WESLACO — Weslaco East senior track and field star Bryssa Guzman announced her commitment to the Texas A&M-Kingsville track and field program via Twitter after a signing ceremony surrounded by family Monday afternoon in Weslaco.
“Honestly, it’s a really great feeling because this is a goal I’ve had since I was a little girl. Getting to finally reach that goal feels very accomplishing,” Guzman said. “I think it wasn’t too big for me, but it also wasn’t too small which was really important to me because I didn’t really want to go to a super big school where I would get lost a lot. It’s close to home, but it’s going to give me a chance to get that college experience.”
Guzman, who also played four years as an outside hitter for the Wildcats volleyball squad, was a fixture in the Wildcats’ track and field program for years, and she thrived in a variety of events throughout her athletic career at Weslaco East.
The Weslaco product ran the 100- and 200-meter dashes, competing in the long jump and triple jump, and was also a vital component of the Wildcats relay teams throughout her four-year career. By her senior season, Guzman also competed in the 400 and set a personal record of 1 minute, 8.69 seconds at the Weslaco ISD Jimmy Platt Invitational.
“I think my favorite event would have to be the 200 because that was always just what I was good at and I always wanted to be better at it,” she said. “I think last year, my junior year, I reached a point where I was breaking all my PRs and I was just improving every meet. But I always got to run the 200, and that always just felt so accomplishing.”
Guzman’s senior season was limited by both the novel coronavirus outbreak and an early-season injury, but her junior season was one of the most remarkable in recent memory.
She excelled as a junior, often finding herself ahead of the pack. In her first meet during the 2019 season, the Donna ISD Indian Nation Relays, Guzman took home first place in the 4×100-meter relay, 4×400, triple jump and long jump, winning each of her first four events in the opening weekend of the season.
Guzman ended up winning 13 times over the course of that season between running the 100 and 200, and competing in the long jump, triple jump and Weslaco East’s relay races.
The Wildcats senior placed within the top three in the 4×100, the 4×400 and the triple jump at the 2019 District 31-6A meet, but took first in both the long jump (16 feet and 4 1/2 inches) and the 200, when she set a PR of 25.69 seconds.
Guzman won the 200 and long jump again at the area meet as a junior and finished in 13th and seventh, respectively, cementing herself as one of the top high school track and field athletes in the Rio Grande Valley.
“As I was going into rehab and was trying to get better to come back for at least district to make it to area and regionals, this virus hit so that was kind of a bummer,” she said. “But to find out that colleges were still reaching out to me because of my previous accomplishments made me kind of feel better that I didn’t get to run this season.”
When she arrives in Kingsville and starts competing for the Javelinas, Guzman will be teammates with former Valley track standouts Monica Yanez, a senior who attended Valley View, and Diana Bustos, a sophomore who previously ran at La Joya Juarez-Lincoln.