"I feel like I belong because I worked hard all season and also with my teammates in practice to get to this level and to compete."
Not only does Isaiah Cantu belong, he's faster than all but two runners in the state.
Cantu finished in third place with a 400-meter dash time of 48.13 seconds.
"It feels really good that I won a medal, top-3 for the Hanford area," he said. "I'm just very excited, loss of words right now for how I feel."
Cantu is Hanford's first state medalist since Juan Chavira in 1998. He's Hanford's first entrant in the state meet since 2005.
"Next is to compete at the college level for track and field and also obtain my degree in Kinesiology," he said.
Did we mention he got his high school degree on Friday? About an hour after the prelims, he hustled back to Hanford to graduate.
"I was about 10 min late but the principal told why I was late and everything," laughed Cantu. "It made it fun to have them call my name and go to the podium so it went smooth."
