Community Champion: Arielle Mack, Burges Track and Field

Arielle Mack has been a standout performer for the Burges track and field team for years now, but this upcoming state meet has taken on a new meaning for her.

Recently, she qualified for the state meet with another stellar performance at regionals in Lubbock. She was celebrating her qualification in triple jump and long jump on the bus ride home with fellow EPISD athletes when tragedy struck.

An eastbound pick-up truck swerved into oncoming traffic and collided with the bus, according to police. Irvin track and field coach Arcadio “Archie” Duran, Jr., was killed in the crash along with the driver of the pick-up truck, while more than a dozen other bus riders were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Mack was not seriously injured in the crash, and now hopes to honor those injured and killed as best she can.

“This is for everyone on the bus saying that we’re still fighting, we’re still pushing,” she said.

Mack has already decided she will compete at the next level for Missouri, so her future doesn’t depend on the outcome of this week’s state meet, which begins Thursday. But she says she’s going to treat it as if it does.

“Even though a tragic situation did happen to us, we didn’t let it stop us from achieving our goals,” said Mack, when asked what she hopes to achieve by possibly taking gold at state.

In order to do so, Mack says she’ll need to be as focused as ever.

“I have to focus on me and not focus on everyone else, because there’s people who are gonna have their good days and bad days, and if I don’t focus on myself, it’s gonna get me all frazzled,” she said. “So, if I just focus on me and focus on what I’ve been learning with my coaches, I’ll get the job done.”