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McALLEN — McAllen High’s Abbigail Villafranca will be the first to admit she isn’t the most coordinated. Villafranca would go as far as describing herself as someone who “cannot walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Villafranca’s head coach, Luis Cantu, backs her statement, giving her the nickname little giraffe.
“When she came in her freshman year, she just kept getting hurt so we never really got to see her full potential. In fact, the first varsity meet she went out to run, she got hurt during the drills. Who get’s hurt during the drills?” Cantu said jokingly Wednesday.
Despite all that, Villafranca has dominated on the track, evolving into one of the Valley’s top athletes in the 300-meter hurdles. Over the past two seasons, the Bulldogs’ hurdler captured a pair of district and area championships in the event, while qualifying for the regional meet both years.
She added Division I athlete to her resume Wednesday, signing her national letter surrounded by coaches, family and friends at the McAllen High Gym, committing to run for UTRGV next fall.
“I’m really excited to be able to commit to a DI school,” Villafranca said. “I’ve always dreamed of this. I’m just so happy we were able to make this possible.
“It’s just God. He put me here for a reason. To be able to go run at UTRGV, I just put all my faith and trust in him. This is the outcome. I just couldn’t be more proud.”
Villafranca leaves McAllen High as the school record holder in the 300-meter hurdles, recording a time of 45.73 seconds during the Region IV-5A meet April 30.
Outside the hurdles, she helped the Bulldogs’ 4×400-meter relay team qualify for the state meet last season, a race Villafranca described as the favorite of her career.
The Bulldogs’ set a new school record in the event, finishing in 3 minutes, 59.54 seconds with Villafranca as the anchor.
“Last summer we worked our butts off after the year before with COVID and everything,” Villafranca said. “When they brought us down to get ready, I saw my dad and we locked eyes. At that moment, we both just started crying because we just knew everything had paid off.”
While others prefer the 100-meter hurdles due to its shorter nature, Villafranca fell in love with the longer distanced 300-meter during seventh grade.
“Everybody would tell me I was crazy because that’s death,” Villafranca said. “I really just fell in love with them. Just the endurance and seeing how everybody slowly dies out while I have that extra boost. Not everybody does. I just really like that extra energy at the end of the races.”
Villafranca plans to run the 400-meter hurdles at the collegiate level, while majoring in occupational therapy.
