Tiffany Garcia had to fall hard in order to raise herself up. After a humbling experience and having track taken away from her, the Santa Fe speedster is looking at multiple state titles.
Courtesy photo
When
Tiffany Garcia blew away a quality field in both the 100- and 400-meter races at the invitation-only Marilyn Sepulveda Meet of Champions on April 14, the
Santa Fe High senior immediately stamped herself as one of the athletes to watch out for in the upcoming New Mexico State Track and Field Championships.
Garcia, who will attempt to win three individual races at the state meet — the 100, 200 and 400 — certainly gave a performance to remember at the MOC, which featured most of the top athletes across the state regardless of classification.
Garcia won the 400 in an all-time meet best of 56.48 seconds and the 100 in 12.17, 0.35 seconds faster than the runner-up.
"I was beyond thrilled with the way I was able to run," she said. "Going in I was a bit nervous and anxious, but I was also confident because I knew I had put the training in to run fast."
And that's exactly what Garcia has done in a season that's been one to remember. Garcia, who hasn't won an individual event at the state meet — last year she was part of the Demonettes' victorious 4-by-200 relay team — is bent on making history a week from Saturday.
"It would be an out-of-this-world feeling if I could win all four races I'm entered in," said Garcia, who will run for Hobbs Junior College next season. "When I finished third in the 400 last year at state (after having the fastest qualifying run), I was devastated. I never wanted to have that feeling again."
Garcia's disappointing finish in last year's state meet fueled her in the offseason, as she ratcheted up her already-intense training program to another level. Garcia's father, Joseph, is a personal trainer, and he put his daughter under a program to increase her strength, power and speed.
But to find out the real reason why Garcia is one of the most driven athletes in the state — "She has that extra bit of intensity that separates her from other quick girls," Santa Fe coach Peter Graham said — one only has to go back to Garcia's sophomore year, when she was ruled academically ineligible for the spring sports season.
It was a rough year for Garcia, whose parents, Joseph and Elizabeth, were in the beginning stages of getting divorced.
"It just ruined me as a person," she said. "I got really depressed and started to not care about school or anything in general."
Mired in a slumber, Tiffany received a wake-up call in the form of a humiliating experience. As she was sitting on the bus with her teammates in advance of the team's first meet of the season, Graham came up and told her the bad news.
"He told me because of my grades I couldn't compete," Tiffany said. "It shattered my heart. Track was the one thing that made me happy, and having to get off the bus that day was the worst feeling ever. It was humiliating and traumatizing at the same time. As bad as it was, I knew from that moment on I wasn't ever going to fall short in school or track."
She has been on the fast track ever since she started racing against the boys during recess as a second-grader. At 8 years old, Garcia was already competing in races and accumulating multiple first-place finishes.
"I enjoyed racing so much, and I just remember all the times crossing the finishing line and my dad being there to tell me, ‘You did it again,'" she said.
Tiffany played a number of sports growing up, including T-ball, basketball, soccer and volleyball. She played basketball in her first two years at Santa Fe, making the junior varsity team as a sophomore.
However, track has always been her favorite sport, and with good reason.
"The feeling when you're able to run fast and beat the competition is hard to describe," she said. "But I can't get enough of it."
Despite being one of the fastest runners in the state, Tiffany actually doesn't have all of her personal records memorized. That's because even if she's hit a PR in a particular race, it might have fallen short of the time she had planned on hitting.
"I want to hit 54 flat or go below 54 (in the 400)," she said. "That's the time I want to get, and it's the one I'll remember."
It's that type of mentality that impresses Graham the most.
"The difference with her is that she's got that extra bit of, ‘I want to beat you more than you want to beat me' attitude," Graham said. "She's got a fire that drives her, and it's great to have a kid like that on your team."
Two years ago, Garcia was going through turmoil on and off the track, her life in seemingly utter shambles. Today, she's at peace, ready to make history.
"I've trained an ungodly amount so I can stand on the podium and be No. 1," she said. "I'm happy and life is good now."
