By LARRY GAGE
Special to the PRESS
It was no surprise that Port Isabel High sprinters gave a strong performance at last week’s UIL Region IV High School Track and Field Meet at Kingsville. And, in one event at least, they came ever so close to making it through and advancing to the state meet in Austin.
In the 200-meter dash, Tarpon sprinter Mac Strunk ran third in the finals of that race. His time of 22.27 seconds was only .09 seconds behind second-place finisher Jordan Chopane of Fulshear, who went the distance in 22.18 seconds. The top two finishers in each event qualified for the state meet.
In the prelims on Friday Strunk set a PR (personal record) and finally broke the 22-second barrier after coming close all season long, and advanced to Saturday’s finals with a second-place finish. His prelim time was 21.99 seconds.
“My blocks slipped underneath me, so I kinda stumbled the first couple of steps,” Strunk told the Press of his finals run. “I felt good on Friday, and for the finals. It just didn’t work out in my favor. It still hurts but I’m going to get over it. I want to try to do some meets this summer and get better.”
“It was a good day, a little disappointing,” head Tarpon coach Joe Gonzales said Monday. “Mac’s blocks slipped on him so he had a late start on that one. Those are the breaks.”
In the 4 x 200-meter relay the Tarpon foursome of Tavien Ellison, Jesus Moctezuma, Juan Ramos, and Strunk was third in the finals of the event with a clocking of 1:31.08. That was less than a second slower than the second-place time of 1:30.11 turned in by Lampasas.
It was even closer for the 4 x 100 relay team, which placed ninth in Friday’s prelims in that race. William Camacho, Strunk, Ellison, and Cesar Aguilera Cesenes vaults to seventh at Regionals Tarpon sprinters strong at Kingsville teamed up to stop the timer at 43.85 seconds and finish 9th in the prelims. They missed making the finals by .04 seconds – eighth-place La Grange hit the wire with the time of 43.81.
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