5A State Champ Ethan Gonzalez On Going From 20s To 14s In 5K

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North Richland Hills senior Ethan Gonzalez had perhaps the last person possible to win a state title. Yet, he did. Friday's UIL 5A state meet was a long traveled road from where things began for him.

Freshman year, Gonzalez ran 20:36 at his district cross country meet, eventually running 11:59 on the track in the 3,200m. Sophomore year, he ran 18:55 at district and 12:13 on the track. During his junior year, Gonzalez saw even more improvement when he ran 17:01 at district, but his track season was revealing as he ran 4:29 in the 1,600m and 9:34 in the 3,200m.

That's why when Gonzalez ran district this year, for the first time in his high school career his season didn't end. He won the district championships and continued to win regionals and eventually state.

Photo Credit: Christine Langford/MileSplit TX

A nearly six minute drop in time and from the bottom of his district to the top of the state is where the road took him. He went from emailing college coaches and hoping he could run Division 3 in college to now having college coaches asking him where he came from. Gonzalez now gets to make the decision between which Division 1 school  the road leads him to.

As the only runner in the state to run under fifteen-minutes last weekend at the state meet level, Gonzalez seems to believe that anyone and everyone can achieve what he has, "no one can set a limit to how good you can be, that's up to you," he said.

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