Saturday, April 2
2016 Quotes Saturday, April 2 Girls 3200 Meter Champion, Ashton Endsley (Abilene) On winning at Texas Relays: It feels amazing. I’m so thankful that I was able to come here and compete with such awesome runners, and I feel like it really gears me up for more meets to come. This is a great meet. Boys 3200 Meter Champion, Samuel Worley (NB Canyon) On how it felt to win the Texas relays: It’s pretty indescribable, to win it right after my team mate Alex won it last year makes me very happy, its really kind of an honor to keep that tradition in Canyon. It means a lot to our program. Boys 4x800 Meter Champions Tolulope Badmus (Richm Foster) On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels pretty great, it was a fun experience racing against all these people. It was good. Girls 3200 Meter Champion, Ashton Endsley (Abilene) On what it means to her to win the Texas relays: It feels amazing, Im so thankful that I was able to come here and compete with such awesome runners and I feel like it really gets me up for more meets to come. This is a great meet. Girls 4x800 Meter Champion, Hailey Bock (New Braunfels) On how it feels to win Texas relays for his team: It’s cool, we wanted to come out, we have a really great team this year obviously and so its really great to compete against really good schools and we were in the slow heat unfortunately but that’s okay, we still dominated.
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Women’s 4x800 Meter Champions, Brianna Blanton (Clemson) On their teams win at Texas relays: I mean we’ve been working hard all season, we just came into this race knowing that we had to work together, just win the best race before us, give glory back to Him, and do our best out here. The fan base is awesome, its pretty cool, its an exciting experience. Men’s 4x800 Meter Champions, Efrain Hernandez (Texas A&M) On how it feels to win Texas relays: It’s great, It’s great you know, two years in a row, having last year and this year coming back into it and having two freshmen with not very much experience. It feels good. Women’s High Jump Champion, Rachel McCoy (Unattached) On her performance: It’s just a great day. I’ve been training for this for months now, and I’m just really happy that it all came together when it needed to. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. This is actually my first win being a senior athlete; it’s my first win in general. So I’m ecstatic. I’m on cloud nine right now. Girl’s Shot Put Champion, Elena Bruckner (Valley Christian) On her performance: I was really going for the meet record, which was 52-10 by Michelle Carter. I was feeling good, but it’s tough being without a coach so I didn’t really know what I was doing wrong and what was off. But I think all of my throws, except for one of them that I scratched, were over 50. So it was a solid day.
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On her second win at this year’s Texas Relays: It definitely gives me a confidence boost knowing that I can compete at my future home track. Just being able to travel out here on the field with all of the people in the crowd, it’s just an amazing atmosphere. Boy’s Shot Put Champion, Adrian Piperi (The Woodlands) On his performance: It feels pretty good. Another PR, so this weekend turned out pretty great. On winning his second event at this year’s Texas Relays: It’s great, feels just about as good as yesterday. On the weather conditions: The weather didn’t really affect me much yesterday because by the time I was done yesterday it was all gone. I typically don’t try to think about that, I just try to think about myself when I’m out here. Boy’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, Richmond George Ranch On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. We’ve been working hard for this so all our practice paid off I guess. We started off with the 4x200, we won that earlier, so we just wanted to keep it going and win it all. It feels great to follow up with it. We beat our PR by a whole second. Girl’s 100 Meter Hurdles Champion, Jernaya Sharp (Greenhill School) On her meet record-breaking performance: I’m really excited, I feel good. I ran the same exact time as yesterday, but I’m pretty pleased with that. I’m glad that I have the meet record. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels amazing especially since it’s my senior year. This is my third time at the Texas Relays and I won back-to-back championships in the hurdles, so I’m still very excited right now.
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Boy’s 110 Meter Hurdles Champion, Landon Malouf (St. Thomas) On his performance: This is my second Texas Relays and I came in seventh in the finals. Today feels great. I’ve been aiming for it for a while. It wasn’t the time I was hoping for but it got the job done. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels like a big accomplishment I’ve been aiming for. All of the hard work I put in finally paid off. Men’s 110 Meter Hurdles Champion, Javier Lopez (TAMU-Kingsville) On his performance: This is my second Texas Relays and my second year in America. I’m pretty excited because when I came here I heard a lot about the Texas Relays, so it’s an honor to run in the final. Last year I came in fourth or fifth and I was really excited, so this year I came with more motivation and right now I made the final with the best time so I just tried to win the meet. So I’m pretty proud of myself. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It gives me a lot of motivation to keep going this season. It keeps motivating me to practice hard and try to go with more power and energy. Women’s High Jump Champion, Rachel McCoy (Unattached) On her performance: It’s just a great day. I’ve been training for this for months now, and I’m just really happy that it all came together when it needed to. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. This is actually my first win being a senior athlete; it’s my first win in general. So I’m ecstatic. I’m on cloud nine right now.
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Women’s Discus Champion, Shelbi Vaughan (Texas A&M) On her performance: This is my seventh Relays, and this year doesn’t feel as great as last year’s but it’s nice knowing I still got first place. This is my fourth time here as a collegiate athlete and I’ve won every single year so that’s really nice. Not as good as I wanted to throw, but it’s still pretty consistent, so that’s nice. I’d just like to keep continuing with that and get bigger marks as we go on in the season. It’s still really early for me so I’m not too worried about it. Boy’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Brandon Taylor (Friendswood) On his performance: It felt good. All weekend, my legs have felt kind of tight just because of traveling, running and training. It felt good to win here in front of my friends and my little cousin. It’s just a blessing. It feels great. Women’s High Jump Champion, Rachel McCoy (Unattached) On her performance: It’s just a great day. I’ve been training for this for months now, and I’m just really happy that it all came together when it needed to. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. This is actually my first win being a senior athlete; it’s my first win in general. So I’m ecstatic. I’m on cloud nine right now. Men’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Tevin Hester (Clemson) On his performance: I’m so excited, it’s nice to get the meet record. This is the first time I’ve been in hot weather this season. It feels nice to win my first Texas Relays. Women’s Long Jump Champion, Nataliyah Friar (LSU) On her performance: I feel okay by beating my opener. I happy that I got a good one out on my very first jump, but that last one… ugh! But I know it’s there and I know a lot bigger jumps are coming soon. So I’m pretty happy about my performance.
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On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my third Texas Relays but today is my first win. It feels so good. I came in last night, kept praying over and over this morning saying, “Jesus, let me get in.” I’ve been working so hard and, like I said, I’ve been getting 21-22 foot jumps but I’ll take a 20-8.00 to start out, but that’s a really good start. So I’m going to do better than that for the rest of the season. On her best jump: It feels really good. I’m glad that was trying to time the win, so it wouldn’t be too much but you get a little bit. Because if you get a really big jump, I wanted it to be legal so I would get a good mark. I’m just going to try to carry it over to the trials this summer. Women’s Shot Put Champion, Valentina Muzaric (Auburn) On her performance: I’m in full practice, so of course I’m not on my best but I’m happy because it’s my favorite meet, actually. I’m also a senior, so I’m happy I won. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my first Texas Relays because I had two surgeries last year. It’s amazing to win because the atmosphere is awesome, there are so many people, the organization is great, everything runs on time… I love it. I really like this place. Men’s Shot Put Champion, Steven Mozia (Unattached) On his performance: I did okay, not exactly what I wanted. But a win’s a win. On how it feels to get his second win the Texas Relays: I came here many times in college, but it feels good. It just means that my outdoor season is about to be really good. I didn’t have that much practice because of Easter and a whole bunch of traveling since I was at indoor worlds. To have only one or two outdoor practices and do well here means a lot to me. Boy’s 4x400 Meter Relay Champions, Arlington Bowie On their performance: That’s the best we’ve ran. We just wanted to break our best record and ended up breaking our school record. Our goal this whole season was to break the school record which we did today. We didn’t expect to break it this early and we still have district and area to look forward to.
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On attending their second Texas Relays: We weren’t that good last year but we’ve gotten a lot better over the summer with summer track and working out in practice. It really improved us. On earning the win in front of a roaring crowd: It’s amazing. We never thought we would win because last year we didn’t even make it to the finals. To come back and win it this year is amazing. We had a lot of goals coming in this year, we made it a business trip, so it was a lot of fun at the end. Women’s 4x400 Meter Relay Champions, Purdue On their performance: I feel like everyone went out there and executed. We ran what our coach asked us to run but we didn’t quite get the time we wanted, although we were close to it. Just with all of the weather changes from yesterday to today, I think all of us performed to our best to start the season. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels really good. The fans are really good and the support is really strong. One of us is from Texas so we knew performing at the Texas Relays was big. The fans pumped us up and the weather was nice. Women’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, LSU On their performance: We just wanted to start off by putting the team in a good position. We’re so proud. We have to be able to trust each other on each pass. Basically as a team we like relay meets because we just want to come out and have a good time and show the talent we have on the team. It’s always fun. Our goal is just to go out and compete well and have fun. Go Tigers. Girl’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, Cin. Withrow (Division I) On their performance: Our second meet we did really well, three seconds from prelims. We feel tired but happy.
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Boy’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, Stafford (Division I) On their performance: We feel great. It was our first win. We were nervous, but we ran hard. At the second leg I just wanted to make sure I got the stick to my teammate so he could take care of third to try and finish it off. By the time we got to the third leg, we just wanted to keep what we had going. We knew we had some good competition, and in the last leg we just got in the zone and ran the race. Boy’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, Richmond George Ranch (Division II) On their performance: We’re tired, but we feel good. We were tired from the 4x100 relays. We were freaking out before the race, but we were able to calm down and run our race. Girl’s 4x800 Meter Relay Champions, Lew Marcus On their performance: I would say that we’re shocked. We were first coming into this for a top three finish. I think we all subconsciously wanted to win, but we never really said it out loud. But we’re shocked and excited with the win. Boy’s 4x800 Meter Relay Champions, Houston Strake Jesuit On their performance: We feel good but we’re kind of tired. We didn’t beat our school record so we wish we did that, but with our performance today we think we did really well. At the end of the day we got the win and that was our goal for the day and priority. Men’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, TCU On their performance: I think it’s a great start to the season, especially since we’ve really been looking forward to the 4x100 this year. With the disappointment of coming in second at nationals, we were the fastest team going into the final today. I feel like our new guys really stepped in with a huge improvement in our first leg. I think we’ve got the team this year that can win nationals.
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Women’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, LSU On their performance: I think we’re all excited because this is the first time we’ve actually gotten through a whole race this season. So to come through and run a 4x100 is really exciting and motivating for us. There were some things we needed to fix with the exchanges and the marks, so we’re going to go back to the drawing board and fix those because there were big errors. So to say that we ran that fast with those mistakes… I’m excited to see what happens when we fix those. Boy’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, Stafford On their performance: Well, the first thing was that we wanted to run our hardest and run all the way through. We were throwing the stick and it wasn’t that good of a stick, we could’ve done better. We came out with the win so that was okay. We noticed that by the time of the third leg, we weren’t usually where we were so we tried to make up a little bit and try to transfer the stick safely and, when we did, we took it home. We can go home to Stafford with a gold. Women’s Shot Put Champion, Valentina Muzaric (Auburn) On her performance: I’m in full practice, so of course I’m not on my best but I’m happy because it’s my favorite meet, actually. I’m also a senior, so I’m happy I won. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my first Texas Relays because I had two surgeries last year. It’s amazing to win because the atmosphere is awesome, there are so many people, the organization is great, everything runs on time… I love it. I really like this place. Women’s Shot Put Champion, Valentina Muzaric (Auburn) On her performance: I’m in full practice, so of course I’m not on my best but I’m happy because it’s my favorite meet, actually. I’m also a senior, so I’m happy I won.
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On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my first Texas Relays because I had two surgeries last year. It’s amazing to win because the atmosphere is awesome, there are so many people, the organization is great, everything runs on time… I love it. I really like this place. Men’s 4x100 Meter Relay Invitational Champions, USA All Star White On being at Mike A. Myers Stadium: We’ve been in Texas before the race but we’ve never been here for a Texas Relays. The stadium is everything that they say it is. The crowd is loud, the competition is good, and it’s just a fun environment to compete at. On their performance: It was good, we’re glad we got the win. Sticks were pretty good for today to put everything together. Women’s 4x100 Relay Invitational Champions, Trinidad & Tobago On their performance: Physically, I think the team felt great but this is the first time we’ve run all season so we’re still getting the hang of it. It was a little bit tricky, but we’re just thankful we got on the track and put up a good time and looking forward to Rio. Girl’s 100 Meter Hurdles Champion, Tonea Marshall (Arlington Seguin) On her performance: I’m tired. My goal wasn’t to break the record, but just to go out there and execute my race. I had a lot of races before this one, so it was just nerve-wracking. Women’s 100 Meter Hurdles Champion, Tobi Amusan (UTEP) On her performance: Not really good, because I wasn’t thinking I was going to run as close with the rest of the group, but it was still good. There was a lot of good competition. Women’s 100 Meter Hurdles Invitational Champion, Morgan Goodwin (Unattached) On her performance: I felt really good. I was very smooth with a good opening time, so I was happy about it.
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On being back in Texas for her first Relays since graduating: It feels really good. It’s home. Everybody still treats you the same when you come back. They love us. Boy’s Division II 110 Meter Hurdles Champion, Norman Grimes (Canyon) On his performance: This is my third Texas Relays. Today was alright, this is my third 110 race of the year so I’m trying to get back into the rhythm of fast turnover, but I’m glad the weather cooperated. Not as fast of a time as I’d like, I ran faster in prelims. I also had a couple of run-ins with the hurdles in my final. A lot of things to improve, but overall I’m happy. Boy’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Cameron Montgomery (Stafford) On his performance: To be honest, I ran 10.69 earlier in the year. I said I needed to improve my start and I improved my start. I just held my race, ran strong to the finish, and set a PR. Women’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Morolake Akinosun (Texas) On her performance: It’s great, it’s my third time running here as a Texas athlete and it feels phenomenal. I’ve been training for the 100 a lot, it’s my best event. It just feels great. On the winning the 100-meter dash three years in a row: I wouldn’t say it was my expectation, but it was definitely the goal. I realized midway through the training season that I could be the first one ever to do that. We’ve had some of the greatest track & field athletes come through both the University of Texas and this meet, so it’s incredible for me. On running 11.07: It’s fantastic, that was my second 100 of the year. It can only get better from here. On her goals for the upcoming season: I want a spot on the Olympic team. The way track & field works is who has the best race on that day, so everyone’s close. It would mean the world to me. It’s something you dream about from the time that you’re really little: to see yourself actually on an Olympic team. To know that it’s a reachable goal for me, it means a lot.
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Women’s 1500 Meter Champion, Dana Mecke (Unattached) On her performance: I went out there and I think I was at 2:20 through the 800, so I wanted to be real conservative and then once the rabbit stepped off, I just kind of pressed a little bit for my last 600 meters. I gradually picked it up and played into the last lap to see how much I had left. It was my first race so I was testing the waters, and that’s what I did. I felt like I had a lot left, so I felt really good about that. I’m surprised I ran what I did, I was really happy. On following up following a breakout year last year: Just keep training hard and keeping focused. Right now we have more trials coming up, so you never know what’s going to happen. So I’m going to keep going forward and keep running hard and training hard. Girls Triple Jump High School Final, Tara Davis – Agoura On the difference in weather between today and the yesterday when she won the long jump: Yeah this is so much better, way better than yesterday. On the difference between participating in the triple jump and the long jump: For triple jump you have to have a little more stability, you have to be more relaxed you can’t be as forceful as in long jump. But it’s the same techniques basically. It’s a different event, I can tell you that. On how it feels to be only land a 43-2 in the triple jump and be so close to Asa Garcia’s distance of 43-7 ¼ from the day before: It feels really good. That’s my PR for the season and PR overall so that feels really good for doing it here with this track. On her getting the fans involved during her jumps: Yeah, it pumps me up. Long jump and triple jump aren’t really events that people really pay attention to. I’m trying to change that right now so that people actually pay attention to those events. Boys Triple Jump High School Final, Dexter Neboh – Odessa Permian On if he has been to Texas Relays and how he enjoyed it: No this is my first year. It was good, I’ve been here before to watch my brothers and stuff but competing in it was a good experience, with all the atmosphere.
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On what was different between not meeting his expectations in the long jump the day before and his dominating performance in the triple jump today: I just came in here with a different mindset. Each jump is a different jump so make it your best. That’s it really. On if he tends to excel more in the triple jump in comparison to his long jump: Yeah, my best event is the triple jump and long jump hits every now and then. I’m satisfied with my performance, that’s my PR this year. I still have a lot of stuff to work on but I’ll take the win. Women’s Pole Vault Section A Univ/College Final, Jessie Johnson – Auburn – Jr. On why she went for 4’50 after already winning with the 4’40 and if she was looking for the collegiate record: I’m a little bit from that because of Sandy and Denny and all them last year just smoking the competition. That was more for official Olympics trials jump because I’ve jumped it but that is the official “A standard” jump, and I really want that bar because I have jumped it once. I know it was in practice but I technically did jump it. I just want it so bad. On her hitting the 4’50 vault in practice: People say no. I say no, but technically at practice after national actually, last year. Nationals kind of didn’t go so well so I asked my coach if I could jump one more time at Auburn. We put up some bars and I cleared it, but of course it doesn’t matter if you cleared it at practice. On how many Texas Relays she has been to: I went to high school here in Texas. I don’t know how many people know that, so I’ve been to at least seven. I think it’s seven because I went all four years of high school, I believe, and then three in college. On if she accomplished what she came out to Texas Relays for: Yes, I did. It took awhile to get into the groove. I don’t know how much you saw but 4’05 and 4’20 were not good. I was getting really frustrated but I was just trying to tell myself, ‘okay, relax. Keep it together.’ Because that’s a big thing, I wouldn’t say my temper, but just keeping my self centered and not getting too excited or too angry, or too this or too that. It’s just, ‘Okay. Why are you here? How do you jump?’ And remembering what it is and how you do it instead of being, ‘aw, I missed that.’ Just keeping it together always helps.
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Men’s High Jump Section A Univ/Coll Final, Jeron Robinson – TAMU Kingsville On how many times he’s competed at Texas Relays: This was my fourth one. On if he met the goals he set for himself this weekend and if he had a set height he was looking to reach: I was actually going for 7’8” but I didn’t get it today, so next week. On if he has enjoyed being in Austin and how he likes performing on a big stage like the Texas Relays: I tend to perform better when it’s a big crowd. When it’s a little crowd I’m not too ‘hype’ so I like performing in front of a big crowd. On how he’s doing in his conference this season: For my conference, I’m actually leading right now. I think the next highest height is 6’4”. So I’m leading right now for conference. Men’s High Jump Section A Univ/Coll Final, Trey Culver – Texas Tech On if he met the goals he was hoping to accomplish this weekend: I just always try to go out there and compete. The goal is always to go out there and give glory to god and try to represent him. I’m happy with what I did but as a competitor you’re never satisfied. I know I still have more in me and I hope that I can show that later on. On him ‘pumping up’ the crowd and if that gives him motivation: I love it out here, the fans are great. ‘The clap’ helped me a lot and it’s just more energy. More energy to help you clear the bar. On his confidence level coming into the event and if he expected to get the win: Yeah, every time I step out I expect to win. That’s always the goal. If you’re not going out there expecting to win then I don’t know why you’re out there. On having his coaches and teammates at the meet supporting him: Having my teammates and my coaches, having them all around me and their support and their knowledge. They know so much about high jump. Them helping me out has brought me this far for sure.
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Men’s Pole Vault Elite Final, Shawn Barber – Nike On getting the best outdoor mark in pole vault for the year with 5.91 meters: Well I think there’s a reason why everyone wants to come to Texas relays. Seems like there’s always beautiful weather, beautiful winds. Fortunately the winds turned around for us today and they helped us out provided us with some good performances. On competing for his first time unattached: so far I’ve loved it. I love the professional life, and I’ve loved being able to come and compete for Nike. For me, it’s just a dream come true. On his three attempts to vault 6.01 meters, and if he was planning to attempt that height coming into the event: The wind was doing some weird things at the start of the meet. So really for me, I was just trying to come in and compete. It was a great crowd of athletes and to be able to come in and win it, that was the first goal. I came here last year, I set the record, tied it anyway with 5.90, so I wanted to be able to jump 5.91 and beat that record. Now hopefully, 6.01, 6 meters plus will just be something that happens in the future. On his recent performances here at Myers stadium and why he seems to do so well here: Absolutely, I kind of consider myself at home here. I grew up in Texas, I did a lot of high school meets here as well and everything else, so for me its like coming home and jumping at a home facility almost. Men’s 1600 Relay University C. Price Jr. Final, LSU – LaMar Bruton, Michael Cherry, Cyril Grayson, Renard Howell On how long they have been running together as a foursome Cherry: This is our first year, second semester. We just joined [pointing to Bruton]. They were on the team last year [pointing to Grayson and Howell] so they had a little chemistry. We had just joined the pack, he’s from Ohio State [referring to Bruton] and I’m from Florida State. On how it feels to perform in front of the crowd for Texas Relays: Howell: It was nice. We’re used to really big crowds, we like big moments. So we like races like this where we can come and show people how hard we’ve been working. We grind hard together so we want to show people that we’re grinding.
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On if this was their first time at the Texas Relays: Grayson: third. Howell: This was my first one. Last year we didn’t get to run because of some injuries to our team. But, I’m glad we got to come out here with these guys and give a good performance. We’re proud. On coming to Austin and the overall atmosphere: Grayson: It’s a good atmosphere to run in. With a big crowd, track meets don’t usually draw very big crowds but when it does it’s just exciting to run because it gets your adrenaline pumping. You don’t want to let the fans down so you know you’re going to get a good race. On their confidence level coming into the race and if they expected to win: Cherry: We already knew we were going to win, we’re confident. Howell: It’s win or win for us. Win or win. Nothing in our minds but winning. Bruton: Win or win. Grayson: Since this year started, we’re undefeated as a four by four. When you’re up there, you know you just have a chip on your shoulder that everybody else is trying to knock off. We’re guys, we’re confident, our masculinity, we’re not going to let anybody knock that off our shoulder. Women’s 1600 Meter Relay University Richard S. Ross Final, Texas – C. Gordon, A. Jones, M. Akinosun, C. Okolo Courtney Okolo On how she felt they ran: I feel like it was a good time. It was 3:26.54 I think. That’s good, that’s real good. Things are going to open up for us so I was excited about it. On what this win means being on her home turf at Texas Relays: I feel like, I know it’s expected. It’s expected for us, we have to win the four by four. It’s not about ‘Oh let’s just try to run a fast time.’ We have to win. There’s nothing below that. It feels good to accomplish that.
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On her opening up the race right away: Yeah, once you get the stick you just try to open up the gap a little bit so it doesn’t leave any room for a battle at the end. So I just tried to run the smartest race that I could to keep the lead for our team. Men’s 1600 Relay University C. Price Jr. Final, Zack Bilderback, Texas On if they planned to have the performance that they did: We knew coming off indoors that we were going to break that record because we were close at indoors already. This is our first time running the relays so to break it right now is a good sign. On the final stretch of the race: Coming around the corner I just tried to hang on to his hip, because I knew that he was going to start kicking. And then at the end I was trying to feed off the crowd. On him not seeming that excited by his time: I’m just real tired right now. We were just really confident that we were going to break that. It’s not a surprise that we broke it, I’m happy that we broke it this early. Girls 4x400 Meter Relay HS Div. II, Birexus Hawkins On the overall performance and gaining the energy they needed to finish strong: I knew the first leg we were going to go. Second leg I knew she was going to go. When I saw Evette [Blanks] she was coming in, she looked tired but I knew she was rewinding me. So I kept my pace, I ran my first hundred, strided out my second hundred. At home, I wanted to win I wanted to give it to my coach, for them to be happy to go home. Boys 4x400 Meter Relay HS Div. 1, Cathedral On how they feel about their performance: We did good. With the four by two we got third. We just sucked it up and said we had to make it up for the four by four and that’s what we did. We came out from Cali[fornia], we wanted to perform, put our school on the map and we succeeded. Men’s 1 Mile Champion, Jonah Koech (UTEP)
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On his performance: I feel really good. I pressured them and I pressured my body so far for the race. This is the start of the season for outdoors. It’s a good start from here and a sign of good things to come. On avenging a poor performance yesterday: Yeah, it was crazy weather. I wasn’t feeling good yesterday and when I was running I was kind of afraid of the wind. It was something weird running in that. Today was nicer than I thought it was going to be. Women’s 200 Meter Dash Invitational Champion, Natasha Hastings (Under Armour/NYAC) On her performance: I felt pretty good going through the turn. I’m actually kind of surprised to see the wind because it felt like I was running into the wind instead of having a crosswind. But I went into the race with the same kind of mentality I’ve had all year. I’ve been working tremendously on my technique, so I really wanted to run a clean technique race and let the time just take care of itself. Men’s 200 Meter Dash Champion, Shota Iizuka (Mizuno Track Club) On his performance: I feel good about it, I didn’t get the time I wanted but I have confidence. I pulled a muscle in the championships last year so I’m happy to be back in the nation. Women’s 4x400 Meter Relay Individual Champions, Team Monday Kendra Chambers: It felt great, I was just trying to get my feet wet and I thought it’d be a good workout and kind of warmup for the Open 400. It turned out very well. Men’s 4x400 Meter Relay Champions, Stephen F. Austin On their performance: It’s amazing, we’ve worked really hard. It’s a great experience. This whole year we’ve been working hard and it’s all glory to God. We all believed in each other and we all knew we could do it. It’s all glory to God. When coach said go out there and race, we were in the hunt for the lead and we did an amazing job. Coach told us that he wanted us coming out of the box in the race, and we did what we could do.
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Women’s 4x800 Meter Champions, Brianna Blanton (Clemson) On their teams win at Texas relays: I mean we’ve been working hard all season, we just came into this race knowing that we had to work together, just win the best race before us, give glory back to Him, and do our best out here. The fan base is awesome, its pretty cool, its an exciting experience. Men’s 4x800 Meter Champions, Efrain Hernandez (Texas A&M) On how it feels to win Texas relays: It’s great, It’s great you know, two years in a row, having last year and this year coming back into it and having two freshmen with not very much experience. It feels good. Women’s High Jump Champion, Rachel McCoy (Unattached) On her performance: It’s just a great day. I’ve been training for this for months now, and I’m just really happy that it all came together when it needed to. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. This is actually my first win being a senior athlete; it’s my first win in general. So I’m ecstatic. I’m on cloud nine right now. Girl’s Shot Put Champion, Elena Bruckner (Valley Christian) On her performance: I was really going for the meet record, which was 52-10 by Michelle Carter. I was feeling good, but it’s tough being without a coach so I didn’t really know what I was doing wrong and what was off. But I think all of my throws, except for one of them that I scratched, were over 50. So it was a solid day.
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On her second win at this year’s Texas Relays: It definitely gives me a confidence boost knowing that I can compete at my future home track. Just being able to travel out here on the field with all of the people in the crowd, it’s just an amazing atmosphere. Boy’s Shot Put Champion, Adrian Piperi (The Woodlands) On his performance: It feels pretty good. Another PR, so this weekend turned out pretty great. On winning his second event at this year’s Texas Relays: It’s great, feels just about as good as yesterday. On the weather conditions: The weather didn’t really affect me much yesterday because by the time I was done yesterday it was all gone. I typically don’t try to think about that, I just try to think about myself when I’m out here. Boy’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, Richmond George Ranch On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. We’ve been working hard for this so all our practice paid off I guess. We started off with the 4x200, we won that earlier, so we just wanted to keep it going and win it all. It feels great to follow up with it. We beat our PR by a whole second. Girl’s 100 Meter Hurdles Champion, Jernaya Sharp (Greenhill School) On her meet record-breaking performance: I’m really excited, I feel good. I ran the same exact time as yesterday, but I’m pretty pleased with that. I’m glad that I have the meet record. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels amazing especially since it’s my senior year. This is my third time at the Texas Relays and I won back-to-back championships in the hurdles, so I’m still very excited right now.
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Boy’s 110 Meter Hurdles Champion, Landon Malouf (St. Thomas) On his performance: This is my second Texas Relays and I came in seventh in the finals. Today feels great. I’ve been aiming for it for a while. It wasn’t the time I was hoping for but it got the job done. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels like a big accomplishment I’ve been aiming for. All of the hard work I put in finally paid off. Men’s 110 Meter Hurdles Champion, Javier Lopez (TAMU-Kingsville) On his performance: This is my second Texas Relays and my second year in America. I’m pretty excited because when I came here I heard a lot about the Texas Relays, so it’s an honor to run in the final. Last year I came in fourth or fifth and I was really excited, so this year I came with more motivation and right now I made the final with the best time so I just tried to win the meet. So I’m pretty proud of myself. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It gives me a lot of motivation to keep going this season. It keeps motivating me to practice hard and try to go with more power and energy. Women’s High Jump Champion, Rachel McCoy (Unattached) On her performance: It’s just a great day. I’ve been training for this for months now, and I’m just really happy that it all came together when it needed to. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. This is actually my first win being a senior athlete; it’s my first win in general. So I’m ecstatic. I’m on cloud nine right now.
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Women’s Discus Champion, Shelbi Vaughan (Texas A&M) On her performance: This is my seventh Relays, and this year doesn’t feel as great as last year’s but it’s nice knowing I still got first place. This is my fourth time here as a collegiate athlete and I’ve won every single year so that’s really nice. Not as good as I wanted to throw, but it’s still pretty consistent, so that’s nice. I’d just like to keep continuing with that and get bigger marks as we go on in the season. It’s still really early for me so I’m not too worried about it. Boy’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Brandon Taylor (Friendswood) On his performance: It felt good. All weekend, my legs have felt kind of tight just because of traveling, running and training. It felt good to win here in front of my friends and my little cousin. It’s just a blessing. It feels great. Women’s High Jump Champion, Rachel McCoy (Unattached) On her performance: It’s just a great day. I’ve been training for this for months now, and I’m just really happy that it all came together when it needed to. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels great. This is actually my first win being a senior athlete; it’s my first win in general. So I’m ecstatic. I’m on cloud nine right now. Men’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Tevin Hester (Clemson) On his performance: I’m so excited, it’s nice to get the meet record. This is the first time I’ve been in hot weather this season. It feels nice to win my first Texas Relays. Women’s Long Jump Champion, Nataliyah Friar (LSU) On her performance: I feel okay by beating my opener. I happy that I got a good one out on my very first jump, but that last one… ugh! But I know it’s there and I know a lot bigger jumps are coming soon. So I’m pretty happy about my performance.
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On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my third Texas Relays but today is my first win. It feels so good. I came in last night, kept praying over and over this morning saying, “Jesus, let me get in.” I’ve been working so hard and, like I said, I’ve been getting 21-22 foot jumps but I’ll take a 20-8.00 to start out, but that’s a really good start. So I’m going to do better than that for the rest of the season. On her best jump: It feels really good. I’m glad that was trying to time the win, so it wouldn’t be too much but you get a little bit. Because if you get a really big jump, I wanted it to be legal so I would get a good mark. I’m just going to try to carry it over to the trials this summer. Women’s Shot Put Champion, Valentina Muzaric (Auburn) On her performance: I’m in full practice, so of course I’m not on my best but I’m happy because it’s my favorite meet, actually. I’m also a senior, so I’m happy I won. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my first Texas Relays because I had two surgeries last year. It’s amazing to win because the atmosphere is awesome, there are so many people, the organization is great, everything runs on time… I love it. I really like this place. Men’s Shot Put Champion, Steven Mozia (Unattached) On his performance: I did okay, not exactly what I wanted. But a win’s a win. On how it feels to get his second win the Texas Relays: I came here many times in college, but it feels good. It just means that my outdoor season is about to be really good. I didn’t have that much practice because of Easter and a whole bunch of traveling since I was at indoor worlds. To have only one or two outdoor practices and do well here means a lot to me. Boy’s 4x400 Meter Relay Champions, Arlington Bowie On their performance: That’s the best we’ve ran. We just wanted to break our best record and ended up breaking our school record. Our goal this whole season was to break the school record which we did today. We didn’t expect to break it this early and we still have district and area to look forward to.
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On attending their second Texas Relays: We weren’t that good last year but we’ve gotten a lot better over the summer with summer track and working out in practice. It really improved us. On earning the win in front of a roaring crowd: It’s amazing. We never thought we would win because last year we didn’t even make it to the finals. To come back and win it this year is amazing. We had a lot of goals coming in this year, we made it a business trip, so it was a lot of fun at the end. Women’s 4x400 Meter Relay Champions, Purdue On their performance: I feel like everyone went out there and executed. We ran what our coach asked us to run but we didn’t quite get the time we wanted, although we were close to it. Just with all of the weather changes from yesterday to today, I think all of us performed to our best to start the season. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: It feels really good. The fans are really good and the support is really strong. One of us is from Texas so we knew performing at the Texas Relays was big. The fans pumped us up and the weather was nice. Women’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, LSU On their performance: We just wanted to start off by putting the team in a good position. We’re so proud. We have to be able to trust each other on each pass. Basically as a team we like relay meets because we just want to come out and have a good time and show the talent we have on the team. It’s always fun. Our goal is just to go out and compete well and have fun. Go Tigers. Girl’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, Cin. Withrow (Division I) On their performance: Our second meet we did really well, three seconds from prelims. We feel tired but happy.
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Boy’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, Stafford (Division I) On their performance: We feel great. It was our first win. We were nervous, but we ran hard. At the second leg I just wanted to make sure I got the stick to my teammate so he could take care of third to try and finish it off. By the time we got to the third leg, we just wanted to keep what we had going. We knew we had some good competition, and in the last leg we just got in the zone and ran the race. Boy’s 4x200 Meter Relay Champions, Richmond George Ranch (Division II) On their performance: We’re tired, but we feel good. We were tired from the 4x100 relays. We were freaking out before the race, but we were able to calm down and run our race. Girl’s 4x800 Meter Relay Champions, Lew Marcus On their performance: I would say that we’re shocked. We were first coming into this for a top three finish. I think we all subconsciously wanted to win, but we never really said it out loud. But we’re shocked and excited with the win. Boy’s 4x800 Meter Relay Champions, Houston Strake Jesuit On their performance: We feel good but we’re kind of tired. We didn’t beat our school record so we wish we did that, but with our performance today we think we did really well. At the end of the day we got the win and that was our goal for the day and priority. Men’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, TCU On their performance: I think it’s a great start to the season, especially since we’ve really been looking forward to the 4x100 this year. With the disappointment of coming in second at nationals, we were the fastest team going into the final today. I feel like our new guys really stepped in with a huge improvement in our first leg. I think we’ve got the team this year that can win nationals.
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Women’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, LSU On their performance: I think we’re all excited because this is the first time we’ve actually gotten through a whole race this season. So to come through and run a 4x100 is really exciting and motivating for us. There were some things we needed to fix with the exchanges and the marks, so we’re going to go back to the drawing board and fix those because there were big errors. So to say that we ran that fast with those mistakes… I’m excited to see what happens when we fix those. Boy’s 4x100 Meter Relay Champions, Stafford On their performance: Well, the first thing was that we wanted to run our hardest and run all the way through. We were throwing the stick and it wasn’t that good of a stick, we could’ve done better. We came out with the win so that was okay. We noticed that by the time of the third leg, we weren’t usually where we were so we tried to make up a little bit and try to transfer the stick safely and, when we did, we took it home. We can go home to Stafford with a gold. Women’s Shot Put Champion, Valentina Muzaric (Auburn) On her performance: I’m in full practice, so of course I’m not on my best but I’m happy because it’s my favorite meet, actually. I’m also a senior, so I’m happy I won. On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my first Texas Relays because I had two surgeries last year. It’s amazing to win because the atmosphere is awesome, there are so many people, the organization is great, everything runs on time… I love it. I really like this place. Women’s Shot Put Champion, Valentina Muzaric (Auburn) On her performance: I’m in full practice, so of course I’m not on my best but I’m happy because it’s my favorite meet, actually. I’m also a senior, so I’m happy I won.
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On how it feels to win the Texas Relays: This is my first Texas Relays because I had two surgeries last year. It’s amazing to win because the atmosphere is awesome, there are so many people, the organization is great, everything runs on time… I love it. I really like this place. Men’s 4x100 Meter Relay Invitational Champions, USA All Star White On being at Mike A. Myers Stadium: We’ve been in Texas before the race but we’ve never been here for a Texas Relays. The stadium is everything that they say it is. The crowd is loud, the competition is good, and it’s just a fun environment to compete at. On their performance: It was good, we’re glad we got the win. Sticks were pretty good for today to put everything together. Women’s 4x100 Relay Invitational Champions, Trinidad & Tobago On their performance: Physically, I think the team felt great but this is the first time we’ve run all season so we’re still getting the hang of it. It was a little bit tricky, but we’re just thankful we got on the track and put up a good time and looking forward to Rio. Girl’s 100 Meter Hurdles Champion, Tonea Marshall (Arlington Seguin) On her performance: I’m tired. My goal wasn’t to break the record, but just to go out there and execute my race. I had a lot of races before this one, so it was just nerve-wracking. Women’s 100 Meter Hurdles Champion, Tobi Amusan (UTEP) On her performance: Not really good, because I wasn’t thinking I was going to run as close with the rest of the group, but it was still good. There was a lot of good competition. Women’s 100 Meter Hurdles Invitational Champion, Morgan Goodwin (Unattached) On her performance: I felt really good. I was very smooth with a good opening time, so I was happy about it.
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On being back in Texas for her first Relays since graduating: It feels really good. It’s home. Everybody still treats you the same when you come back. They love us. Boy’s Division II 110 Meter Hurdles Champion, Norman Grimes (Canyon) On his performance: This is my third Texas Relays. Today was alright, this is my third 110 race of the year so I’m trying to get back into the rhythm of fast turnover, but I’m glad the weather cooperated. Not as fast of a time as I’d like, I ran faster in prelims. I also had a couple of run-ins with the hurdles in my final. A lot of things to improve, but overall I’m happy. Boy’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Cameron Montgomery (Stafford) On his performance: To be honest, I ran 10.69 earlier in the year. I said I needed to improve my start and I improved my start. I just held my race, ran strong to the finish, and set a PR. Women’s 100 Meter Dash Champion, Morolake Akinosun (Texas) On her performance: It’s great, it’s my third time running here as a Texas athlete and it feels phenomenal. I’ve been training for the 100 a lot, it’s my best event. It just feels great. On the winning the 100-meter dash three years in a row: I wouldn’t say it was my expectation, but it was definitely the goal. I realized midway through the training season that I could be the first one ever to do that. We’ve had some of the greatest track & field athletes come through both the University of Texas and this meet, so it’s incredible for me. On running 11.07: It’s fantastic, that was my second 100 of the year. It can only get better from here. On her goals for the upcoming season: I want a spot on the Olympic team. The way track & field works is who has the best race on that day, so everyone’s close. It would mean the world to me. It’s something you dream about from the time that you’re really little: to see yourself actually on an Olympic team. To know that it’s a reachable goal for me, it means a lot.
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Women’s 1500 Meter Champion, Dana Mecke (Unattached) On her performance: I went out there and I think I was at 2:20 through the 800, so I wanted to be real conservative and then once the rabbit stepped off, I just kind of pressed a little bit for my last 600 meters. I gradually picked it up and played into the last lap to see how much I had left. It was my first race so I was testing the waters, and that’s what I did. I felt like I had a lot left, so I felt really good about that. I’m surprised I ran what I did, I was really happy. On following up following a breakout year last year: Just keep training hard and keeping focused. Right now we have more trials coming up, so you never know what’s going to happen. So I’m going to keep going forward and keep running hard and training hard. Girls Triple Jump High School Final, Tara Davis – Agoura On the difference in weather between today and the yesterday when she won the long jump: Yeah this is so much better, way better than yesterday. On the difference between participating in the triple jump and the long jump: For triple jump you have to have a little more stability, you have to be more relaxed you can’t be as forceful as in long jump. But it’s the same techniques basically. It’s a different event, I can tell you that. On how it feels to be only land a 43-2 in the triple jump and be so close to Asa Garcia’s distance of 43-7 ¼ from the day before: It feels really good. That’s my PR for the season and PR overall so that feels really good for doing it here with this track. On her getting the fans involved during her jumps: Yeah, it pumps me up. Long jump and triple jump aren’t really events that people really pay attention to. I’m trying to change that right now so that people actually pay attention to those events. Boys Triple Jump High School Final, Dexter Neboh – Odessa Permian On if he has been to Texas Relays and how he enjoyed it: No this is my first year. It was good, I’ve been here before to watch my brothers and stuff but competing in it was a good experience, with all the atmosphere.
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On what was different between not meeting his expectations in the long jump the day before and his dominating performance in the triple jump today: I just came in here with a different mindset. Each jump is a different jump so make it your best. That’s it really. On if he tends to excel more in the triple jump in comparison to his long jump: Yeah, my best event is the triple jump and long jump hits every now and then. I’m satisfied with my performance, that’s my PR this year. I still have a lot of stuff to work on but I’ll take the win. Women’s Pole Vault Section A Univ/College Final, Jessie Johnson – Auburn – Jr. On why she went for 4’50 after already winning with the 4’40 and if she was looking for the collegiate record: I’m a little bit from that because of Sandy and Denny and all them last year just smoking the competition. That was more for official Olympics trials jump because I’ve jumped it but that is the official “A standard” jump, and I really want that bar because I have jumped it once. I know it was in practice but I technically did jump it. I just want it so bad. On her hitting the 4’50 vault in practice: People say no. I say no, but technically at practice after national actually, last year. Nationals kind of didn’t go so well so I asked my coach if I could jump one more time at Auburn. We put up some bars and I cleared it, but of course it doesn’t matter if you cleared it at practice. On how many Texas Relays she has been to: I went to high school here in Texas. I don’t know how many people know that, so I’ve been to at least seven. I think it’s seven because I went all four years of high school, I believe, and then three in college. On if she accomplished what she came out to Texas Relays for: Yes, I did. It took awhile to get into the groove. I don’t know how much you saw but 4’05 and 4’20 were not good. I was getting really frustrated but I was just trying to tell myself, ‘okay, relax. Keep it together.’ Because that’s a big thing, I wouldn’t say my temper, but just keeping my self centered and not getting too excited or too angry, or too this or too that. It’s just, ‘Okay. Why are you here? How do you jump?’ And remembering what it is and how you do it instead of being, ‘aw, I missed that.’ Just keeping it together always helps.
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Men’s High Jump Section A Univ/Coll Final, Jeron Robinson – TAMU Kingsville On how many times he’s competed at Texas Relays: This was my fourth one. On if he met the goals he set for himself this weekend and if he had a set height he was looking to reach: I was actually going for 7’8” but I didn’t get it today, so next week. On if he has enjoyed being in Austin and how he likes performing on a big stage like the Texas Relays: I tend to perform better when it’s a big crowd. When it’s a little crowd I’m not too ‘hype’ so I like performing in front of a big crowd. On how he’s doing in his conference this season: For my conference, I’m actually leading right now. I think the next highest height is 6’4”. So I’m leading right now for conference. Men’s High Jump Section A Univ/Coll Final, Trey Culver – Texas Tech On if he met the goals he was hoping to accomplish this weekend: I just always try to go out there and compete. The goal is always to go out there and give glory to god and try to represent him. I’m happy with what I did but as a competitor you’re never satisfied. I know I still have more in me and I hope that I can show that later on. On him ‘pumping up’ the crowd and if that gives him motivation: I love it out here, the fans are great. ‘The clap’ helped me a lot and it’s just more energy. More energy to help you clear the bar. On his confidence level coming into the event and if he expected to get the win: Yeah, every time I step out I expect to win. That’s always the goal. If you’re not going out there expecting to win then I don’t know why you’re out there. On having his coaches and teammates at the meet supporting him: Having my teammates and my coaches, having them all around me and their support and their knowledge. They know so much about high jump. Them helping me out has brought me this far for sure.
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Men’s Pole Vault Elite Final, Shawn Barber – Nike On getting the best outdoor mark in pole vault for the year with 5.91 meters: Well I think there’s a reason why everyone wants to come to Texas relays. Seems like there’s always beautiful weather, beautiful winds. Fortunately the winds turned around for us today and they helped us out provided us with some good performances. On competing for his first time unattached: so far I’ve loved it. I love the professional life, and I’ve loved being able to come and compete for Nike. For me, it’s just a dream come true. On his three attempts to vault 6.01 meters, and if he was planning to attempt that height coming into the event: The wind was doing some weird things at the start of the meet. So really for me, I was just trying to come in and compete. It was a great crowd of athletes and to be able to come in and win it, that was the first goal. I came here last year, I set the record, tied it anyway with 5.90, so I wanted to be able to jump 5.91 and beat that record. Now hopefully, 6.01, 6 meters plus will just be something that happens in the future. On his recent performances here at Myers stadium and why he seems to do so well here: Absolutely, I kind of consider myself at home here. I grew up in Texas, I did a lot of high school meets here as well and everything else, so for me its like coming home and jumping at a home facility almost. Men’s 1600 Relay University C. Price Jr. Final, LSU – LaMar Bruton, Michael Cherry, Cyril Grayson, Renard Howell On how long they have been running together as a foursome Cherry: This is our first year, second semester. We just joined [pointing to Bruton]. They were on the team last year [pointing to Grayson and Howell] so they had a little chemistry. We had just joined the pack, he’s from Ohio State [referring to Bruton] and I’m from Florida State. On how it feels to perform in front of the crowd for Texas Relays: Howell: It was nice. We’re used to really big crowds, we like big moments. So we like races like this where we can come and show people how hard we’ve been working. We grind hard together so we want to show people that we’re grinding.
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On if this was their first time at the Texas Relays: Grayson: third. Howell: This was my first one. Last year we didn’t get to run because of some injuries to our team. But, I’m glad we got to come out here with these guys and give a good performance. We’re proud. On coming to Austin and the overall atmosphere: Grayson: It’s a good atmosphere to run in. With a big crowd, track meets don’t usually draw very big crowds but when it does it’s just exciting to run because it gets your adrenaline pumping. You don’t want to let the fans down so you know you’re going to get a good race. On their confidence level coming into the race and if they expected to win: Cherry: We already knew we were going to win, we’re confident. Howell: It’s win or win for us. Win or win. Nothing in our minds but winning. Bruton: Win or win. Grayson: Since this year started, we’re undefeated as a four by four. When you’re up there, you know you just have a chip on your shoulder that everybody else is trying to knock off. We’re guys, we’re confident, our masculinity, we’re not going to let anybody knock that off our shoulder. Women’s 1600 Meter Relay University Richard S. Ross Final, Texas – C. Gordon, A. Jones, M. Akinosun, C. Okolo Courtney Okolo On how she felt they ran: I feel like it was a good time. It was 3:26.54 I think. That’s good, that’s real good. Things are going to open up for us so I was excited about it. On what this win means being on her home turf at Texas Relays: I feel like, I know it’s expected. It’s expected for us, we have to win the four by four. It’s not about ‘Oh let’s just try to run a fast time.’ We have to win. There’s nothing below that. It feels good to accomplish that.
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On her opening up the race right away: Yeah, once you get the stick you just try to open up the gap a little bit so it doesn’t leave any room for a battle at the end. So I just tried to run the smartest race that I could to keep the lead for our team. Men’s 1600 Relay University C. Price Jr. Final, Zack Bilderback, Texas On if they planned to have the performance that they did: We knew coming off indoors that we were going to break that record because we were close at indoors already. This is our first time running the relays so to break it right now is a good sign. On the final stretch of the race: Coming around the corner I just tried to hang on to his hip, because I knew that he was going to start kicking. And then at the end I was trying to feed off the crowd. On him not seeming that excited by his time: I’m just real tired right now. We were just really confident that we were going to break that. It’s not a surprise that we broke it, I’m happy that we broke it this early. Girls 4x400 Meter Relay HS Div. II, Birexus Hawkins On the overall performance and gaining the energy they needed to finish strong: I knew the first leg we were going to go. Second leg I knew she was going to go. When I saw Evette [Blanks] she was coming in, she looked tired but I knew she was rewinding me. So I kept my pace, I ran my first hundred, strided out my second hundred. At home, I wanted to win I wanted to give it to my coach, for them to be happy to go home. Boys 4x400 Meter Relay HS Div. 1, Cathedral On how they feel about their performance: We did good. With the four by two we got third. We just sucked it up and said we had to make it up for the four by four and that’s what we did. We came out from Cali[fornia], we wanted to perform, put our school on the map and we succeeded. Men’s 1 Mile Champion, Jonah Koech (UTEP)
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On his performance: I feel really good. I pressured them and I pressured my body so far for the race. This is the start of the season for outdoors. It’s a good start from here and a sign of good things to come. On avenging a poor performance yesterday: Yeah, it was crazy weather. I wasn’t feeling good yesterday and when I was running I was kind of afraid of the wind. It was something weird running in that. Today was nicer than I thought it was going to be. Women’s 200 Meter Dash Invitational Champion, Natasha Hastings (Under Armour/NYAC) On her performance: I felt pretty good going through the turn. I’m actually kind of surprised to see the wind because it felt like I was running into the wind instead of having a crosswind. But I went into the race with the same kind of mentality I’ve had all year. I’ve been working tremendously on my technique, so I really wanted to run a clean technique race and let the time just take care of itself. Men’s 200 Meter Dash Champion, Shota Iizuka (Mizuno Track Club) On his performance: I feel good about it, I didn’t get the time I wanted but I have confidence. I pulled a muscle in the championships last year so I’m happy to be back in the nation. Women’s 4x400 Meter Relay Individual Champions, Team Monday Kendra Chambers: It felt great, I was just trying to get my feet wet and I thought it’d be a good workout and kind of warmup for the Open 400. It turned out very well. Men’s 4x400 Meter Relay Champions, Stephen F. Austin On their performance: It’s amazing, we’ve worked really hard. It’s a great experience. This whole year we’ve been working hard and it’s all glory to God. We all believed in each other and we all knew we could do it. It’s all glory to God. When coach said go out there and race, we were in the hunt for the lead and we did an amazing job. Coach told us that he wanted us coming out of the box in the race, and we did what we could do.
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