LITTLE ELM — Marika Brown ripped out of the blocks, quickly hit max speed and leaned at the finish. It was too close to call.
And that made it hurt more.
Brown, a star sprinter at Little Elm, had finished second in the 100 meters at last year’s Class 4A state meet. She was just three hundredths of a second behind champion Bealoved Brown of Beaumont Ozen, who won in 11.83 seconds.
“I hate losing,” said Brown, a senior who will run in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay races at this weekend’s 4A Region II meet at UT-Arlington. “I really want to win so bad, and it irks me when I don’t.”
Losing has been a pretty rare occurrence for Brown since she started competing at age 7. She didn’t lose her first race until she was 10, and she still remembers the feeling.
“I was devastated,” said Brown, a Texas State signee. “I was like, ‘How did I lose? What happened?’ ”
Learn from the loss, her coach told her, and Brown did. Now she hopes to learn from last year’s state meet, when she was third in the 200 and oh-so-close in the 100. She won both events at last week’s area meet.
“Being aggressive and maintaining at the end. Those are the two main things I’m working on,” Brown said. “I’m going to be a lot stronger at the end this year.”
Brown, who ran a season-best 11.65 in the 100 at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays last month, is trying to get back to state for the third straight year. As a sophomore, she finished eighth in the 200.
Brown didn’t compete as a freshman because of a hip injury that doctors told her might require surgery if she didn’t take an extended break from training. Sitting out was terrible, she said, as she watched her friends compete.
Then she came out her sophomore year and wowed everyone.
“She’s a phenomenally gifted young lady,” Little Elm coach Todd Dailey said. “She was blessed with a lot of ability, and she works extremely hard. The potential that she carries into college is huge.”
Brown took recruiting trips to Baylor and Texas Tech, but she decided on Texas State in San Marcos because of coach Dana Boone. There won’t be as much glamour, Boone told Brown, but she’ll get quality training and achieve her goals.
The goal-oriented Brown liked what she heard. She wants to one day be in the Olympics, and her career goal is to be a corporate lawyer.
For the next few weeks, however, the goal is a golden finish at the state meet.
“I don’t like losing, but it motivates me to train harder because I know there are other girls out there who are training just as hard as me,” Brown said. “I just really want to win state in the 100 and the 200, and I will be happy the rest of my high school career.”
Follow Matt Wixon on Twitter @mattwixon
BOYS ATHLETES TO WATCH
GIRLS ATHLETES TO WATCHUIL REGIONAL TRACK AND FIELD MEETS
Friday-Saturday
5A Region I: Texas Tech's Fuller Track, Lubbock
5A Region II: Baylor's Hart-Patterson Track Complex, Waco
4A Region I: McMurray University, Abilene
4A Region II: UT-Arlington's Maverick Stadium, Arlington
3A Region I: Texas Tech's Fuller Track, Lubbock
3A Region II: Texas A&M-Commerce's Memorial Stadium, Commerce
2A Region II: Tarleton State's Memorial Stadium, Stephenville
A Region II: (Div. I) Abilene Christian's Elmer Gray Stadium, Abilene