The versatile quartet of seniors Alex Perales and Tyrone Caufield and underclassmen Adrian Lujan and Matthew Ortiz give Odessa the confidence needed to compete against the best, according to Coach Ryan Jackson.
The returning district champ in the 300 high hurdles, Perales is also expected to anchor the mile relay team and run as the third leg on the 800.
“He can run pretty much anything,” Jackson told the Texas Scorecard. “If I could, I would stretch him out and use him in exactly that way.”
After a season away from the team to concentrate on football, Caufield returns to compete in the 100 and anchor sprint relays for the Bronchos.
“It’s just a matter of where we put him,” Jackson added. “He’s just that fast and that versatile.”
Odessa High boys track and field coach Ryan Jackson’s biggest challenge to keeping his Bronchos in line this season may not come on the field.
“We work every day on staying focused and learning to handle the success that could be coming our way this season,” Jackson told Texas Scorecard. “We’ve made a big jump in our level of performance in a short time and we have to be able to deal with handling that and staying the course.”
As a freshman, Lujan finished fifth in the 2 mile last year, and Jackson raves freshman Ortiz could be a five-event performer.
“We expect to be able to compete against almost anybody,” said Jackson, now in his second season at Odessa after being a part of three girls’ state title winning teams in Oklahoma.
“As a team, we’ll be much improved and a lot faster lot deeper from top to bottom,” he said. “Come state tournament time, we expect to get a lot of guys out of district and have them being deep into the mix.”
