BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — Even after coming in sixth at state in the 1600-meter relay and finishing 14th in the regional cross country meet, Edinburg Vela’s Isaac Arevalo leaves his senior season feeling like he could have done more. An ankle injury suffered during cross country plagued him for the rest of the year, and in track he never got his confidence back.
But the shortcomings only make Arevalo more excited for his freshman season at UTRGV. He officially signed his letter of intent on Monday in the library at Edinburg Vela.
“I didn’t have a great year. It was a rocky year, so they didn’t have many marks to go on,” Arevalo said. “But I know my workouts this year were really, really good. … I know that next year is going to be a really good year.”
Running at the UTSA Invitational in September, Arevalo was trying to make an inside pass on a sharp curve when he accidentally stepped into a hole, twisting his ankle.
Rather than dropping out of the race, Arevalo continued to a 28th-place finish. He put some ice on the ankle, but that was hardly any help. He knew he should have taken time off or visited with trainers, but he didn’t want to miss a moment of his senior season.
“I really practiced hard on my ankle and really stressed it out,” Arevalo said. “I didn’t have good races after then. I kept tweaking it and twisting it again.”
He took a few days off and then eased back into training, but he wasn’t at full speed in time for the regional competition. Even transitioning into track season, Arevalo had the ankle flare up once or twice. His bigger issue, however, was mental.
“My confidence was down from cross country,” Arevalo said. “I guess it just continued in track and was kind of downhill. But I stuck through it, and I know that everybody has a rough year.”
He’s expecting to turn it around at UTRGV, foregoing offers from Texas A&M-Kingsville, North Texas, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, Menlo College and a few others to stay as close to home as possible.
He said he’s only on a partial scholarship, but he expects to change that with his performance.
“I expect them to raise it, because I know I’m going to do really good next year,” Arevalo said.
Vela track coach Hernan Figueroa said that Arevalo is “flying under the radar” because of his down season, and that he’ll find success in college because of his range of ability. Arevalo started out primarily as a distance runner but moved into shorter races over time, eventually finding a home running just 400 meters as the second leg of the state-qualifying relay team.
At UTRGV, he hopes to run races ranging from the 5,000 to the 1,600 relay.
“I knew I had speed,” Arevalo said. “A lot of people doubted that a two-mile runner or a mile runner could compete in the 400 or 800. I just wanted to prove I had speed and I could do what they could do. And I did.”
Arevalo became the fourth athlete from the Vela track team to sign a Division-I letter of intent this year, joining Brendon Rivera (Arkansas), Reagan Olguin (Rice) and Adam Herrera (Incarnate Word). Michael Cavazos also signed with Division-II Texas A&M-Kingsville.
Arevalo credited the team’s success to Figueroa, while Figueroa said it was owed to the support of athletic director Michael Salinas and the rest of the department.
“Finally, it happened,” Arevalo said. “I’ve been dreaming about signing somewhere since freshman year, so it’s a really big dream come true. I’m glad that I finally get to be a DI athlete.”