State Bound: Memorial hurdler Garza ready to take next step

McALLEN — McAllen Memorial’s Jake Garza just fell on his knees. He hunched over and buried his face in his hands. He couldn’t help it. He was overcome with emotions.

Garza had just crossed the finish line to get second in the 300 hurdles at the Region IV-5A meet last week in San Antonio. He qualified for state in his second event after winning gold in the 110 hurdles moments earlier. And Garza just got caught up in the joy.

“I couldn’t control it,” Garza said. “I cried. I thought I might hold it in but I couldn’t help it. I was so happy and I cried.”

A few months ago Garza wasn’t so happy. Garza suffered a hamstring injury to his right leg at the end of the basketball season. He was limited to the role of spectator for the first part of the season.

It wasn’t until the Patriot Relays at Mission Veterans in early April and later the Texas Relays in Austin that Garza started showing glimpses of recovering. But for a while thing’s looked bleak.

“Things didn’t look good,” Garza said. “I wasn’t healing and I was slow coming back.

“But then I ran one of my better races at the Texas Relays. I got to the finals and I felt good. I think that was my turning point.”

Indeed Garza’s been running great since the Texas Relays. He’s consistently run in the low 14s in the 110s over the past month and a half and looked solid at regionals.

Garza missed making it to state last year by 100ths of a second. Last week Garza even set a regional record with a 14.1 in the prelims.

“All we talk about here (McAllen Memorial) is regionals and state,” Memorial head coach Marcus Kaufmann said. “It’s not a big deal to get out of district. We want to get to state and win a state championship.

“He came close in the 110s last year. He wasn’t gonna miss it this year. He won by about five meters.”

But it was in the 300 hurdles that Garza showed his athleticism. Even though the 110s is his strong race, Garza came in second with a new personal best of 37.73.

“We’ve been telling him to run hard all year,” Kaufmann said. “And at about the 150 (meter) mark he saw he was still in the race. And he took off.”

Representative of his season, Garza dug deep late in the race to qualify for state. When the chips were stacked against him and others might have thrown in the towel on the season, Garza kept training.

He kept running, jumping and hurdling. Now Garza’s got one more meet. His biggest to date.

But if the long and arduous road to state has done anything for Garza, it’s prepared him mentally.

“I was injured early on and it didn’t like I would get to state,” Garza said. “But God has a plan for all of us and He knows how it’s going to play out. You just have to believe and good things will happen.”

Eladio Jaimez covers track and field for Valley Freedom Newspapers.