By Chris Parker
Sinry Mendoza did not get his perfect meet, but it was still pretty good by any standard.
On Friday, Mendoza won the 1600, but didn’t quite make the time he had hoped for. He came up just short of gold in the 800 placing second.
On Saturday, he was all business in his quest to defend his Class 3 3200-meter title.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF DAY 2 OF THE MEET
After going out in 1:06.68 for the first lap, Mendoza ran the next five laps between 1:10.47 and 1:11.98. He closed out the race with a 1:09.23 and 1:02.17 to win with a time of 9:14:50 to take the race by almost nine seconds.
Through all the success, Mendoza has focused on staying humble.
“I always have to stay humble,” Mendoza said. “I remember my freshman year looking up to Connor Burns. He is an amazing runner. He was really humble, and I wanted to follow in his steps. Not only him but other great runners from all across the nation. You just have to stay humble all the way though.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF DAY 1 OF THE MEET
Mendoza will look to come back to his senior year state meet the strongest he has ever been, as he has decided to give up playing football to run cross county in the fall for the first time in his high school career.
“I didn’t do cross county this year because I wanted to play football with my friends. The main part about football for me is I love being with my friends,” Mendoza said. “Talent can only take you so far. That is why I will be doing cross country next year. That way I will be running all year round. If you want to be good at something you have to do it all year round and focus on that.”
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE MEET
