Branden Marquez '23 Recruiting Profile

I attend the Durango High School in Durango, Colorado.  My events are the 200m, 400m, 4x200 relay, 4x400m relay and early on I was doing long jump and hurdles.  I am 5'8, 135 lbs and graduating from high school May, 2023.  I attended a one week track camp at my local high school when I was 12 and fell in love with the sport.   At that very first meet I won every event I entered.  I kept running as much as I could and couldn’t wait to have an actual season.   There are no track Clubs in our small town.  Finally, in middle school, I was able to join the track team and we had great success as a team.  My 8th grade year our middle school swept the league and won basketball, track, football and wrestling.  I was on 3 of the 4 teams.  My Freshman year of high school my older brother was a senior.  We both joined the track team and looked forward to competing on the same team for the first time.  After 3 weeks of season practice, the season was cancelled for COVID.  My Sophomore year the season was condensed with a delayed start because of COVID.  With New Mexico completely closed there were no indoor meets either.  My Sophomore year our team won the league and I competed at State in the 4x400 where I was the anchor.  Our time was 3.29.17, which was a PR for us and we placed 12th in State.  I attended indoor open track meets the last 2 winters to get conditioned and create a year-round conditioning schedule (Albuquerque and Colorado Springs).  Now I am a Senior and looking forward to a full "normal" season and returning to the State competition next Spring.