SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA – Olympic hopeful Yariel Matute, a sprinter for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) track & field team, helped the Honduran 4x100-meter relay team set a national record while earning gold at the Confederación Atlética del Istmo Centroamericano (CADICA) on Tuesday at Estadio Nacional.
 
Matute ran the second leg of the relay, helping a team that included Melique Garcia, Gerom Solis and Kenneth Glenn to finish in a time of 40.55, breaking the previous national record of 40.57.
 
Matute's squad finished ahead of Costa Rica (40.92), Belize (41.58), Guatemala (42.52) and Panamá (DQ).
 
Matute has eyes set on representing Honduras at the Olympics in Tokyo this summer. Last summer, at the Central American Championships in Nicaragua, Matute won a gold medal with a personal record 200-meter time of 21.16. He also won his heat in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.07.
 
Matute plans to compete for UTRGV during the outdoor season this coming spring. He redshirted the 2019 outdoor season, but finished the 2019 indoor season with a WAC Athlete of the Year award and two WAC Indoor Championships, including the 400-meter dash with the sixth-fastest time in program history (48.54), and the 4x400-meter relay (3:15.96).
 
Over the course of his career, Matute has earned five All-WAC First Team and three All-WAC Second Team honors, including silver medals in the both the indoor and outdoor 400-meter dashes in 2018 and bronze in the 2017 indoor 400-meter dash.
 
Matute moved to Mission prior to his junior year of high school and graduated from Juarez Lincoln High School in 2015, completed a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice in May 2020, and is on pace to finish a Master of Science in Criminal Justice in June 2021.
 
Complete Results
1. Honduras (Melique Garcia, Yariel Matute, Gerom Solis, Kenneth Glenn), 40.55
2. Costa Rica (Rasheed Miller, Emmanuel Niño, Jeikob Monge, Hector Allen), 40.92
3. Belize (Shaun Gill, Brandon Jones, Rahim Monsanto, Mark Andeson), 41.58
4. Guatemala (Christiaan Higueros, Weinstan Mena, Fredy Lemus, José Bermüdez), 42.52
    Panamá (Antonio Grant, Alexander Salazar, Miguel Aronategui, Arturo Deliser), DQ

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