Track season is reaching the home stretch with the State Meet approaching in May, and one of the brightest spots for the Lady Cats this season has been the return of Pilot Point senior and multi-time State qualifier Peytyn Goodin.
A knee injury in January almost derailed her senior season, but Goodin battled her way back on the track, winning the bronze medal in the 400-meter dash and helping the Lady Cats win bronze in the 4x400-meter relay at the UIL Region II-3A Track Meet in Whitesboro on April 16.
“With a broken kneecap a few weeks ago, it’s remarkable that she’s even competing at all and especially competing at a high level like she is,” said Jeff Price, Pilot Point girls track coach. “She’s basically a medical marvel. … To see her improvement and how much faster she’s been getting, which is due to how hard she’s worked in rehab, but I’m just glad she’s seeing the benefits of that and that we get to see her run at regionals.”
Outside of her sophomore season, which was missed because of a different knee injury, Goodin racked up the wins on the track, winning multiple gold medals and qualifying for the 3A State Track Meet twice.
Goodin said she entered her senior year planning for it to be her best season yet after increasing her offseason training and competing in indoor track for the first time in her career.
“It went really well,” she said. “I was nervous since it was my first time competing in indoor track, and indoor track is always a little different from outdoor, but I ran the 400[-meter] and went 59.5 [seconds], which was great to start my season. I thought I would have been great in the 100, 200 and 400 and could possibly end the season with a 55 [second time in the 400].”
What was supposed to be a moment of fun during the January winter storm that froze a large portion of the state put everything she’d worked for at risk.
“ A couple of weeks after that indoor meet I was in a sledding accident,” she said. “We hit a fence, and I sprained all the ligaments in my left knee and had a nondisplaced horizontal fracture to my patella.”
Goodin said the injury shook her to her core.
“I thought, ‘I can’t run my senior year,’” she said. “… The hardest part was the why. Why was it me out of everyone that was sledding that day, and it sucked because I had just come off a really good indoor meet and I was ready for the next one.”
The injury required Goodin to wear a straight leg brace and use crutches for six weeks, sidelining her for most of the season.
“I went to every meet, but I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “I got released from the crutches and brace on March 11, and Coach Price texted my mom and me the day he took over girls track and was like, ‘Do you want to come to practice tomorrow?’ and I said, ‘I’ll try, but it's not going to be pretty.’”
Goodin emphasized that her first practice after the injury was extremely challenging.
“I was running with the worst limp ever and it was not good-looking," she said. “I kept doing physical therapy the next week, and when the Krum Meet came, I knew I wasn’t going to run, but all the coaches were asking, ‘Do you think you’re going to run at district?' and based off the way I was running, I didn’t think there was a chance."
With the district meet a week away, Goodin said she had come to terms with missing the season until Price suggested she do a light workout at the Krum Bobcat Invitational on April 2.
“He told me, ‘You don't have to run at the meet, but let’s just get your legs moving,’ and Coach [Jesse] Hallmark said, ‘You actually look like you’re running normally,’ and I felt good,” she said.
After Hallmark’s encouragement, Price decided to allow Goodin to run the first leg of the 4x400-meter relay to replicate running the 400-meter dash.
“He told me, ‘You have nothing to prove to anybody. Everyone here knows what you’ve gone through,’ so I ran and it felt great,” she said. “I limped a little at the end, but I finished, and I split a 63 or 64, but I wasn’t mad. I had just gotten out of a brace not long before that.”
After her successful run in Krum, Goodin said her confidence in her knee started to come back, but she was still a work in progress as the team prepared for the district meet.
“My leg still wasn’t fully there yet, and I still wasn’t having amazing practices, so I was a mental case when district came and I was freaking out,” she said.
Despite the nerves, Goodin survived the 400-meter prelims and advanced to the finals, where she finished fourth with a time of 1:02.83.
“I wasn’t happy about that,” she said jokingly. “I was so mad to go from being last year’s district champ to fourth place and fighting for a spot at Area.”
After another week of training to prepare for the area meet, Goodin said her confidence on the track continued to grow.
“I ran a 62 by myself, so I knew I was going to be faster when Area came around, but when I got there, I was so scared,” she said. “… I was doubting myself, but everyone kept saying, ‘You don’t need to doubt yourself. We know what you can do," so I ran, and when I passed the girl in third place, with about 70 yards left, I had the biggest smile on my face.”
Goodin shaved three seconds off of her time at the district meet, recording a season-best of 59.32 seconds.
“It was so surreal,” she said. “It was just a huge moment, and Coach [Travis] Marsh and a coach from Ponder came over, and they had told me at district, ‘Everybody on this field is your supporter,’ and I was not expecting any of it when three weeks before I could barely run normal.”
Goodin thanked her parents; Price; Pilot Point Coach Shawn Vincent; and Chad Worrell, Pilot Point athletic director and head football coach, for their support and encouragement as she fought her way back from the injury.
With one track meet left before State, Goodin said she’s just hoping to run her best the rest of the way.
“I definitely want a time drop, and if I make it to State, I make it, but regardless of what happens, I’ve made it this far,” she said. “I’m going to train to the best of my ability, and I’ll be good with whatever happens as long as I know I left it all out there on the track.”
Chance Kirby/The Post-Signal
