Columbus East’s Henrique Carvalho, left, and Columbus North’s Owen Russell run the 110-meter hurdles prelims during the sectional at Columbus North, Thursday, May 18, 2023.
The Republic file photo
Henrique Carvalho was not one of the three automatic qualifiers from the Columbus North Sectional in the 300-meter hurdles and needed a call-back to gain a spot in Thursday’s Greenfield-Central Regional.
The Columbus East senior was undeterred.
Carvalho, who had finished fifth in the sectional, came through with a surprising second-place finish in the regional to qualify for Friday’s Boys Track and Field State Finals at Indiana University.
“Normally, I hope to be behind one of the faster kids and just sort of chase after them, but I realized I was in one of the far out lanes (Lane 7), so I had nobody to chase after,” Carvalho said. “So I just tried to give it all I had and pray, and it worked out.”
Carvalho’s time of 40.20 seconds was a personal-best by a half-second. He had run 40.70 in the Hoosier Hills Conference meet, but slipped to 41.13 in the sectional.
“The time he ran at sectional wasn’t his best time, and we knew he had a chance to run what he did at conference or better than that,” East coach Jerone Wood said. “It was a great surprise. It was just whoever was prepared and ran the best on that day, and he came through.”
Henrique Carvalho
Track emerged as the sport of focus for Carvalho, a former three-sport athlete. He played soccer as a freshman and sophomore and swam as a sophomore and junior.
Carvalho ran track in middle school, but after sitting out his freshman season, picked the sport back up as a sophomore.
“I started off in soccer, but I happened to do track in middle school, and I fell in love with it,” Carvalho said. “I thought I had a better shot (in track) for sure.”
But did he think he would ever make it to state by the time his career was finished?
“I knew if I put in the time and the work, that would be possible,” Carvalho said. “It’s what I was shooting for.”
“That was one of Henrique’s goals,” Wood added. “He was competive last year, so I thought if he put the work in this year, there was no reason why he couldn’t make that jump. He was always a hard worker. He was fast, and he always kept improving and he always had that goal, so for him to accomplish that at the end of his senior year is pretty awesome.”
Going into Friday’s state meet, Carvalho is seeded 23rd out of the 27 competitors in the 300 hurdles with his regional time of 40.20. But he is only one second out of fourth.
Fishers’ Tyler Tarter has the top time at 37.49. The top nine earn spots on the medals stand, and the ninth seed is Floyd Central’s Max Grainger at 39.39
Nick Eads’ East school record of 38.76 also might be within striking distance.
“I think he’s definitely capable of dropping time,” Wood said. “He’s shown all year that he’s capable of doing that. One of his goals is to break 40, and he’s put himself in position to get there.”
Carvalho is headed to flight school at Purdue. He is thinking about running track, but doesn’t know if his schedule will allow it.
On Friday, he’ll take flight over the eight hurdles in his path to what he hopes will be a memorable race at the state finals.
“It’s great,” Carvalho said. “It’s really amazing.”
