Springlake-Earth sophomore, Braxton Ethridge, competed at The 1A State Track Meet in Austin last month, where he brought home a bronze medal in the boy’s 300-meter hurdles.

                Ethridge finished fifth in the 110-meter hurdles, clocking a time of 15.63, but he was able to bring home the Bronze later in the day in the boy’s 300-meter hurdles, finishing with a time of 40.56.

                “At the start of my 300-meter hurdles race I was still pretty mad about my 110-meter hurdles race; I didn’t do as good as I was supposed to,” he explained. “I was thinking to myself, ‘I didn’t come all the way to Austin not to get a medal,’ and that just kept pushing me throughout the race.”

                He added, “When you get around that last curve on the track, you see everyone in the stands start standing up and it pushes you a lot. There are people you don’t even know calling your name; they want you to do good, the support is crazy.”

                Ethridge talked about what the process was like for him when he got to Austin, saying, “We got to the hotel around 4 a.m. Friday morning and went straight to sleep and didn’t wake up until 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. When I woke up Trace [Goodman], was already gone, he had went to the track meet, so I went down to the pool and took a minute to chill.”

                He added, “I tried to stay away from the track until my race started and I just kept thinking, ‘I’m here, I’m in Austin about to compete at the State Track Meet.’ That’s all I was thinking about.”

                Ethridge said that he really started pursuing the 300-meter hurdles last year as a freshman.

                “I didn’t really want to do the 110’s this year, but my coach made me do them, but, the 300’s have been something I’ve done since I was a seventh grader,” he said. “That is my favorite race and I’ve always liked to run the 300-meter hurdles.”

                The sophomore talked about how the coaches helped him prepare for the State Meet, saying, “This school is the school I’ve been to where we do the most conditioning. The coaches push us, they want us to do good and they know that we can do good. They know how high our expectations are and the standard that they hold us to. They’re good coaches.”

                He said that his family from Brownwood and Abilene came to watch him and the ones that couldn’t make it were sending him cards in the mail, telling him good luck.

                “The family support that I’ve gotten has been crazy,” he said. “My family was telling me how awesome it was that a sophomore, who didn’t run track as a freshman because of COVID-19 made it to State.”

                He added, “My family’s support really helps me, especially my dad and brother, because my brother ran the 300-meter hurdles, but never made it to State.”

                Lastly, the sophomore talked about what it meant to him to be able to represent Springlake-Earth down in Austin at the State Meet, saying, “We’re a little school, basically in the middle of nowhere basically, so to be able to go out there and represent our school and get not only our names out there, but our school’s name out there is awesome.”

                He added, “Not just that, but just to have that S-E shirt on and be running in Austin, the capital of Texas and then medaling, there is just nothing better than that.”