Columbus North’s Mateo Mendez is The Republic Boys Track Athlete of the Year. He is pictured at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, June 9, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
With 27 competitors in the 800-meter state final, the field is divided into a 13-person “slow” heat and a 14-person “fast” heat.
Since Mateo Mendez had the 15th-fastest regional time, he was relegated to the “slow” heat at this year’s state meet. But the Columbus North senior was anything but slow.
Mendez erupted for a personal-best 1-minute, 53.05-second clocking to finish fifth overall in the timed final. He is The Republic Boys Track Athlete of the Year.
“I would have rather been in the second (fast heat) because I think I would have won if I’d had the competition,” Mendez said. “It was just Martin (Barco of Martinsville) and I, and we still went fast, but I think I could have at least gotten top three if I was in the fast heat with everyone else. It would have been a different race because I would have paced it differently. But I’m happy with the result.”
Prior to their race at state, Barco — who had won the 1,600 about an hour earlier — and Mendez discussed working with each other to go fast enough to contend for the title.
“We talked about it beforehand,” Mendez said. “We were both in the quote-unquote ‘slow’ heat, so we’re going to try to go 1-2 in state. He ended up getting third, so it was still really good from the first heat to go 3 and 5.”
It turns out that Mendez and Barco have a little bit of history working together. Both grew up playing soccer and were teammates on the Alliance FC club team for a couple years.
“I think it’s cool that he ran cross (country) and track, and we ran against each other at state,” Mendez said. “I think it’s really cool that we were both soccer players, and we both ran the 800. It was fun to see us race together again because we’d always run at practice together. We’d always be back and forth at practice with the ball. I had the edge on him in soccer, but in track, he had that little extra leg speed.”
Columbus North’s Mateo Mendez is The Republic Boys Track Athlete of the Year. He is pictured at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, June 9, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
At the beginning of the state finals, Mendez anchored the Bull Dogs’ 4×800 relay team to a seventh-place finish. He had a couple hours between that event and his 800 race.
“I had a good amount of time,” Mendez said. “I kind of just relaxed my mind, chilled out, drank some water. I didn’t eat anything because I never eat between events. I only drank water. I used some of those cooling towels and kind of just chilled out and waited, got my head in the right space, and then when it came race time, I was ready to go.”
This was only the second year of outdoor track for Mendez. He ran in two indoor meets as a freshman before the COVID pandemic led to the cancellation of the outdoor season. Then, he missed his sophomore season with a stress fracture.
“Mateo runs an event that takes a lot of experience and is dominated by older kids,” North coach Rick Sluder said. “He was sort of a sophomore this year in terms of racing strategy and maturity and he grew a lot this year. He was a leader that way for us. He was just a great leader not only in practice and racing, but bringing along the younger kids at the same time.”
A soccer player in the fall of his first two years of high school, Mendez switched to cross-country as a junior. He earned All-State honors as a senior.
That gave Mendez a sense of confidence going into his senior track season.
“At the beginning of the season, I had a lot of confidence coming from cross because I got 20th in cross, and that was a big goal for me — to get All-State — and I got a medal, and I was like, ‘I can do well in track now,’” Mendez said. “Going into indoor, I wanted to win HSR (the unofficial state indoor meet) in either the 4×800 or (distance medley relay) because I knew that we had the potential to win either. We found out we had a better chance in DMR, so we went for it, and we won. Then, from there on, it was just, ‘How much can I improve in track for outdoor?’”
North won the state indoor meet in the distance medley relay. But then Clayton Guthrie, who, like Mendez, ran on last year’s outdoor state champion 4×800 relay team, was lost for his senior outdoor season with an injury.
“It was devastating because Clayton ran a really good 1,200, and after that, we found out he had a stress fracture in his femur,” Mendez said. “We were all devastated. We knew we probably would have won state (in the 4×800) if we’d have had him with us, but it’s OK now because you can’t fix anything in the past. You can’t go back and change time. Given our circumstances, I think we made the best of it. We put together the best team we had, and I think we had an OK race. I think we could have gotten top five, but I think it’s still OK because Will (Russell) and I placed well (in individual events), so that was good.”
Mendez will soon begin doing some light cross-training before getting into heavier cross-training. He leaves Aug. 14 for University of Louisville, where classes start Aug. 21.
“I want to make the ACC roster in cross-country and get top 25, then I want to make nationals as a freshman in indoor and outdoor track,” Mendez said. “Then, if I can make it to regional in indoor and outdoor, I think I can make it to nationals. It’s a pretty big goal, but I think I can do it in the 800. I’d be happy if I can place well at regional. I think it’s a good opportunity for me to see how college running is, and I think I have a pretty good shot at making it to nationals outdoors, at least.”
The Republic All-Area Boys Track and Field team:
Mateo Mendez, Columbus North: The senior won the North sectional and finished fifth at state in the 800 and ran on the 4×800 relay team that won the sectional and regional and finished seventh at state.
Will Russell, Columbus North: The senior won the North sectional in the 1,600, finished eighth at state in the 3,200 and ran on the 4×800 relay team that won the sectional and regional and finished seventh at state.
Adler Larson, Columbus North: The senior ran on the 4×800 relay team that won the North Sectional and Greenfield-Central Regional and finished seventh at state.
Akot Tong, Columbus North: The junior ran on the 4×800 relay team that won the North Sectional and Greenfield-Central Regional and finished seventh at state.
Neal White, Columbus North: The sophomore finished second in the North Sectional and fourth in the Greenfield-Central Regional in the 3,200.
Liam Phillips, Columbus North: The senior finished third in the North Sectional and fourth in the Greenfield-Central Regional in the pole vault.
Liam Milne, Columbus North: The sophomore finished third in the North Sectional and fourth in the Greenfield-Central Regional in the 110 hurdles.
Henrique Carvalho, Columbus East: The senior finished second in the Greenfield-Central Regional and 14th at state in the 300 hurdles.
Chase Austin, Brown County: The senior finished second in the Bloomington North Regional and 18th at state in the 1,600.
Wyatt Sutter, Brown County: The junior finished third in the Bloomington North Regional and was a state qualifier in the discus.
Cole Marksberry, Jennings County: The senior finished fourth in the Bloomington North Regional in both the 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles.
Honorable mention
Columbus East: Ethan Duncan, Jacob Guse. Columbus North: Derek Arau-Ortiz, Jason Knapp, Foster Long, Andrew McLean, Owen Russell, Ben Stevens. Hauser: Colin Kistler, Lakota Robbins, Cameron Toole. Jennings County: Will Barnes, Branden Braun, Josiah Hifo, Matthew Hines, Blaine Ison, Dawson Leak, Levi Marsh, Darius Thomas, Eli Wahlman, Kraedyn Young. South Decatur: Owen Arreola, Lucas Ballard, McKinley Shook.
