Bailey Goggans and Chachi Gonzales compete at the 2019 UIL 5A state meet in the 800m
The girls 800m event has been under assault over the last five plus years; that includes the Texas girls. What used to be an average time for a girls 800m has been saturated and the standard or state and national leading times have become faster and faster.
A time of 2:10 used to be an elite outdoor time for high school girls. Now, several girls per year are running under that time. Several are even doing it during the indoor season.
This year, it was possible that the Texas UIL state record could have gone down. The current 2:06.71 mark was set in 2016 by McKinney Boyd Alum and current Baylor star Aaliyah Miller. The two girls who were going to take a shot at Miller's mark were 5A studs who were both having good 2020 seasons. Possibly scheduled to race it out against each other for the state title were Marble Falls junior Bailey Goggans and Boerne Champion sophomore Anastacia "Chachi" Gonzales; the winner could have walked away with the state record.
Goggans has already made her presence and ability known by winning two UIL 5A 800m championships in both her freshman and sophomore years. In fact, Goggans has already run under the state record, but she just hasn't done it in Austin yet for it to count as the UIL Record. Goggans dropped 2:06.10, 2:06.61, and 2:06.90 over the last two years. This season, she already ran 2:07.88 during the indoor season at the Texas Tech Shootout.
The Marble Falls star didn't have the opportunity to run the 800m outdoors. Although the elements of running outside has effects on times, we know her fitness level was on pace to break the record.
Even though she hadn't run much outdoors in 2020, Goggans did get the chance to work on one of her complimentary events. On March 7, 2020, she ran a 4:53.63 PR in the 1600m at the Vandegrift Viper Distance Festival.
Gonzales, was also working on a recipe to get the state record; she ran a 2:13.07 PR over the summer. This year, she started the season off in a very impressive manner. Gonzales put her PR in the rear view mirror when she 2:14.07, 2:13.69, and then 2:10.04 to show major improvement in successive February weekends.
The talented Boerne Champion runner also worked on complimenting her 800m with the 1600m. She PRed in every race this year including three sub 5:00 races. Her last race was one of her bests when she dropped a 4:55.59 PR at the last meet of the year at the Alamo City Mile And Steeple.
She continued to train since then and she had a time trial nearly every week. That enabled Gonzales to run a 2:07 last weekend in the 800m.
How fast could they go? Would they break the state record? Who would win?
Thanks to COVID-19, we won't find out what 2020 would have shown us, but I am convinced the state record would have gone down this weekend. It's unfortunate neither of these talented young ladies will get the chance to do it.
There is still next year for them.