In her season opening track meet at Splendora, sophomore Madison Staggs proved to be a successful multi-event track athlete. She competed in the 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, 4x400m relay, high jump and triple jump and medaled in four events.

For Staggs, track has been a major part of her life. She says it gives her discipline and a balance that helps her in her daily life and is something she can look forward to at the end of each day.

She spends a lot of her time on the track practicing with school coaches and personal coaches. Most days she’s at the track until 5:30 p.m. to ensure she gets enough practice for each event.  

“I just love having that discipline in my life and having something that I can focus on and put hard work into,” Staggs said. “I feel like track does that and helps me just like balance everything else.”

After competing in track for four years, her dad has proven to be one of her biggest influences. Staggs’s dad sends her encouraging text messages before each event and films the races. Her dad especially helps Staggs with her mentality and composure on the final stretch of races. As a former 200m track runner, her dad has dealt with the pressure of competing at high stakes and can help Staggs keep her composure. 

To Staggs, her dad continues to be a big motivator and helps her be a successful all-around athlete. Her dad will often re-watch the film and point out any mistakes he sees to help correct her. 

“I’ll just be sitting on the couch and he’s like, ‘I just noticed something, you need to get your trail leg better,”’ Staggs said. “He’s always been very motivational.”

Staggs has seen significant improvement since last year and continues to make small adjustments to keep improving.  After competing on the varsity team for two years, Staggs has made many friendships, including senior Ethan Holloway.

The two athletes compete in the same events and have created a strong bond over the years. They have watched each other grow mentally and as athletes.

“She’s gotten a lot more mature since last year,” Holloway said. “Whenever I knew her then she still had a lot of freshman mentality.”

Staggs and Holloway have built a strong friendship through track. Although Holloway is older, Staggs uses his records to set personal goals for herself. The two athletes continue to motivate each other to meet their ambitious goals for the season.

This season, Staggs intends on getting personal records in all of her events, qualifying for the State Meet and wants to reach out to more colleges. By the time she graduates, Staggs wants to break as many track records as possible.

By the end of the season, Staggs wants to run sub-44 seconds for 300m hurdles and sub-15 seconds for 100m hurdles, which would be state qualifying times. Along with hurdles, Staggs has goals to jump 17 feet for long jump and 35 feet 6 inches for triple jump.

Her hard work has paid off in many aspects of the sport and she continues to medal in the varsity meets. 

“She works very hard in practices and doesn’t shy away from the lights when it’s go time at the meets,” head girls track coach Cody Cook said.