Mission High's De La Rosa making strides as a sophomore

MISSION - Taylor De La Rosa raced down the track, gritting her teeth as she closed in on the finish line, wind in her face, sporting jet black Oakleys and determined on winning - she had it in the bag.

Relief struck her form as she finished the race, ahead by a cool 23 seconds.

It was all part of an impressive showing where she garnered a first-place finish in the 1600-meter race and a down-to-the-wire second place finish in the 800-meter race, an event she does not usually compete in.

The sophomore long distance runner from Mission High is often narrated as the underdog, commonly overshadowed by names like McAllen Memorial's Tricia Terry and PSJA Memorial's Gaby Salazar. However, De La Rosa openly welcomes the darkhorse title.

"I think it's pretty cool," she said, unable to help wearing a smirk. "You get to hear all these people say ‘Wow she's a sophomore? She's going to be a beast when she's a senior.' So it's really cool, I like it. It helps me do better in my race when I have a Tricia Terry in the race, it's like, 'OK I need to be working this much harder just to get where she is.'"

But last Saturday at the Mission Veteran Memorial Patriot Relays, with Terry and Salazar absent, De La Rosa was the clear favorite. Her forte is the 1600- and 3200-meter races, but for training purposes she ran the 800 to improve her speed.

Her preparation is rigorous to say the least, and this season her goal is to make it to the state tournament May 15-16 in Austin. De La Rosa still has much to prove, but feels she is on her way.

"This season I've felt really happy," she said. "I think that I've performed well and done everything that I've need to and just shown people that I'm here to race and have fun, but also be serious at the same time."

De La Rosa took the road less traveled to where she is now. One day, while registering for high school classes she was asked if she wanted to participate in cross country.

She said yes and the rest was history.

"She has been an outstanding athlete from the beginning and even to now," Mission coach Irene Gallegos said. "As she goes through her meets - it's been one at a time - she's been dropping time as we go through. It's all through her training and her goal setting. She's very committed, she's got the determination and as far as her goal she's meeting it as we go through every meet."

De La Rosa dreams of competing in the 2012 Olympics in London, and with the help of her coach and parents she will shoot to live out her dream. She is looking to attend universities with big track programs like Texas A&M.

But for the slender runner, first things first: make it to state.