Valerio breaks school 3200m record, Evans wins regional 400m title

At the UIL 1A Region III and UIL 6A Region II meet at Waco Midway HS on May 1-2, Valerio ran 9:28.46 in the 3200, then added a 12th-place finish in the 1600 in 4:23.34. Evans delivered the program’s biggest sprint result of the weekend, winning the 400 in 46.74 seconds after running 48.61 in the prelims.

Those marks matter because they came in the same spring that has already produced record-level results for Royse City High School. In May 2025, Royse City ISD said the boys 4x400 relay team of Courtney Chancellor, Nash Jones, Elijah Vickers and Evans set a school record of 3:20.07. The district later said Valerio became the first RCHS cross country athlete to qualify for the state meet since the school moved to UIL 6A, after the boys cross country team won the 10-6A District Championship, the first district title in program history.

For a school in fast-growing Rockwall County, where the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population at 140,738 on July 1, 2025, those performances signal a program that is no longer chasing rare breakthroughs but producing them. Valerio’s 3200 record gave Royse City a new benchmark in distance running, while Evans’ regional crown showed the Bulldogs can contend in a sprint event that often decides meets at the highest level.