Houck earns silver medal at 5A state meet

AUSTIN – Two Boerne ISD athletes raced at the 5A state track meet Friday morning and one of them earned a state medal.

Boerne Champion’s Charlie Houck and Boerne High’s Aaron Garcia competed in the 3200 and Houck finished second with a time of 9:17.52.

Garcia placed ninth after posting a 10:22.20.

Houck was also scheduled to run in the 1600 Friday night after the Boerne Star’s deadline, while Chargers Jamarri Bowie (400) and Caleb Dehart (800) were scheduled to race Friday night as well.

All Friday night running events were moved to Saturday.

Houck led for six of the eight laps Friday morning at Myers Stadium in Austin on the UT campus, but El Paso’s Miles Westbrook was always on his hip, less than half a second behind for most of those laps.

“I wanted to be towards the front, but not all the way at the front, but that’s just how it ended up being,” Houck said. “I kind of got forced into the lead.”

The 3200 is eight laps around the track and Houck finished the seventh lap with a cumulative time of 8:08.02 and Westbrook was in at 8:08.25 heading into the final lap.

Westbrook began his kick on the bell lap and passed Houck to finish his final lap with a 1:02.31 and win by seven seconds, while Houck posted a 1:09.51 on the last lap.

Houck said he knew it would come down to the kick.

“I was hoping it would come down to the last lap with me chasing, it’s a lot easier than getting chased,” he said. “I was disappointed in getting beat on the kick, but (earning a silver medal) means a lot. I knew I had it in me and being able to perform and prove it means a lot.”