Riverview High student joins the track team as a senior — and shines

Tyler Dunigan was the fastest kid at Riverview High who no one had seen run.

The senior had not previously been part of the varsity track and field team. He ran for JV as a freshman, then broke his wrist as a sophomore. He could have ran with a cast, Dunigan said, but he opted against it. After sitting out again as a junior, something in Dunigan stirred this season. He wanted to finish his high school career right, he said, and he knew he still had the speed.

Dunigan may have been a mystery to Riverview track coaches Bernard Ziggler and Rosita Reyes, but he was no stranger to the sport itself. A Sarasota native, Dunigan lived in Detroit during his middle school years before moving back. There, he both ran track and ran the track scene. Dunigan said he has vivid memories of winning the 100 meter dash at the state meet as a seventh grader, going up against mainly eighth graders.

“I smoked them, honestly,” Dunigan said.

So he's always had speed. But still, the guy hasn't run competitively in two years. Common sense dictates that Dunigan would be rusty at first.

Then again, common sense is sometimes wrong.

Dunigan won five - five! - events at the Ram Invitational on March 9, the team’s second meet of the season. Three wins came in sprinting events (100- and 200-meter dash and the 4x100 relay) and two in jumping events (long jump and triple jump), which Dunigan hadn't tried in his youth. He's quite taken with the triple jump, though, that weird event with a bunny hop-esque lurch in the middle of it.

Despite the two-year break, Dunigan stayed in shape. He works out with Riverview grad Oshea Grant, running through the city and occasionally hitting the gym. He cut candy out of his life, and eats less McDonald’s than he did previously, even though a McChicken with Big Mac sauce still calls his name once in a while.

His 100-meter time of 11.54 seconds would have qualified him for the state meet last year, and Reyes said Dunigan has a chance to get even faster as the season progresses, provided he attends every practice and gives himself to the spot. Same goes for all of his events, really.

“It’s not about talent,” Reyes said. “He has that. It's about unlocking that talent.”

Dunigan said he hopes to reach the state meet in all of his winning events except long jump. He can only do four events at bigger meets, he said, and that one is his least-favorite.

Look, I’ve never won a competitive race in my life, so I’m admittedly not the utmost authority on track and field, but what Dunigan is doing is, frankly, inspiring. Finishing what I start has been a challenge for me throughout my life. To see a kid like this, who could have easily continued living the high life as a senior, not only put in the work to get back in race shape, but blend in like he never left the track, is remarkable, and I commend him for wanting to finish his career on the podium.

Keep working hard, and I think he’ll get there.