With a howling wind blowing straight in her face - “It was killer,” she said - Tindell only needed one final push in the last half-mile to surge ahead for a third-place finish.
At that point, though, Tindell was battling the gusts in excess of 25 miles per hour more than she was the runner ahead of her.
“I felt like I was going in slow motion, like I was going nowhere,” she said.
A strong sprint in the final meters of the Class 5A girls race at Saturday’s University Interscholastic League State Cross Country Meet at Old Settlers Park helped Tindell earn bronze.
Tindell was one of three area runners to bring home hardware from the state meet. Bruceville-Eddy sophomore Tye Doty, who was third in the 2A boys race, and senior Arianna Rodriguez, ninth in the girls race, each capped their seasons with all-state honors.
Moments after Tindell crossed the finish line of the two-mile race, still catching her breath, she couldn’t help but look ahead.
“Last year was fifth, this year was third, next is year is first,” she said. “I’m going to do it.”
The Lady Tigers, the District 12-5A champions and third-place finishers at the Region II meet, were seventh, with a team score of 180.
“Some of the girls . . . they were apologizing to me,” Tindell said. “They did good, they did their best. We’ll be back next year with a stronger, older team.”
The key to mastering Saturday’s races was using the wind to your advantage at the right spots. Doty figured his best strategy was to speed up with the wind at his back, knowing other runners might choose to slow down and use the wind to push them along.
So that’s exactly what he did. Doty was moving closer to a top-five finish as he approached the 5,000-meter race’s most isolated section, a flat straightaway near the two-mile mark. That also happened to be the spot where runners had the wind at their advantage the longest.
“I was going to make my move on the back straightaway, but I was going to get within reach where I could pass everybody pretty much within a 10-second span,” he said.
Doty finished third in 16:25, a 12-second advantage on the fourth-place finisher.
After finishing 44th as a freshman while battling a hip injury, Doty smiled and laughed, enjoying his moment on the awards stand. He’ll be the only top-three runner returning for a shot at the individual title next season, a fact that certainly wasn’t lost on him.
“Next year, I want to work hard enough to win,” he said.
Bruceville-Eddy’s boys, who were seventh at state last season, improved to finish fifth with 155 points.
Also in the 2A boys race, Jarrell’s Emmanuel Villafranco finished 17th in 17:15.
A veteran of the state meet, Rodriguez knew exactly what she had to do to bring home a medal for the second straight season.
“When I had the wind I said, ‘Right here is when I need to push, get faster and pick up the pace,’” she said. “When that wind hit me, I slowed down so I had to make up time for it.”
Rodriguez, a three-time state qualifier and fifth-place finisher last season, was ninth in her final high school race despite finishing at 12:21, an eight-second improvement on her time from last year.
Also in the 2A girls race, Salado’s Lindsy Martin was 20th in 12:38, Academy’s Emily Koenig was 21st in 12:39 and Jarrell’s Nancy Juarez was 26th in 12:44.
In the 3A girls race, the Cameron Lady Yoe were seventh with 172 points.
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
