Marble Falls track’s Cuplin, Goggans ready to take on state’s best

CAPTION: Madison Cuplin is at the height of her jump that will propel her to another state meet. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography

A pair of Marble Falls High School athletes will compete at the Class 4A Track and Field Championships Thursday, May 14, at Mike A. Myers Stadium on the University of Texas at Austin campus.

They are sophomore Graham Goggans in the 800 meters and junior Madison Cuplin in the 100 and 200 meters, the long jump and the triple jump.

Cuplin is looking to add more to her personal trophy case from the state meet. Last year, she obtained a bronze medal in the long jump with leap of 18 feet and 6 inches and was fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 39-1.5.

Among the state qualifiers this year, she has the best leap in the long jump with a 20-2.5 mark and is the only athlete to jump 20 feet. Three others have marks that are 19-7.5 or better, while four are in the 18s and one is in the 17s.

The Lady Mustang has the second best regional mark in the triple jump at 39-7.75 behind Freeport Brazosport senior Naliyah White’s 40-6. Two others also have jumped in the 39s, while three others have marks in the 38s and the final two athletes are jumping in the 37s.

Horizontal jumping coach Jamie Graham has been working closely with Cuplin for the last three years and has witnessed her rise — on the runway and on the leaderboard — during that time.

He said practices have been going well and the two have been busy attacking the technical in order to put the Lady Mustang in a better position tactically to meet her goals.

“Working on hitting her mark more consistently so we can try to get her best jumps earlier in the competition,” he said. “So hopefully she can conserve some energy for all her events.”

Tenths of a second or less separate the 100-meter runners with Cuplin having the fifth fastest in the state at 11.86. Two 200-meter runners posted times under 24 seconds. Cuplin has the seventh fastest time at 24.38 seconds.

These times are all from the four regional meets.

While this is Cuplin’s second time to be at the state meet, it’s the first time she’ll compete in the sprints. And Graham believes Cuplin will bring her best.

“Just the experience of going against elite competition is the main thing,” he said. “In order to be the best, you have to compete against the best, and Maddie especially is ready for it in the jumps.”

Goggans will be making his state meet debut. Going into regional meets two weeks earlier, he was the leader in his event. By the end of the race at the Class 4A Region III meet, the Mustang obtained the bronze medal in 1 minute and 54.49 seconds to have the third fastest time in the state behind regional runners Daniel Anderson of Salado and Camden Paden of China Spring.

Head coach Austin Silva noted that a lesson was experienced at the meet.

“Graham got out a little too fast, and he knows it,” he said. “The problem with getting out too fast is you don’t have any kick (energy) at the end. And that was the difference in the race.”

Still, the coach said, there was plenty of good that came from it.

“He qualified for state, which is always an incredible accomplishment,” he said. “He learned a lot from that race and now knows what he needs to adjust moving forward. Regardless, it was an incredible race, an incredible performance by Graham. We’re so proud of him and can’t wait to watch him compete for a state championship.”

CAPTION: Sophomore Graham Goggans builds a lead in the 800 meters at the Class 4A Region III meet two weeks ago. The goal now is to have the necessary energy down the stretch that leads to the Class 4A state podium. Photo by Jacob Oshel