Elvis has NOT left the building; Pirate earns trip to Austin

Valentine Pirate and Junior Elvis Tarango

Photo courtesy Valentine ISD

By Victor Pallares

Elvis Tarango, a Junior Valentine Pirate, was in San Angelo last weekend, April 29 and 30 at the Class A Region II regional track and field meet at Angelo State University. Tarango had earned his way to the regional meet by winning the 200 meters and finishing in second place in the 100 meters at the District 9 and 10 Area Meet held in Van Horn the previous week.

Tarango ran in the prelims at San Angelo on Friday the 29th and was sitting in fourth place in the 100 and fifth place in the 200 going into the finals on Saturday afternoon. Tarango finished in second place in both events and earned his way to compete in the state track meet in Austin,Texas that will be held on May 12, 13, 14. Tarango will run on Saturday afternoon.

Tarango was two-one hundredth of a second away from winning the 100 with his time of 11.30. He finished the 200 in a time of 23.08. Those two times has him currently sitting in third place in the state in the 100 and 5th place in t he 200. Tarango is the only Valentine athlete to have earned his way to state track meet in two events. He is only one of four Pirates to have ever gone to state in track.

Latham Garnsey, a Valentine graduate in 2015, won the state championship in 2015 in the high jump on his third trip to Austin. The last two athletes from Valentine to have made their way to the state meet were “Red” Brown and Billy Gibson in 1959.

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