Mariah Castillo lay on the Saugus track following a 300-meter cutdown workout, legs filled with lactic acid and her heart racing.
"Oh my gosh, that was so hard," she told coach Rene Paragas.
Three-hundred feet away stood the gym, which contains circular plaques of past state champions on the wall. Names include former teammate Brian Zabilski (Boys XC/2014), as well as Shannon Murakami (Girls XC/2005) and Kaylin Mahoney (Girls XC/2008).
Castillo's last chance to join her running compatriots in the winner's circle is now.
Less than three months ago Castillo finished a stunning third at the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Ore. The week before that, she shattered former teammate Samantha Ortega's Santa Clarita Valley record at the CIF State Cross Country Championships by 11 seconds, but crossed the finish line in second place behind Capistrano's Valley's Haley Herberg.
That final state cross country finals is the hardest pill she'd had to swallow in an illustrious high school career at Saugus.
The Texas Christian University signee has won hundreds of races and set an array of records, but none of them run parallel to the importance of this spring's CIF State Track and Field Finals at Buchanan High School. Castillo, in her final semester as a Lady Centurion, hopes to add the crowning achievement to her running career there - an individual state championship.
"They'll never be another Mariah Castillo," said Paragas at last month's Saugus Cross Country banquet, and it's true.
The standout has pulled off a handful of firsts, becoming the first freshman to win a Foothill League Meet in nine years in September 2014 and taking the bronze medal at NXN, the first podium finish by an SCV athlete in the event's 14-year history.
She remains the lone athlete - boy or girl - in California that ranks top 10 in Calfornia in all three distance events right now, already clocking 2:16.86 in the 800-meter run (CA No. 9), 4:54.03 for 1,600 meters (CA No. 1), and 10:43.83 over 3,200 meters in a dual meet against Hart earlier this week (CA No. 5). An hour prior to her eight-lap triumph, she also won the 400-meter dash, dipping under 59 seconds for the first time (58.78), then returned moments after the 3,200-meter race to anchor Saugus to a win in the 4x400m relay.
Instead of celebrating her second-place finish and SCV record at last fall's state finals, Castillo walked back to the Saugus tent in tears after coming up 16 seconds short. It's her "no-die" she brings with her into every run that makes her different from her teammates, her flashy speed that quickly separates her from her competition, and her legendary toughness that makes her second to none.
There's no female distance runner in valley history, or in the state right now, that has the range that Castillo has either.
Not Alysia Johnson, Lauren Fleshman, Shannon Murakami, Kaylin Mahoney, or even Haley Herberg.
She's currently training in hopes of running sub-2:10 over 800 meters, sub-4:40 in the four-lap event, and sub-10:10 in the 3,200m.
The current SCV high school records are 2:07.45, Aly Drake's winning time at the 2009 CIF State Track & Field Finals, 4:42.50 by the great Shannon Murakami in 2007, and Lauren Fleshman's 19-year-old 3,200-meter record, which has gone untouched at 10:18.21.
She'll take one stab at Fleshman's record at the Arcadia Invitational on April 7, then make her assault at the shorter distances in an attempt to become the first SCV athlete to win a state championship in the 1,600-meter event on June 9.
If you get an opportunity to watch Mariah Castillo race before she graduates in May, do it because she's a 'once in a lifetime' athlete.
In Paragas' words, "they'll never be another Mariah Castillo."
There's no female distance runner in valley history, or in the state right now, that has the range that Castillo has either.
Not Alysia Johnson, Lauren Fleshman, Shannon Murakami, Kaylin Mahoney, or even Haley Herberg.
She's currently training in hopes of running sub-2:10 over 800 meters, sub-4:40 in the four-lap event, and sub-10:10 in the 3,200m.
The current SCV high school records are 2:07.45, Aly Drake's winning time at the 2009 CIF State Track & Field Finals, 4:42.50 by the great Shannon Murakami in 2007, and Lauren Fleshman's 19-year-old 3,200-meter record, which has gone untouched at 10:18.21.
She'll take one stab at Fleshman's record at the Arcadia Invitational on April 7, then make her assault at the shorter distances in an attempt to become the first SCV athlete to win a state championship in the 1,600-meter event on June 9.
If you get an opportunity to watch Mariah Castillo race before she graduates in May, do it because she's a 'once in a lifetime' athlete.
In Paragas' words, "they'll never be another Mariah Castillo."
All-Time Top 10 SCV 800M List: 2:07.45 Lauren Fleshman (Canyon, 1999) 2:08.97 Alysia Johnson (Canyon, 2004) 2:09.35 Bianca Tinoco (Golden Valley, 2015) 2:10.03 Shannon Murakami (Saugus, 2006) 2:10.63 Jennifer Owen (West Ranch, 2011) -5- 2:11.05 Lauren Fleshman (Canyon, 1999) 2:11.60 Ashley Welker (West Ranch, 2011) 2:11.98 Sabrina Janes (Saugus, 2013) 2:12.20 Mariah Castillo (Saugus, 2017) 2:13.60 Chelsey Totten (Golden Valley, 2012) -10- | All-Time Top 10 SCV 1600M List: 4:42.50 Shannon Murakami (Saugus, 2007) 4:46.90 Mariah Castillo (Saugus, 2017) 4:47.81 Stephanie Bulder (Saugus, 2011) 4:50.01 Shelly Hazlett (Saugus, 1981) 4:51.60 Katie Dunn (Saugus, 2008) -5- 4:52.45 Jennifer Owen (West Ranch, 2010) 4:52.65 Bianca Tinoco (Golden Valley, 2015) 4:53.76 Samantha Ortega (Saugus, 2015) 4:53.95 Chelsey Totten (Golden Valley, 2012) 4:54.10 Kaylin Mahoney (Saugus, 2008) -10- | All-Time Top 10 SCV 3200M List: 10:18.21 Lauren Fleshman (Canyon, 1999) 10:20.25 Samantha Ortega (Saugus, 2015) 10:25.40 Kaylin Mahoney (Saugus, 2008) 10:30.70 Stephanie Bulder (Saugus, 2009) 10:31.24 Shannon Murakami (Saugus, 2007) -50 10:31.44 Karis Frankian (Saugus, 2012) 10:33.17 Katie Dunn (Saugus, 2008) 10:36.79 Pam Thompson (Saugus, 1984) 10:36.79 Mariah Castillo (Saugus, 2017) 10:39.30 Annie Randall (Saugus, 2009) -10- |