{"id":92865,"date":"2019-07-22T20:32:42","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T20:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/garcia-one-of-usas-best-down-under\/"},"modified":"2019-07-22T20:32:42","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T20:32:42","slug":"garcia-one-of-usas-best-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/garcia-one-of-usas-best-down-under\/","title":{"rendered":"Garcia one of USA\u2019s best \u2018Down Under\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ignacio
Ignacio High School\u2019s Elco Garcia, Jr. stands alongside Ponderosa\u2019s Baylie Koonce. \u201dAt first I didn\u2019t know she was from Colorado,\u201d said Garcia after completing the Gold Coast Airport 5.7K Fun Run July 6 in Queensland State, Australia.<\/span>Courtesy of Down Under Sports<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Not overly eager to face at least a 12-hour flight back to the United States, Elco Garcia Jr. concluded an extended Fourth of July weekend he\u2019ll never forget with an outstanding performance in the Gold Coast Airport 5.7-kilometer Fun Run, one of the undercard events prior to the 41st Gold Coast Marathon, which attracted more than 5,500 entrants July 6 in Queensland State, Australia.<\/p>\n

Running in the men\u2019s 15-17 age division after competing successfully in the 2019 Down Under Games\u2019 Gold Coast Cross-Country Classic three days before, Garcia clocked 19 minutes to place third out of 124 in his class and first amongst DUG-entered Team USA runners.<\/p>\n

More impressively, the Ignacio High senior ranked third out of all male entrants \u2013 numbering a reported 1,038 \u2013 and fourth overall out of 2,753.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat race, I just felt really good,\u201d Garcia recalled. \u201cI could feel the elevation change, like, really; my breathing was so good in that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queensland Athletics Q-Squad member Lachlan Cornelius, part of the 15-17s, was the overall winner in 18:38, followed by Australian Jennifer Blundell (18:55), entered in the women\u2019s 25-29 class. Oscar Cornelius, also a Q-Squad selection and another men\u2019s 15-17 runner, placed third in 18:58, while countryman Will Morris, a men\u2019s 18-20 inclusion, crossed the finish line almost in stride with Garcia but was just a fraction slower and settled for fifth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really fun getting to compete against kids from around that area. They had a small team there, but they were really good,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cI was pretty sure most of them placed top 10, and I kind of used them as my target to follow and pace myself, which I think helped me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographed later alongside Garcia, Coloradan Baylie Koonce, now a senior at Parker-based Class 4A Ponderosa, was the leading Games-entered U.S. female, as she clocked 22:34 and placed fourth in the women\u2019s 15-17 division, 12th out of a reported 1,715 ladies and 81st overall.<\/p>\n

In the Classic\u2019s All-American 5K feature, Garcia had blazed to the front and remained there en route to earning second in the men\u2019s under-16 class \u2013 and second overall \u2013 by clocking 17:33 and closing to within two ticks of champion Colby Sandoval (17:31.60) from Lubbock, Texas\u2019 Christ the King Cathedral School.<\/p>\n

The third-place hopeful was nowhere close, trailing Garcia by nearly 39 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t too much competition, if I\u2019m being honest,\u201d said Garcia, asked how the field compared to a CHSAA cross-country race. \u201cThere was the one other boy right around my pace. It was mostly me and him leading the pack the first mile, then afterwards taking off. And that was it, you know? It just came down to who had the stronger kick, and I feel like he kicked much faster than I did.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second race was much different. I beat him by, like, 52 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandoval\u2019s and Garcia\u2019s times in the All-American 5K at Pizzey Park, located in the Gold Coast suburb of Miami, would have been plenty to rank first and second in the men\u2019s 17-and-over class, as well. That winner clocked 18:21.90. Koonce\u2019s 21:04.30 landed her second in both the women\u2019s 17-and-over section and the overall women\u2019s standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it was such a good experience, besides the plane rides,\u201d joked Garcia. \u201cI had lots of fun. Right after track season, I took a week off, but I got right into training, so I was prepared for this and it just made me more excited for cross-country season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

scores two top-4 finishes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770,5800,5801,5924,6209],"tags":[846,427,2343,594],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-92865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","category-ignacio-high-school","category-prep-sports","category-sports-group","category-track-and-field","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-prep-sports","tag-sports-group","tag-track-and-field"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92865"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=92865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}