By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
There’s nothing wrong with being a wild card.
As long as you put in a wild effort, you belong in the race.
That’s the plan for Natalie Garza when she lines up in Lane 1 on Saturday.
“I’ve thought about it a lot and I’m a few seconds from third place. I’m planning to kill myself to the finish line, even if I have to dive in.”
Garza, a sophomore on the Port Isabel Lady Tarpons’ track and field team, gets one last shot at earning a medal this season when she competes in the 400-meter run during the UIL Class 4A State Track & Field Championship on Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
She earned the wild-card spot as Class 4A’s fastest third-place finisher in the 400 for all four regions and has the fifth-fastest time out of the nine qualifiers.
Garza had a feeling after seeing the other times that she grabbed the ninth and final spot in the race, but she wasn’t sure until the following Tuesday when UIL called coach Julie Breedlove to confirm it.
“When I found out, Breedlove yelled it across the hallway and I was pretty excited,” Garza said. “I didn’t know what to say. I kind of knew I was going to go, I just wanted to be sure.”
It was a little bit of a surprise for Breedlove, but she understands that Garza’s put in the work to finish her season on the big stage.
“It was kind of a neat thing that happened,” Breedlove said. “It shows the kids that no matter what you do or what place you finish, you’ve always got that shot of going right there. I was a little surprised but not really surprised.”
Her trip to Austin is the culmination of a season-long improvement in which she’s dropped two seconds off her fastest 400 time from her freshman campaign.
“This year, I’ve gone a lot harder than last year,” Garza said. “I’ve been pushing myself every day, every practice and planning on going to state.”
The 400 combines flat-out speed with endurance, so guts are needed to be one of the best. Luckily, Garza has enough of that to supply a whole track team if she could, and that’s one of her strongest attributes as a runner.
“You have to be mentally strong for the 400 because it’s a full-on sprint,” she said. “The first 200 you have to sprint it and some people give up at the last 200. That’s where I get them with my full-on sprint. It’s pretty tough and there’s a lot of things going on in your mind.”
Grabbing the final spot doesn’t mean she’s a long shot when it comes to a podium finish.
Garza’s 57.52 from the Region IV-4A meet is only .30 seconds from the third-place time heading into the race.
Coach Julie Breedlove thinks her runner has a chance with other talented runners surrounding her.
“Every time that Natalie has competed and there’s been somebody a little bit faster than her, she’s always risen up to the occasion,” Breedlove said. “It’s hard to get out there and run that open quarter all by yourself and when you don’t see anybody around you it’s hard to push yourself. Every time she’s had somebody in front of her, pushing her and pulling her along, she’s PR’d and done well in the race.
“It’s going to be an ‘any given day’ kind of thing. The three of them are separated of less than one-hundred of a point.”
As for the young runner, she doesn’t plan on holding anything back.
“I’m going to go all out,” Garza said. “It’s the last race of the season. I might as well go all out and see what I’m made of.”
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @joshuabvherald.