COLORADO SPRINGS – Staying healthy through and entire track season has been a challenge for Coronado senior Lexi Gutches. But for what feels like the first time in her high school career, she’s not feeling any pain.
And without pain, the results she’s seeing make her feel even better.
“I’m getting back into it right now,” she said. “But it feels good, and I feel like I’m getting stronger.”
She’s coming off a fifth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles at state last year. No one can call that result disappointing, but she feels like she’s capable of so much more.
That has been the case for a lot of this season. She is routinely finishing in the top 10 each time she competes in an event. In fact, only once this season has she finished outside the top five. That was a sixth-place finish in the 100-meter dash at the Petrelli and Hunt Invite at Garry Berry Stadium.
That sixth-place finish came after she took first in the 100 hurdles. She’s certainly capable of getting great finishes in multiple events through the course of a track meet, but with this being her last high school season, she has no interest in giving anything less than 100 %.
“My heart beats really fast,” she said. “I’m always so tired after (competing) because I’m going my hardest.”
And she’s never afraid of taking on new challenges. Last season, despite putting together solid performances on the track, she decided to give the long jump a shot. The results were somewhat surprising as she quickly realized that she was a natural in the event.
“It was my first time ever jumping,” Gutches said. “I went in there with all these girls talking about their jumps. Then I go and it was farther than anyone else. I realized I had a lot of (jumping) talent.”
That talent helped her qualify for state in the event. And once she got to Jeffco Stadium, the success continued to the point that her jump of 16 feet, four inches got her a top-10 finish.
She has already eclipsed that mark this season, going for 16-09.50 at the Pueblo County Hornet Invite. That jump would’ve been good for sixth at state last year, so she knows that there a good chance for a better finish this season.
But the most important aspect of everything she wants to accomplish is doing without battling through pain. She has always pushed herself to get the best results possible and this season has allowed her to do so without the burden of fighting through a part of her body that is constantly hurting.
“I’ve always just had an injury whether it was whiplash or my foot just hurting,” Gutches said. “I feel like everything is getting really strong and I feel really good.”
The results are reflective of that and she’ll keep working to get back to the state meet so she can give her (pain-free) all on the biggest stage of the year.