GAMES
RANKINGS
EXCLUSIVE: Strake Jesuit alum Matthew Boling talks spring sports stoppage, Olympics, reflects on HS career
It was about this time last year that the world found out who Matthew Boling was.
Highlights of the then-Strake Jesuit senior would pop up on SportsCenter, his sub-10-second 100-meter dash made national headlines and the final lap of his high school career has been viewed nearly 1.7 million times on VYPE Houston's twitter. Boling was named the Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year after his senior year.
BREAKING: @StrakeJesuitATH @matthew_boling1 runs a 44.74 second 400-meter in the final leg of the 4x400 to win the race. This was unbelievable!!! The crowd erupted watching him. @espn @SportsCenter @ESPNAssignDesk @InsideTxTrack @StrakeJesuit @uiltexas pic.twitter.com/B3U8yuZY59
— vypehouston (@vypehouston) May 12, 2019
Boling carried his momentum over to the college ranks as a freshman at the University of Georgia this past year. At the NCAA Indoor National Championships, Boling took silver in the 200-meter dash and was eyeing big times during the outdoor season and potentially at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
VYPE Media Managing Editor Joshua Koch recently caught up with Boling, who is back in Houston training, to talk his success at the college level, reflect on his big high school moments, talk the 2021 Olympics, his advice to high schoolers who lost their spring track season and more.
VYPE U: Strake Jesuit 4x400 Cornerstone Signs with Duke
Strake Jesuit is continuing to make a name for itself in track & field, as they have produced another recruit for a major D-1 school. On Wednesday morning, SJ's Job Trahan signed with Duke University to continue his academic and athletic career. Trahan will look to lead Strake Jesuit's track & field team, the 2019 State Runner-Ups, on another state run in 2020.
When asked about some of the factors that led him into signing with Duke as his future alma mater, Trahan answered, "I chose Duke because the team is a family. When I toured, the upperclassmen were super close with the freshmen on the team….It felt similar to the Strake Jesuit track team."
The family type bond on Strake Jesuit's team that Trahan mentioned can be easily seen everyday out at practices on the track.
Head Coach Chad Collier teaches and encourages his older runners to lead workouts for the lower classmen and to make sure everybody gets their workout in, which is something that Trahan has done a good job of doing over the past three years. This has led to a major benefit in preparing Jesuit's younger runners to be ready to run on one of the three main relay teams that Jesuit is frequently seen competing in at the Regional and State Meets. As for Trahan, he competed in the 4x400 at the 2018 UIL 6A State Meet as a sophomore.
Pete Nguyen/SJ Yearbook
Trahan will be a third year varsity letterman in his upcoming senior season. He specializes in the 400 meters, especially the mile relay, which has been one of Jesuit's strongest events in their team history, and the 4x100.
Being a key sprinter to Strake Jesuit's track team, Trahan was a part of the same relay team that Matthew Boling competed on when Boling pulled off an amazing comeback on the last leg of the 4x400 to bring home first place at the 2019 UIL 6A State Meet.
Other significant mile relay teams that Trahan has competed on include a U.S. #1 of 3:14.4 seconds at the 2019 John Morris Pearland Invitational and a U.S. #3 of 3:11.91 seconds at the 2018 UIL 6A Region III Meet. Leading his mile relay team back to the State Meet for the third year in a row is a for sure feat that Trahan wants to accomplish.
Duke will obtain a good asset for their track team in signing Trahan. The Blue Devils will look to bring home their first ACC Championship Titles for indoor and outdoor track & field, which their recent signee hopes to be a part of. Nevertheless, Trahan still has his eyes fixed on his last high school track season, as will compete in his first meet this Friday at the 2020 John Morris Pearland Invitational at The Rig.