All season long, Odessa High junior Ivan Carreon’s goal has been to advance to the regional track and field meet.
He accomplished that early in the day Friday, by placing fourth in the high jump at the Area Track Field and Meet at Ratliff Stadium.
Carreon’s jump of 6-feet, 2-inches was just enough for him to finish in the top four.
Only the top four finishers qualify for the regional meet.
“My jumps were pretty good today,” Carreon said. “I felt like I just need to work on getting my hips up and improving on my form.”
His season continues for at least another week and Carreon knows he has another chance to try and improve on his personal best which is the 6-2 mark.
Carreon couldn’t complain about the conditions, at least for the early part of Friday as the day saw clear skies and little to no wind, a rarity for West Texas.
“It was good,” Carreon said. “The weather is great today. It wasn’t too hard to jump in.”
The area meet consisted of athletes from both District 2-6A and 1-6A.
There were 15 schools total competing with El Paso schools Americas, Coronado, Eastlake, Eastwood, El Dorado, Franklin, Montwood, Pebble Hills and Socorro making up District 1-6A.
Wolfforth Frenship’s Tate Beerles won the area high jump, going over 6-2 to clinch it. Franklin’s Nicolas Garcia was second while Eastwood’s Jason Valdez took third.
“It feels good to advance,” Carreon said. “Being able to compete against good competition is great. It’s awesome to get to advance.”
He’s earned the praise from his coach Perry Johnson.
“I’m proud of him,” Johnson said. “He’s a kid who works hard and tries his best every day in practice.”
For Carreon, it’s just been about getting better each and every day this track and field season.
“I’ve just been coming out here each day and working on my form all season,” Carreon said.
Now that he’s accomplished one goal of getting to regionals, he’s hopeful of getting the opportunity to jump at state next month in Austin.
“That’s the next step,” Carreon said. “I’m trying to get there … I’m just trying to get higher and work on my form so I can fix it.”
Carreon has already committed to Texas Tech University in football, playing as a wide receiver.
He’s looking forward to his senior season with the Bronchos.
“I feel like this helps me with my condition,” Carreon said of competing in track and field. “It helps me get my body ready.”
Johnson says the biggest thing with Carreon as a high jumper has been to get him up speed on his curves so he can clear some of the higher heights and get some momentum going.
“He did a great job today,” Johnson said. “It’s still not where we want him so we’ll keep working to get him better.”
Johnson commented on how far Carreon has come since the start of the season.
“His form has improved a lot,” Johnson said. “He’s put in the time and effort and his form has gotten a lot better this year, even more than last year. I’m proud that he’s made those changes.”
The changes have been noticeable from last year.
“He’s really put in the work to improve his form this year,” Johnson said. “Last year, he was in football and basketball and made the playoffs in basketball. We got him late so it was tough to get him going but this year, we got him a little bit earlier and we were able to fix some things and what work on what we did last year. He’s made the adjustments.”
