By MARK MOLINA | Staff Writer
SANTA MARIA — When Santa Maria junior Julissa Garcia takes the track at the UIL state meet this Saturday for the 400-meter run, she will be doing so for the second year in a row.
Garcia goes in to this weekend’s meet with some confidence as she hopes to exorcise the demons she has had at big meets during the past three seasons, when she said nerves hindered her performance a bit.
She insists that won’t be the case this time around.
“What motivates me is not wanting to get a slower time than last year, because I know my freshmen year I did very well at area but choked at regionals,” she said. “My sophomore year, I did well at regionals, but at state I choked again. I got too nervous to the point I got a slower time. Now that I’m going again this year, I feel like I won’t be too nervous. I guess being there I’d get too nervous, but now that I have more experience I’ll do better.”
Like most athletes in multiple sports, track got off to a late start.
Garcia came out of basketball season and feared she may not be able to get back to peak performance in time.
“I was nervous and I knew I started later than the other runners,” she said. “I was just scared to be too behind. I started with doing mileage and I was pretty tired. I still had speed, but I still had to work on my mileage.”
Despite not having the strongest competition in the field, Garcia said she turned a corner on the season at the District 32-2A in early April.
She saw a gold medal there as everything but a guarantee, but said it’s the first step toward state.
“My times improved a lot (at district),” Garcia said. “My district meets are always important to me. I know I don’t have a lot of competition, but I need to put in good times for area.”
Garcia clocked in a 1:02.52 to win the 400, and from there her times improved every week.
The junior won the 400 at the 31/32-2A area meet with a time of 1:02.48 and then at the Region IV-2A meet with a season-best 1:01.83 time in the process.
“You can tell the difference from district to regionals,” girls track coach Sonia White said. “Two seconds doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you’re running a sprint, it makes a difference. She didn’t let anything intimidate her, so she felt that once she could go she could win the race. Now (at state) she knows what the expectation is. I feel now, when she steps on that line, she knows what to do. I think she’s aware that she’s capable of running with the rest of those girls.”
Garcia said she will be admittedly a little nervous, but not in the same way as last year.
Since her performance at the regional meet, Garcia said she has taken steps to ensure that nothing feels out of the ordinary and is like a regular meet week.
“Coming off regionals, it’s been the same as always,” Garcia said. “I still do the same things. It’s just another meet.”
IT’S A FAMILY THING
Garcia’s back-to-back trips to Austin is a feat her mother, Jessica Moreno, accomplished during the late 1990s, when she qualified for the state meet three years in a row from 1995-97, picking up a silver medal and two bronzes in the 800-meter run.
Garcia said her background motivated her to take up the sport and is a reason she is thriving today.
“I’ve been running track since I was in seventh grade,” Garcia said. “My mom was always a runner, so I knew I was going to be a runner, too. She’s pretty proud of me, but I think she’d be even prouder if I do better than what she did.”
For Moreno, having a daughter have success on the track isn’t new, as older daughter Jesslynn Garcia qualified for the regional meet as a senior in 2016 before a knee injury derailed her chances at state.
So watching Julissa continue that line of success hasn’t been that surprising for Moreno.
“I’ve always told them that they would be good runners no matter what,” Moreno said. “It’s pretty much in their blood. They have been running since they were younger, and they like it.”
Moreno said she and Julissa bond over the sport but that she doesn’t try to be too involved in her training, trusting her experience and coaches to see her through.
“I just giver her tips and tell her things I remember when I was running,” Moreno said. “I don’t want to give her too much because she has her coaches, and I don’t want her overthinking herself. We talk about it casually … she knows what she needs to do by now, and she should be able to do it.”
Garcia said she will aim for a time in the high 59s this weekend. That was Moreno’s time in the quarter mile, a race she also ran along with her signature 800.