Barely running to the finish line, no oxygen reaching his lungs, the sun scorching down on his face, feeling as if he was about to pass out, sophomore Noah Menchaca struggles to stay standing as he finishes his race. About to give up completely, Menchaca felt a hand on his back pushing him to the finish. Junior Yasser El Anssari assisted Menchaca to finish strong and standing at the McNeil Invitational meet at Old Settlers Park on Saturday Sept. 21.
Menchaca knew something was off within the first mile of the race. Since this meet had more teams than any other meet he was running later in the morning than usual and hadn’t eaten anything before the race.
“I felt a lot of pain, I started panicking around the second mile because that’s when it set in that I wasn’t going to do well at all,” Menchaca said. “I felt like I let everyone down. I started panicking because I couldn’t breathe so [while I was] running that really put me down.”
As he ran the last stretch of the race, Menchaca had lost all hope of even finishing. That was until he felt someone pushing him up, forcing him to finish strong and telling him to keep going.
“I was so glad Yasser was there, I could barely stand,” Menchaca said. “If he wasn’t there I don’t think I would have finished at all. I was running out of breath, I was about to pass out and him basically carrying me through the finish helped me get through it and actually finish.”
El Anssari, feeling the last stretch of the harshly parched 5K course, saw Menchaca struggling and knew he had to help.
“I was wondering why he was so far behind and I saw him coughing a bit so I tried talking to him and he said ‘I can’t do it,’” El Anssari said. “I didn’t want to leave the team behind so I helped him out.”
Mechaca and El Anssari ran through the finish line together and their race finally concluded. Although neither of them had ran their best times, their effort didn’t go unnoticed.
“It just shows the bond they’ve created over time in this year compared to the previous years,” Head boys cross country coach Mario Vazquez said. “They have gotten closer, they know each other a lot better, and that at the end of the day is what you want from a team and that’s what we have gotten to, and we’re just gonna keep growing and hope to see more situations of that matter.”
