It was her last high school race, the final 70 meters of an undefeated state meet career, and Taylor Nunez was running in second.

The girl who had won 15 gold medals in 15 events in four years at the Texas high school state track and field meet had fallen a step behind Breagan Blowers on the final leg of the Class 3A 4×400-meter relay.

The Holliday school relay, anchored by Blowers, a University of Arkansas signee, had arrived with the state’s fastest time at 3:50. The Randolph relay, anchored by Nunez, a Texas A&M signee, had the fourth fastest time at 3:57. 

Based on performances, the Ro-Hawks were not supposed to medal. But based on history, they could not be dismissed. Randolph was the defending state champion in the event. 

Taylor Nunez, six-time state champion sprinter and long jumper, trains at Randolph High School on Randolph Air Force Base. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

Down the stretch they came, side-by-side, arms pumping, legs tightening, the crowd on its feet. As voices rose, a mother grew calm. Tameka Nunez had trained her daughter for this moment. Taylor knew when to ease up just a bit and when to hit the gas — and now was the time to bring it. 

Sound erupted across Mike A. Meyers Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin. Muscles knotted in stomachs. Would Taylor catch Blowers? After a final kick, they leaned across the finish line, separated by 0.08 of a second.

Taylor’s father turned to a friend and asked, “Did we win?”

Taylor Nunez, 18, a six-time state champion sprinter and long jumper, next to her medals. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

In her genes

It’s an overcast morning in June, a day of rest in Taylor’s summer training schedule. She sits on a bleacher beside Tameka at the Randolph High School track, dark eyes peering into a bright future. 

Taylor aims to lower her time in the 100 meters from a wind-aided 11.13 seconds to 10.9 as a college freshman. She intends to extend her best long jump from 21 feet to 22. She hopes to make the Olympic team in 2028, on U.S. turf in Los Angeles.

If she doesn’t, she’ll complete her degree in kinesiology and start a professional career. That’s the plan. 

Taylor is soft-spoken and poised, a gifted athlete with uncommon vision. College coaches say she might be able to turn pro before earning her degree. She’s not interested. She’s also not interested in pursuing the Olympics beyond 2028.

“I like working with people,” said Taylor, 18, who graduated with a 3.7 grade point average. “I want to do something in the medical field. I like physical therapy.”

Track is short-term, a springboard to college and adulthood.

Her success should not surprise. Taylor emerged from a deep, athletic gene pool. Her maternal grandfather high jumped and played football. Her maternal grandmother ran track and played tennis. Her father played high school basketball. Her mother ran track and played college basketball. Parents Tameka and Lupe have a track and field lounge named after them at UTSA.

Their daughter possesses the discipline and focus of an Olympic athlete. She rises for 6 a.m. workouts, limits her sugar intake and adheres to a strict diet. She’s sacrificed prom, parties, sleep, spring breaks and sleepovers to stay in her lane, to get better, stronger, faster. Taylor’s been that way since the first coach called with a scholarship offer.

“I was in eighth grade,” she said. “It was from Texas Tech.”

Tameka was there when the call came. She listened to the coach on speakerphone, eyes widening. “I was in awe,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is unbelievable.’”

Taylor Nunez laces up her running shoes at Randolph High School. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

It was the first of many heartstopping moments for Tameka, a world-class athlete in her day. At the 1996 Olympic trials, she competed in three events, the 100, 200 and triple jump. As a professional at the Penn Relays in 1998, she ran the first leg of the 4×200 relay that set an American record. She competed with Marion Jones, Gail Devers and other legends. 

Tameka grew up wanting to meet Jackie Joyner-Kersee and competed against her in college. She got America’s Greatest Female Athlete of the 20th Century to sign her long jump shoe. 

Tameka ran with Hall of Famers. Now here was Taylor, all of 14 at that time, running faster than she did at the same age. Wanting to keep Taylor motivated, Tameka established a challenge: “Let’s see how many records you can clip off mom.”

The first two fell in ninth grade.

At the 3A Region IV meet in 2022, Taylor clocked 11.31 seconds in the 100. “My best time in high school was an 11.5,” Tameka said. 

At the Southern University Relays, Taylor ran a 23.96 in the 200. “I went 24.2,” Tameka said. 

Taylor Nunez comes from a family of athletes. She started beating her mom’s old track records at 14. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

The following season, Taylor surpassed Tameka’s best long jump (20 feet, 5 inches) by three inches. That left the triple jump and 400 meters. Taylor did not compete in either event but her best split in the 4×400 relay (56.0) did not approach Tameka’s mark of 54.0.

Mother and daughter are built differently. Tameka is taller, 5 feet, 7 and a half inches, and ran with a longer stride. Taylor is 5 feet, 4 inches and starts with a quicker burst. Mom had the stronger kick in the 400, but the daughter had one last chance to post a better split.

In the late afternoon of May 1 in Austin, Tameka leaned forward on a first-level, third-row stadium bleacher, 40 yards from the finish line. Taylor readied herself on the track for the last event of the meet, the 4×400 relay.

The starting gun sounded. Favored Holliday, a small, far North Texas school, raced to the lead and held it through three laps. Taylor took the baton for the final leg in second place, 15 meters behind Blowers. At the 200-meter mark, Taylor accelerated past Blowers, opening a lead that grew to about 10 meters. On the final curve, Blowers closed the distance. On the final straightaway, she inched past Taylor.

“It was the first time she had been challenged running a 400 leg on the 4×400,” Tameka said. “But I wasn’t a bit nervous. I felt a sense of excitement.” 

Tameka expected Taylor’s training to kick in. The mindset. The strategy. The muscle memory. A lifetime of preparation. Lupe Nunez did not share his wife’s confidence. Not at first. “It was definitely an ‘oh sh–‘ moment,” he said.

Taylor pulled even with Blowers about 30 meters from the finish. They remained even at 20 meters, at 10 meters, at five meters.

From numerous angles in the stadium, it looked like a photo finish.

Dream team coaches

Texas has never seen anyone like Taylor Nunez. In the 114-year history of the UIL state track and field meet, no individual, boy or girl, had ever won more than 14 gold medals. Taylor won her 15th on May 1 in the 200 meters in 22.76 seconds, a full length ahead of Blowers, who took silver in 23.98. 

With one race left, Taylor had claimed gold in five events over four years: the 100, 200, long jump, 4×100 relay and 4×400 relay.  

Ray Caldwell saw the day coming. He recognized other-worldly speed when Taylor was in fifth grade. As a 10-year-old, Taylor competed on Caldwell’s nationally-recognized AAU basketball team, San Antonio Finest, a program that has produced three WNBA players, six McDonald’s All Americans and more than 90 Division I players.

To toughen his team, Caldwell routinely played his fifth-grade girls against boys. Taylor not only embraced the challenge, she often crushed the competition. 

“She was so gifted defensively she would make elite boys cry,” Caldwell said, noting those boys went on to play college ball. “She could embarrass you in front of your father. She could outrun the basketball. She was Deion Sanders. Do not throw the ball to that side of the field.  She was that good.”

Even in elementary school, Taylor was a Division 1 prospect. But she did not excel offensively. While teammates worked on their ball handling and shooting five to seven days a week, Taylor worked on her speed off the court. 

“I wasn’t in the gym as much as I was on the track,” she said. “I was good at both sports, but when it came down to choose, I just didn’t choose basketball.”

Caldwell understood Taylor’s gift and destiny. He told Lupe: “Her future is in track.”

Taylor Nunez was a Division 1 prospect as early as elementary school. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

In March 2022, before she had won her first gold medal at state, Caldwell posted a photo on Twitter. It showed him with his former player and included a prophetic word: “The track world should thank me! I made Taylor Nunez hate basketball and focus on being the [goat emoji] in track [gold medal emoji].”

Three years later, Taylor became the most accomplished Texas high school track and field athlete of all time. She had broken what was considered an unbreakable record held by Ychlindria Spears Dolcé of Luling High School. From 1999-2002, Dolcé captured 14 gold medals at the state meet.

In a twist of track and field irony, Dolcé began training Taylor 20 years later. Taylor impressed on day one as a high school freshman.

“The first time I worked with her, you could tell she had the ‘it’ factor,” said Dolcé, who competed at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials as a 16-year-old long jumper. “She was still very raw, still learning about long jumping and how to do all things correctly. But she was hungry to learn and relentless in her work ethic.”

Taylor possessed more than fierce determination and natural talent. She trained under a dream team of coaches. Consider Dolcé. A former national high school record-holder in the triple jump (44-2 ¼), she is the head girls coach at Steele High School in Cibolo and has trained numerous state champions and state medalists at San Antonio’s Jump Academy. 

Jason Campos carries impressive credentials. At Amax Speed Training in Brookshire, he trains elite sprinters, such as Celeste Robinson, who clocked the fifth-fastest girls 100 (11.26) this year in the U.S., and Carlie McClain, the Class 2A state champion in the 200.

“We work with some of the fastest kids in the nation,” Campos said.

Taylor Nunez wears a “TN” shirt and a necklace with her name to train earlier this month. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

Tameka drives Taylor to Pflugerville twice a month to train with Lenard Cobb, an eight-time All-American triple jumper at the University of Texas, who competed at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Trials. At Performance 360, Cobb has trained nearly a dozen high school athletes who’ve competed in college. 

Then there’s the coach at home. Tameka works with Taylor on form, strategy and technique. She records Taylor’s workouts with her coaches on video and implements a training regimen for speed and jumps.

As a junior, Taylor had an Olympic-like entourage of personal trainers. As a senior, she ran a wind-aided 11.13 100 at the Texas Relays, a time that would have placed her on the podium at this year’s NCAA track and field championships. University of Southern California’s Samirah Moody won the 100 in 11.136.

“She proved she can compete at the college level while in high school,” Campos said. “She’ll make the finals at the NCAAs next year. Absolutely.”

At the UIL regional meet in April, Taylor launched a career-best long jump of 21 feet. The distance would have placed 9th at the 2025 NCAA championships. “I think she can compete for a title or for All-American status as a (college) freshman,” Cobb said.

Lupe believes she can soar farther. “Twenty two-plus is her goal,” he said. “But we all believe she will be a 23-foot college jumper.”

Taylor Nunez takes off for a long jump at Randolph High School. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

A 23-foot jump would have earned silver at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Tara Davis-Woodhall won gold with a leap of 23 feet, 3 and a half inches.

One final high school win

One month after the Texas state meet, eight elite sprinters gathered to compete in the 100 at the Brooks PR Invitational, a select national meet in Seattle. Running out of lane No. 5, Taylor flew down the track. At 90 meters, she got bumped by an elbow, causing her to stumble across the finish line.

As the rest of the field raced past, Taylor lay sprawled on the track, the skin on her arms and legs scraped bloody and raw. “Looks like she was in a car wreck,” Lupe said, days later. “She still got third. I can’t complain.”

Despite the tumble, Taylor ran an 11.44, finishing behind twin sisters Mia and Mariah Maxwell of Humble, who ran 11.04 and 11.28, respectively.

The hard fall underscored the delicate perils of track. A foot injury ended Tameka’s pro career. Multiple stress fractures and a torn ACL derailed Dolcé’s career at the University of Texas. One spill or tear can wreck the dreams of the most gifted athletes. It was no surprise, then, that Taylor did not compete at the Nike Outdoor Nationals, held last weekend in Eugene, Oregon.

“She has decided to hang up her high school spikes and recover from the fall,” Tameka said, “and prepare to be healthy going into college.”

Aside from some leg muscle issues that affected speed and jumping, Taylor enjoyed a healthy career at Randolph. She accomplished more than she or anyone imagined. And yet, there remained one elusive record. It was a mark that never registered as she unleashed a final kick in her final race: the 54-flat 400 her mother recorded decades ago. 

Running neck-and-neck with Blowers down the final stretch, Taylor had no sense of history, no thoughts of family bragging rights. For the 16th time, she just wanted to finish first.

“Was I a little nervous? Absolutely,” Campos said.

Not used to being challenged so late in a race, Taylor reached deep for a final push and leaned across the finish line, winning by less than one-tenth of a second.

Taylor had run a career best split of 52.7, which beat Tameka’s fastest open 400 time by more than one second.

Teammates mobbed Taylor at the finish line, smartphones and television cameras capturing the moment. The fourth-fastest relay team going into the event had won gold in 3:47.72, eclipsing its previous best time by nearly 10 seconds.

It will be a long time, if ever, before anyone goes 16-for-16 at the state meet and leads a team to four consecutive state championships.

“It’s just an amazing thing to be able to say I’ve done this,” Taylor said.

She had help. Teammate Sophia Bendet, a Texas A&M signee, won state titles in the 800 and 1600. Aubrey Milam, a North Texas signee, won state titles in the 3200 and claimed bronze in the 1600. Jaela Smith, Grace Kistler and Bendet ran legs on the 4×400 relay.

Taylor Nunez is looking to the future after ending her decorated high school career. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report

Combine team championships with individual titles and Taylor ends her high school career with 20 gold medals. She’ll rest and recover and perhaps allow herself a moment to look back.

To reflect on a career for which she is “grateful” and “blessed.” 

And then: She’ll finish the summer, step onto a college track and probably do what she does best.

Win.