Last year at this time Rochelle High School (Texas) athlete Bonnie Richardson caused a stir when she won the Class 1A state team title by herself. Guess what? She did it again this year.
This century's Texas Tornado won four individual medals in five events, taking gold in the long jump and high jump, silver in the discus and bronze in the 200 meters. She nearly added to her medal count in the 100 meters, but placed fourth.
The secret to her success? Well, it isn't the track on which she trains. From NBC Sports:
"Rochelle is a small, unincorporated farming town about 140 miles northeast of Austin. The high school doesn’t even have a proper track for Richardson to train. She runs on a circular path of hard, rutted caliche — a type of soil — that the McCulloch County commissioner smooths out about a once a year.
So eager were other coaches to groom their own one-athlete team that they called Rochelle’s school wondering about this track surface they never heard of.
'They read in the paper that she runs on caliche, and they call saying, ’How do we get one of those caliche tracks?’ said Steve Butler, superintendent of the Rochelle school district. 'They think it’s something fancy. They can have this one.' ”
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