Top Marble Falls trackster completes season at ‘hardest’ meet

• Marble Falls junior Tyler Hamblin stands in front of the scoreboard that flashes his time and finish in the 3,200 meters at the Class 4A State Track and Field Championships May 2. Contributed photo
• Staying near the front of the pack is a must for Marble Falls junior Tyler Hamblin (3030), which allows middledistance runners to pick and choose when they're going to go faster. Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
• Running a race that requires eight laps to complete forces athletes to be meticulous as well as in shape. Few understand that better than Marble Falls junior Tyler Hamblin.
• Marble Falls junior Tyler Hamblin returns to Mike Myers Stadium to run the 3,200 meters, the Class 4A state meet's first running event of the day May 2. Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography

Marble Falls High School junior runner Tyler Hamblin placed sixth in the 3,200 meters at the Class 4A Track and Field Championships May 2 in 9 minutes and 23.38 seconds.

His time set a new personal record.

The Mustang earned his state berth thanks to posting the fastest time among the four bronze medalists who competed at regional meets two weeks ago.

"State is definitely the hardest one to get to,” Hamblin said. “You’re running against the best of the best. And regionals even more so. You’re running against people at the same track and you have to compete with others at different tracks at other regionals. You have no idea how fast they are. At state it’s ‘I’m here now. It’s state,’ and you have to perform.”

This marked the second time Hamblin has raced at Mike Myers Stadium. Two years ago, Hamblin competed in the Texas Relays in the 1,600-meter relay.

“This experience was definitely different from Texas Relays,” he said. “Texas Relays is a very prestigious meet. At state you’re running against other (Class) 4A (athletes). Qualifying for state is so much harder.”

Hamblin said he made plenty of great memories throughout the school year with teammate Nick Dahl, who’ll graduate in a few weeks. The two trained together throughout the year, both competed at the Class 4A cross country state meet in November, and continued pushing one another to greatness for months.

"I'll definitely remember it as a fun one,” Hamblin said. “It’s one of the hardest with our region being super good.”

He said he has plenty ahead of him in the sport and looks forward to doing better in the future.

“I’m not super happy with how I placed,” he said. "I definitely will be motivated. The workouts will increase in intensity.”

Jennifer Fierro publishes reports about area youth athletic events on her website TexasChalkTalk.com. To send her a note, email fierrojennifer@yahoo.com.

— Junior Tyler Hamblin