Watch This Texas Runner Win State with Epic ‘Tombstone’ Comeback

The Texas University Interscholastic League (UIL) Track & Field State Meet started yesterday on the campus of UT-Austin and will continue through Saturday evening.

I've never been much on watching track and field events, but that all changed when my three kids took an interest and excelled in the sport. Most recently, my youngest daughter won bronze at the state meet her senior year and she is now on the track & field team at Rice University.

I love watching come-from-behind victories, especially when it looks like an athlete has way too much ground to make up, but they end up doing it anyway. I've seen my daughter as well as many others pull off these types of wins, but the one I saw during the Class 2A boys 1600 meter run this evening may top them all.

Taylor Warrick, Senior from Stockdale, Texas

My youngest daughter has forged many friendships through the numerous athletic meets she has attended. One of those is Taylor Warrick.

My daughter had her own college meet Friday evening, so she was unable to keep up with Taylor's 1600 meet. Later, though, she received a text from him letting her know that he had won gold.

We were all excited for him, but we had no idea how epic his performance was.

Taylor's Epic Performance

Later Friday night, we were able to watch a video of that race. Nothing too crazy happened during the first 1300 meters of that race. Taylor stayed within the front pack, but some separation between the runners started happening after that, and it didn't look good for him.

With only 120 meters left in the race, I asked my daughter if she misunderstood his message about winning because Taylor was fading and trailed the leader by 20 meters. Then, with about 100 meters to go and Taylor about to get passed for third...it happened.

To call Warrick's comeback a massive late kick would be an understatement, it was explosive. He went from 20 meters down with 100 to go, to winning by nearly 10 meters.

Take a look...

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The video cropping of this Instagram post takes away a bit of the awesome feat that Taylor accomplished. You miss the exact point where he turns on the jets.

Why I Call This a 'Tombstone' Comeback

Many may believe that all along Taylor was planning to make his charge to the finish in the last 100 meters of the race. He may have, but I don't think so. If you watch the last 250 meters of the race, he looks to be struggling, he looks gassed, but, then something clicked.

The movie 'Tombstone' features a showdown scene at a creek. Wyatt Earp and his men are outnumbered and caught in a crossfire. It's a no-win situation. But, Wyatt then rises up and shouts "NO". He was not going to let defeat happen, at least not without the fight of his life.

I'd like to believe that this is what happened internally to Warrick. Much like Wyatt Earp, he said "NO". Something clicked inside the senior from Stockdale, and he would not be denied.

If you want to get the full scope of the amazing comeback, take a look at the Texas MileSplit video at the link below. You may be asked to pay a small fee to join, but it would be worth it.