While Texas’ track season is in full swing, Memorial’s 4x400 team is making their mark in one of the fastest cities in America.

The Memorial girl’s track 4x400 team is now ranked third in the state of Texas with a time of 3:59.60. This young team consisting of two juniors, Lexi Valencia and Kaitlyn Johnson; a sophomore, Marisa Dobbins, and a freshman, Ellie Scott. They have only been together for one season, but are showing people they are a team to be reckoned with.

The girls clicked from the beginning, after Coach Danny Jones put them together at the start of the season.

“Coach Jones does not just put the girls with the fastest times on a relay team but he puts the ones that will work well together”, Valencia said.

The team practices everyday for two hours and always works on their handoffs. This is a key element for any great relay team and Memorial seems to have it down.

Each of the girls is still surprised every time they win. They run their fastest and cheer each other on, but when they realize that they have won they still get the same feeling of excitement after each first place finish. Valencia, Johnson, and Dobbins are no strangers to winning. Each of them has gone to Districts and Regionals since they began their track career and are state bound contenders this season.

All of the girls compete in other events, but three of the four girls also run the 4x200 together. This relay team consists of Annie Bates, Marisa Dobbins, Ellie Scott, and Lexi Valencia. The runners stay in shape and prepare for track meets by working hard in practice and lifting weights in the off season to keep themselves conditioned.

Jones is proud of this group of girls and sees a lot of potential for them to become number one in state. He said, “they need to try to improve their time and get better for the end of the season because this is when they are gong to see their toughest competition.”

The girls love competing with each other and as Valencia said,” I love the girls on our 4x400 and we all just kind of clicked and work very well together.”

Scott said, 'Coach Jones is very encouraging.'

"I am so excited about our team this year we have the ability to go far this season,” Dobbins said.

This 4x400 relay team is ambitous about the season ahead of them and with the weather getting nicer they expect faster times at their future meets.

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