FAYETTEVILLE — Jorge Gonzalez enters the high school track and field season as one of the top hurdlers in the 7A/6A-West Conference, if not the state.
Gonzalez has no plans to stop there.
Fayetteville faces the loss of many key individuals off a boys track team that finished as the runner-up at last year’s Class 7A state indoor meet.
Such top performers as Brad Culp, Aiden Swain and Tevin Whitney have graduated, leaving Gonzalez as the Bulldogs’ top senior heading into Saturday’s Arkansas Indoor Track and Field Meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
While Gonzalez made his name as Fayetteville’s top hurdler last spring — winning the 300-meter hurdles at the 7A Outdoor Championships — his goal this season is to become more of an all-around threat for the Purple’Dogs.
“I guess I would have to consider myself a hurdler, but I like to compete in all of the events,” Gonzalez said. “So I want to work hard to get better at everything I do.”
Gonzalez will compete in the 60-meter hurdles, the long jump, the triple jump and the open 400-meter Saturday, with hopes of racking up some big points for Fayetteville.
At last spring’s state decathlon, Gonzalez finished 13th and got an indication that he could compete in multiple events during the indoor and outdoor seasons.
“I was surprised because I didn’t even practice for the decathlon,” Gonzalez said. “But that showed me that maybe I could do all of these events if I worked at it.”
Fayetteville track coach Drew Yoakum said Gonzalez will be counted on a great deal, particularly at the indoor meet with the Bulldogs still without several athletes who will join the team after the basketball season ends.
“He brings that experience back,” Yoakum said. “And we’re counting on him in a big way in the hurdles to carry us.”
Gonzalez will split time between track and soccer this spring, and he admitted that playing both sports can be tricky. But, with Fayetteville in need of someone to step up, he’s doing all he can with the time he has.
“I’ve told my coaches I’ll practice every other day, one day with soccer and the next day with track,” Gonzalez said. “Last year, we had Brad Culp scoring 60 points every meet and we don’t have that guy.
“So I guess I have to try to be that guy this year.”