Setting The Record Straight: Boys 4x800m Team Breaks School Record…Again

At the Division I track championships, James Gagnon ‘26, Jack Arreola ‘27, Corbin Kirby ‘28, and Zack Vargas ’26, broke their own school record in the 4x800m once again.

By: Fabian Anguiano

James Gagnon, ’26, says the team’s reaction to breaking the record was, “Just overwhelmed happiness. We were all hugging, and we were all really happy. It was a great feeling.”

Gagnon says breaking yet another record was thanks to, “All the hard work we’ve been putting in that the records were just soon to come.”

Gagnon says it’s been a blessing to break two records in just one season.

To prepare for the meet, the team simply stuck to what they’d been doing. Track is a repetitive sport, so staying consistent and putting in the work everyday was key.

Gagnon prepared himself before the track meet by believing in himself and forgetting all of the setbacks from the year.

“I wish I could have broken more records this year, but just to break a record with my team and my brothers felt really good.”

James Gagnon, ’26

Though Gagnon is satisfied with the way the team performed, he is not happy with how he performed himself. Ganon was not able to compete to the best of his ability as he was dealing with sickness and injuries.

Gagnon is still happy that he was able to be a part of such a huge accomplishment.

Jack Arreola, ‘27, was really excited that he and his team had found out that they had broken another record, especially after all they had gone through.

Coming into the meet, Arreola and the team prepared physically and mentally by, “Really setting the stage for what we knew we had to do if we wanted to excel at the meet and do well. We knew we had to work on race visualization, as our coach teaches us. Also, really getting the right training in beforehand,” said Arreola.

Arreola prepared himself by having a good headspace, knowing that he was in the best physical shape he could be in for the race.

As an individual, Arreola believes he, “Carried my weight, I did not have the fastest split, but I was close to the rest of my teammates. We all did our part, and we were able to plot a record together.”

Arreola and the team’s goal at Nike Nationals in Oregon is to do well, push each other as hard as they can, and possibly break another record.

Zack Vargas, ‘26, says breaking yet another record felt pretty good. Knowing that the team had broken it already, but breaking the record once again felt great going into the meet.

“We started off the week with a pretty good workout, and then we went in, and we had pretty good recovery, a lot of our crunch down strides and stuff just to help us prepare mentally,” said Vargas.

Vargas rallied the team the week before by telling them that they deserve to be where they are. Coming into the meet, they were ranked seventh in the race, though they had recently ran the school record with zero competition.

Going into the race, Vargas’ biggest take was to just take a chance on himself. To break another record as a senior felt good for Vargas, as having your name in the history books is the biggest thing one can accomplish, especially breaking a record that had been long standing.

As an individual, Vargas believes he did, “Really good, I got my team in first place, being the first leg. I ran a 1:59 split, so it was pretty good.”

What Vargas believes he could have done better is to take the lead earlier. They opened up pretty slow, but he ended up having a relatively fast time to get his fast split.

The team’s reaction to breaking the record was, “Confident and humble. We all knew what we could do when we had competition with us, so we’re really humble with it,” said Vargas.

Corbin Kirby, ‘28, says that breaking the record felt really cool and that it was a fun race.

Kirby says the team’s mindset going into the meet was to do the best they could do, and just give everything they have.

Kirby believes that their hard work, “Helped a lot, we’ve put in a lot of work this season, and it was nice to be able to show how much we’ve improved,” said Kirby.

Though the team broke the record, Kirby believes they could have done better by getting a better time than what they did.

Breaking the record was not a surprise to the team, but they had fun overall.

Coach TJ Sugg says seeing the boys break yet another record was, “Awesome, they ran the relay bravely in first place for almost the whole time, and placed second overall, coming very close to beating Buchanan,” said Sugg.

Sugg believes that the boys trained very diligently while preparing for the meet, and they proceeded to show up prepared. Sugg did his best to prepare them beforehand.

Sugg and his wife, Coach Gabby Sugg, did their best to coach the boys from the sidelines. They were nervous and excited, but they were not surprised that they broke the record once again. 

The boys had their sights set on breaking the record once again from the get-go, as they had come close to breaking it multiple times before. 

On how they performed overall, Coach Sugg says, “I think all four boys ran their legs tactically, looked confident, and ran from the front for the first time well. We were super pleased and don’t think there’s much more we could’ve asked for.”

Though Sugg is only in his second year as an assistant coach, he has not experienced the level of success this team has achieved. 

The success comes from the talent of the boys, the hard work they put in every day, and their drive for excellence.

Tags: Breaking record, gigantea, Gigantea athletics, Redwood, redwood athletes, redwood athletics, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, relay, sports, Track & Field, visalia ca