Springlake-Earth senior, Taytum Goodman, announced her college decision last Wednesday inside Wolverine Gym surrounded by family, friends and classmates.
The senior had a list of offeres, but narrowed her choice to three schools: Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech.
“I got contacted by the three schools I picked between today, and there were a few others, but I narrowed it down by the ones I wanted to take visits to,” she said. “Those three visits were great and why they were in my top three today.”
She had three pictures placed on the table in front of her, each with a picture from her official visit to each school. She began by putting the Mississippi State picture down, leaving just A&M and Texas Tech. She started to put the Texas Tech picture down, before laughing and stating, “I’m just kidding, Let’s go Tech.” as she put the Texas A&M picture down and threw up the Guns Up hand signal.
“The atmoshpere at Texas Tech is what set them apart for me from the other two schools,” Goodman said. “It really was a cool atmosphere and I know a lot of people at Texas Tech and I grew up going to games there. It just feels like the right fit for me.”
Goodman wrapped up her senior cross country season with her fourth state title. She finishes her high school cross country career as the 1A Girl’s record holder with the four fastest times in history. During her junior year she set a record for the biggest margin of victory in all classifications “It is awesome to me to own the four fastest times in 1A girl’s cross country history,” she said. “You know, my goal was to win state every year, but to have the fastest time each year, is really special to me. I hope those times stay forever, I don’t know if they will, but it’s neat to have my name in those archives.”
She was selected to the All-State Cross Country Team each year, and as a junior she was the TGCA cross country athlete of the year and a TGCA All-Star in cross country and track.
In track, she is the 1A State record holder for the 800-meter run, 1,600-meter run and the 3,200meter run and she has been name to the All-State girl’s track team the last three years. This past summer she was selected as the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame Cross Country Athlete of the Year.
“I’ve been able to help put Earth on the map and it has been an honor to represent Springlake-Earth the last four years,” she stated. “Track isn’t here yet, but I hope to continue to put us on the map one more time at the State Track Meet.”
Goodman talked about being signed and the recruting process, saying, “I’m happy that it’s over, I can finally be relieved on the decision making process and I’m ready to start this next journey and see how much better I can become.”
Goodman said that when she won in the seventh grade, she knew she wanted to run at a higher level.
Goodman said she is going to run cross country and then in track she is going to do the steeple chase, which is 1.7 miles around the track and there are 26 barriers I have to jump over and seven water jumps.
Goodman talked about the support she has gotten from her family and the community stating, “They’ve been extremely supportive. I always have someone to lean on if I need anything. The community support is crazy. Every year the send off gets better and better, this year we had a smoke show and then my friends, I couldn’t have done it without them. I have a select group and I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
She added, “I also have to give a shout out to my friend and former teammate, Halee Toscano, she facetimes me everyday and has continued to be a great friend, even though she is in school in another state.”
Goodman stated that she hopes to help improve the program and that she can’t wait to see what they can all do put together.
Taytum’s mom and Coach Jeri Goodman talked about what it means to her to see her daughter get to continue her dream, saying, “It’s just exciting, there’s no telling what she can do. I’m a 1A Coach, I’m not the best there is, but when she gets somebody, who really knows what they’re doing, it’s going to be amazing what she can do.”
Taytum’s dad, Jaime Goodman, echoed that sentiment, saying, “It’s just amazing to get to see her go and run for a Hall of Fame Coach in a top notch program. For them to be so excited about getting her, it’s just a privlage to have the opportunity to continue to watch her run at the net level.”
Her parents talked about seeing all of Taytum’s hard work pay off, saying, “She’s said Olympics since second grade, but in seventh grade she started talking about going to college and running, so for all of that to pay off and her dreams coming true, it’s awesome to get to be a part of it and her be as succesful as she has been.
Jaime added, “Her being so competitive and always willing to win; a loss is not an answer for her, so it’s been a thrill to watch her four-peat in cross country and get the goal that she wanted it’s really awesome.”
Goodman stated that her intended major is Embryology for animals.