Cypress Springs girls maintaining standards
Panthers add events to formidable relays for the regional meet
While building Cypress Springs into a track and field Goliath through the last halfdecade, Ruqayya Gibson heard something that could be considered a backhanded compliment.
“‘Oh, it’s a sprint school,’ ” Gibson said. “At first when we would go to meets it was ‘Oh, they just get fast girls.’ That was the first thing. Not that we are doing a good job with them but we just get fast girls. I’m like ‘No, we work our butts offs to get the girls to where they are.’
“This year is the best example of that because we’ve always had a bigname athlete but we’re still running the same times that we did with those kids without them now.”
It’s perhaps the truest sign the northwest Houston school has entered dynasty status. There are no brand names like Samiyah Samuels, but the results are the same.
It’s that time of year for track and field season, where results matter twice as much, and for the last five years, few in Houston have made them matter as much as the Cypress Springs girls.
The Panthers, who compete in District 17-6A, are going for their fifth straight regional title beginning Friday at Turner Stadium. They’ve collected five straight district titles and have won four area meets since 2013.
Gibson was referring to the school’s reputation for producing top-notch relay teams. But this year, Cypress Springs diversified the portfolio with regional representation in both distance races, the 400- and 800-meter runs, high jump and discus, among other events.
And it has done so with largely a fresh group of faces or veterans getting their chance to lead.
Rachel Hall is one of those veterans. She’ll be in the 200meter dash and the 4x100meter and 4x200-meter relays. Hall is one of the few constants on the relay teams from last year to this season.
“Each year we have a new group of people,” Hall said. “We lose a lot of people, but we always bounce back and we always make it work. Sometimes we even run faster with some of the faster athletes that we had in the past.”
Mikayla Graumann, who’s part of the 4x400-meter relay team, said it took a bit to get to that point with the fresh faces.
“The way that we started, we weren’t how it used to be like the other years,” Graumann said. “It took us some time to gain that same confidence because we didn’t exactly know what we had. Our coach knew what we had. It took us a moment to realize that by all the work that we’ve put in with her and with ourselves and just getting to know ourselves better throughout the season and that’s helped us get to where we are now.”
The diversity in events is huge because it means there’s a chance for the team to send more than just the relay teams to state. And that could make all the difference between a state title and a runner-up finish.
Gibson believes Wonders Oguejiofor could have a big weekend, for example. She’s in four different events.
“I feel like we have a really good chance,” said senior Monique Spruill, who will be in both distance races. “Last year, we didn’t really have a lot of diversity in all the events. This year, it’s kind of spread out across the board. I feel like that’s really good for us. We have a lot of people that stepped up this year. That’s really good for our team.”
This weekend, the Houston area track and field headline will be commanded by The Woodlands and Manvel on the boys’ side.
Cypress Springs has annually carved out a piece of the spotlight from this weekend. Gibson remembers when Cypress Springs was a dot on the track and field scene. Tides have turned and she considers the program in the underdog role it used to be in because of an elusive first-place trophy at state.
Cypress Springs has two runner-up finishes and two third-place finishes at state. Another Goliath in Desoto will be waiting once again.
“I’m just grateful of where we are and I just know this is still only the beginning,” Gibson said. “Because I feel like a lot of people counted us out for state this year because we lost so many people. I feel like we’re just as close as we’ve ever been.”