ask.”
The Arabians had several personal and season records as well but, much like the Warhorses, had a difficult time qualifying runners and jumpers for Saturday’s finals competitions. “Even though we didn’t have anyone competing on the second day, I could not be more proud of what each Arabian accomplished to get to Kingsville. They should not hang their head as we all know they performed to the best of their capabilities on Friday.”
Quentin “Guido” Zapata was the lone Warhorse qualifying to perform one additional time on the sport’s biggest high school stage. Guido will run the 110m Hurdles at the State Meet on Saturday, May 12 at approximately 12:45pm in Mike A. Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas.

Zapata ran a personal best of 14.46 in the prelims.

“This weekend was a huge success for Guido,” stated assistant track and hurdles Coach Khera Vay. “He has worked extremely hard for 5 seasons with the goal of a trip to state in mind. This season has been a focus on perfecting the little things.”
“He started this season running a 15.53, gradually dropping time each meet leading to a huge personal record (PR) of 14.46 in the prelims,” Vay continued. “I cannot say enough about the determination he brought to practice each day to prepare for such a big opportunity. Both races proved to teach huge lesson; the prelims was a beautiful, almost flawless race showing him what he was capable of and the finals race was a series of bad hurdles to show him how strong he is and that he can fight through challenges. I consider myself very fortunate to coach such a focused kid and know these next two weeks of workouts will be not about just getting to State, but what he needs to do to earn a medal there as well.”
“For the past two years, I’ve been going to the UIL State T&F Meet to see what the talent was actually like,” stated Guido about his mental approach to working toward performing in Austin. “I used to dream about what it would be like, now I’m going to get my chance. I think those experiences really helped me work harder and focus on setting a goal to compete at a higher level. I have a lot of confidence that my coaches will help me to prepare and I want to make Devine proud.”
Guido’s outstanding performance in the 110m Hurdles along with him qualifying for the 300m Hurdle finals with a 4th place 40.11 prelim time, he wound up finishing 3rd overall with a time of 39.89.
The only other Warhorses to make a finals appearance on Saturday were the 4x100m relay team of Grant Collins, Xsavior Martinez, Luke Torres, and Zapata. Their prelim time of 43.53 placed them 6th of eight going into Saturday where they ran a 43.95, which concluded their season in 6th place.
Warhorse prelim places and times (PR=personal record; SR=season record):
200m Dash—14th-Aaron Terrazas-24.24 (PR)
200m Dash—15th-Isaiah Oropeza-24.71 (SR)
400m Dash—10th-Jayce Hackebeil-51.93 (PR)
110m Hurdles—2nd-Zapata-14.84; (14.47 prelim PR)
300m Hurdles—3rd-Zapata-39.89 (PR)
300m Hurdles—15th-Brady Harrell-44.03 (SR)
4x200m Relay—10th-Oropeza, Terrazas, Martinez, L. Torres-1:32.58
4x400m Relay—9th-Hackebeil, Martinez, Donovan Camacho, L. Torres-3:32.47
Shot Put—15th-Tristin Ortiz-42’7 ½” (SR)
Pole Vault—NH-Javi Torres
Pole Vault—NH-Jacob Featherly
Long Jump—13th-Justin Contreras-19’9 ¾” (PR)
Discus—14th-Dakota Wofford-128’5” (SR)
Arabian prelim places and times:
800m Dash (finals only)—12th-Brooke Runyan-2:32.67 (PR)
1600m Run (finals only)—13th-Mari Murillo-5:53.44 (SR)
3200m Run (finals only)—9th-Murillo (SR)
100m Hurdles—9th-Megan Runyan-17.04 (PR)
100m Hurdles—11th-Tayler Rice-17.97 (SR)
300m Hurdles—13th-M. Runyan-50.99 (PR)
300m Hurdles—16th-Rice-52.63 (SR)
4x200m Relay—14th-Mackenzie Schneider, Alissa Stehle, Sydney Rendon, Andrea Gomez-1:50.75
Pole Vault (finals only)—8th-Bri Bowyer-9’0” (PR)
Pole Vault (finals only)—14th-Maycee Howard-8’6” (PR)
Triple Jump—13th-Stehle-31’8” (SR)
Triple Jump—14th-Schneider-30’ 8 ½” (PR)
Boys top 5 team rankings: 1st-Stafford-96, 2nd-Sealy-71, 3rd-Wimberley-44, 4th-Rockport-Fulton-42.
Girls top 5 team rankings: 1st-Fredericksburg-72, 2nd-Wimberley-49, 3rd-Boerne-48, 4th-Bandera-44, 5th-Ingleside-42.
By Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer