SPEED TO BURN
The area’s honorees: Cy Springs’ Samuels and FB Marshall’s Ehiemua.
FORT Bend Marshall boys track and field coach Lloyd Banks calls Shamon Ehiemua the catalyst to their team’s success the last two years, with backto-back Class 5A state championships. Ehiemua, who will be a senior in the fall, led the Buffaloes to gold medals in the 400- and 800-meter relays, where they posted the fastest times in the country, and repeated as state champ in the 200 last month in Austin, making him the Chronicle’s Boys Track Athlete of the Year.
Q: What do you remember most about the first state title, which your team won with a state-record 90 points?
A: “The previous year, my freshman year, we actually lost state by two points, which was devastating. That fueled the fire for my sophomore year, when we came back and won it. We had a great training season during the fall and you could tell we were all hungry.”
Q: After stepping into a leadership role, how did repeating as state champs this year compare?
A: “I look at myself as being a piece of a bigger puzzle, so I just played a small part in it, did my part, (and) did what I was supposed to do. I got everybody in line and we talked about it. We said, ‘We have a chance to win another state championship.’ We talked about it, we sat down and had long talks and said, ‘This is a huge opportunity. Not a lot of teams are able to repeat as state champions.’
“So we had to take it extremely seriously, we had to prepare our minds (and) we had to prepare physically. We were ready for it, and we did what we were supposed to do.”
Q: What did it mean to you to post the fastest times in the nation in the 400 and 800 relays?
A: “A lot of people said we weren’t going to be as fast this year. We lost a lot of people. We lost Amere Lattin, Gerald Mills and Kendall Sheffield, so we lost really key people essential to our team. But at Marshall we breed great athletes. There’s never going to be a year where we don’t have good track athletes. That’s the good thing about it. My coach was telling me that we were going to be faster this year, and nobody believed us, so we just had to prove them wrong.”
Q: How difficult was it to defend you state title in the 200?
A: “It’s a lot harder to repeat anything because people are going to be gunning for you, so I had to work twice as hard as I did last season to win that state championship. It was a long road. I had competition, especially from Dartez Hamlin, from El Paso (Burges). He was my biggest competition. He posted a 20.7, so I knew that I was going to have to go fast … but my coach always teaches us perseverance.”
Q: What is your goal for your senior year?
A: “My coach was talking about doing a double with the 100 and 200, and the 4x1, doing the 100 and 200 opens and the 4x1 and taking out the 4x2, which I don’t have a problem with. (But) the main goal, of course, is winning another (team) state championship, so if we can do that, all my dreams will be made.”