Wylie sophomore Ida Varghese ran to 17th place in the girls 4×400-meter relay at the AAU Junior Olympic Games. Submitted photo
By David Wolman
Wylie sophomore Ida Varghese fulfilled her goal of competing in the AAU Junior Olympic Games, held July 28-Aug. 2 in Humble, Texas. Varghese, who competes for Team Quest Track Club, in addition to the Wylie Pirates, teamed with Samantha Ivey, Shiloh Bryant and Journee Polk in the girls 4×400-meter relay, earning 17th place out of 54 teams in the 15 to 16 year-old age division with a time of 4:00.29.
Varghese ran the first leg of the relay, clocking a time of 58.03 seconds.
Team Quest Track Club qualified for the Junior Olympic Games in the 4×400 by virtue of their finishes in both the district and regional meets.
“It was very cool to run there and also see the competitiveness of everyone that comes there,” Varghese said. “It’s nice to see the hard work pay off.”
Varghese was born in India but has lived in Wylie since she was two years old.
Her athletic endeavors began in 2015 at Dodd Elementary School in 2015, where coach Angie McCrary took notice of Varghese’s athleticism and encouraged her to try the 400-meter dash. The success was instant, having captured second place in the district.
While in the seventh grade at McMillan Junior High, Varghese trained with coach Robert Horn, who worked with Varghese on the mental aspect of track and field, including confidence, discipline and race approach. The following year, in the eighth grade, Varghese ran on the girls 4×100, which produced individual records in every meet and won the girls’ district championship. The team was coached by Brittany Gray and also competed in the 400 and on several relays. She finished her middle school career ranked in the top five in the district in her events.
Once in high school, Varghese made Wylie’s varsity team as a freshman. She made quite the splash during her first season competing for the Wylie Pirates, teaming with Nadia Hawkins, Anya Yarbough and Imani Yarbough to earn fourth place in the 4×400 with a time of 4:10.5 and clinch a berth in the area 9-6A/10-6A meet.
Varghese credits the Pirates’ coaching staff, including coach Kenneth Johnson, for their guidance and preparation. The staff worked had to train Varghese and provided their student-athletes with ample opportunities to compete, including a meet at Texas A&M University.
“The school coaches have a really big support system,” Varghese said. “At the end of the race, we get to talk with them and see what we did wrong. They were also encouraging. It’s nice to have comments from them. They tell us at ‘At the end of the day, a race is a race.’ It’s more about the kind of person that you are off the track. If you do that in a good way, everything that you do will work out the way that it’s supposed to.”
During the offseason, Varghese competes at independent track meets, including at several NCAA Division universities, most recently Texas Tech, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Arkansas and Texas A&M. Her family, including her younger sister who is also a Wylie ISD student, travels with her to support her in her training and race commitments.
“I plan on conditioning and getting strong before the start of the next track season and working on my form to push myself to be better,” she said.
Varghese plans to pursue a college degree in either technology or engineering at the University of Texas at Austin with the hope of competing for the Longhorns’ track and field team.
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