GRIMES COUNTY, Texas – A Texas A&M track athlete was killed in a crash Saturday while driving home for winter break, the university said.
The crash happened around 11:25 a.m. According to the Department of Public Safety, a 2020 Nissan passenger car was traveling westbound. Chance Gibson, 18, who was driving a 2019 Dodge car, was traveling eastbound at an unsafe speed for roadway conditions and began to hydroplane, going into the westbound lane and striking the Nissan head-on, DPS said.
The driver of the Nissan, Ann Taylor, 59, of San Antonio, was taken to St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital with injuries.
Gibson, a freshman from The Woodlands, had just completed his first semester at Texas A&M. Gibson was a cross country and track and field athlete who competed in the Aggie Opener 5k and the Texas A&M Invitational 8k during the fall cross country season, the university said in a release.
“Our hearts are broken,” Distance and cross country coach Wendel McRaven said in a statement. “Chance was a bright, funny and determined young man. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Gibson family. As a coach and a parent this is really tough. It is going to take us all a while to wrap our heads around this tragedy.”
Gibson graduate from The Woodlands High School. While student there, he competed in cross country and track and field.
“This is a tragic moment for the Gibson family, Texas A&M and for our cross country and track & field programs,” Director of Athletics Ross Bjork said in a statement. “On behalf of everyone at Texas A&M Athletics, we offer sincere condolences to Chance’s family, his teammates and his friends.”