Last year, Springlake-Earth’s Taytum Goodman, burst on to the high school cross country scene, taking first at District, Regionals and State setting a then record at the State Meet with a time of 11:18.29.
This year the sophomore, proved she was not just a one-hit wonder, as she blazed through the competition again in 2021. She took first at District and Regionals and at the State Meet, she shattered her own record by nearly 20 seconds, clocking a time of 10:59.36.
The new state record is the fastest recorded two mile time in UIL history.
Goodman talked about the goals she had set for herself coming into her sophomore campaign, saying, “Coming into this year, I wanted to make it to state and break my own record. That was something that I had on my mind the entire year.”
She added, “I wanted to break it, it is mine, and I just want to keep getting better.”
Goodman said that she didn’t feel a difference from running last year to this year.
“I just feel like I kept pushing myself harder and harder this year,” she said.
She talked about what her first reaction was when she cross the finish line in Round Rock, saying, “My first reaction, was that I was just really proud of myself. My brother was the first one to come up to me after I crossed the finish line and he said some stuff to me. I was just amazed and proud of myself.”
She added, “When I heard the time get announced, they said, ‘and she broke her own record’, everyone was around me saying congratulations to me. It just meant something to me. When I found out it was the fastest two mile time in UIL history, that made me even more proud of myself and makes me want to work even harder to do it again next year.”
Goodman talked about how if feels knowing she is really only chasing herself out there on the course, saying, “I think it is more motivation for me, because it’s mine. I can control myself, so I want to break what I’ve done. Anything I do, I want to do better the next year.”
The junior to-be talked about her goals for the remainder of her sophomore year and heading into her junior year, saying, “I want to finish off basketball with a good year and then going into track, I hope to do the same thing I did in cross country with my own records, to try and break them and I hope to move up in the quarter.”
She added, “Going into my junior year of cross country I hope I can break another UIL record.”
Lastly, Goodman talked about her family support, saying, “Everyday my mom/coach helps me and pushes me to what she knows I can do. She is there everyday and she is just the best coach I know.”
She added, “My family support is beyond amazing. My whole family is pretty much at every cross country meet and my brother is practically running the whole course chasing me and my dad is trying to do the same thing. It’s just amazing to me all the support that I have.”
Goodman also recently capped off the cross country season with another accolade, as she was crowned the Small School National Cross Country Champion on Saturday morning at LCU, where she ran her first 5K, clocking a time of 17:34, to take first place.