Team Texas 4x400 Relays Are No Joke!

Great Southwest Classic
William Grundy

Team Texas' 4x400 relay members after amazing performances 

This high school track season was an amazing season up and down the board and across the nation. From the sprints and relays, to the distances, and over to the field events, the individual athletes and relay teams definitely provided the fans with enough action and memories to last a lifetime. Texas and Florida have specifically been the leading forces throughout most of this season controlling the leader boards for both the boys and the girls.

This weekend, a lot was made about the boys 4x400 relay and it turned out to be justifiable. The state of Florida went to New Mexico with three of their sunshine state studs and they all performed very well in their individual events by running some top national times. Those three guys each said they'd run 3:03 in the relay. Cliff Keeling, Great Southwest (GSW) recruiter puts the Team USA squads together for the GSW and he paired the three guys with SEAN BURRELL, the Louisiana freshman sensation. With the help from Burrell, the 3:03 definitely happened, which was the fastest youth 4x400 ever ran on American soil.



Mad props to Team USA and the Florida boys. However, let's take a deserving look at the Texas squads.

 This season was very deep for the state in the 400m dash. There are five guys in the state who have run in the 46s, and just to crack the top 30, you had to run 48.00 or faster. The top four ranked 400m runners in Texas coming into the weekend did not participate in this year's GSW. That did not affect the runners who did. At the Team Texas meeting, the Texas coaches informed the Texas squad that Florida issued a challenge. Team Texas was up to the challenge, and said they'd run 3:05. That in itself would have been an amazing feat, but you could feel the emotion and confidence in the Texas group.



When race time arrived, the spectators were lined up along the rails and were on their feet in the stands. The Texas B team got the unfortunate draw of being in the first heat. They clearly had the fire power to be in the second heat to compete with the others. Nevertheless, the talented quartet lined up and showed what they were capable of.



Team Texas coaches sent Manvel HS senior LAWRENCE MURRAY to get things started for Team Texas. Murray did for Team Texas just what he did all season for Coach Crumedy at Manvel, and that's put his team in a good position. The first exchange was to Allen's GLENN BENDER and the races was essentially over early. Bender was given about a 10m lead and he added about 10 of his own when he handed off. After the third exchange from third to fourth leg, the Team Texas lead was six seconds ahead of the next team. DeSoto's QUIVELL JORDAN marched out to run the anchor leg and as he has done all season, he brought it home. Jordan extended the Texas lead just as his previous teammates did finishing in 3:12.84, well ahead of second place Team Colorado's 3:21.67.

In a race that saw Team Texas flex it's merciless muscle on heat 1, The four guys clearly could have been in the second heat. The GSW placed all A teams together and all B teams together keeping the Texas B team from showing just how well they could have handled the other state's A squads. It didn't affect the placing too much unless you want to make the claim that the Texas B team could have beat the Texas A team. Their heat 1 time was fast enough to place them behind only the USA squad and Texas A as Team Arizona and Team New Mexico, the third and fourth teams in heat 2 ran 3:14s. Kudos to Texas B for showing up and showing out for Texas.



In heat 2, the show was on. Team USA and Team Texas went head to head. We all know the Team USA lineup, but do you know who Team Texas was? As previously mentioned, it definitely was not Texas' top ranked guys. Some of the guys, i'm willing to bet not many Texas high school track and field fans are familiar with.

The Team Texas coaches rolled with mostly Dallas Metroplex athletes on the relays. They rolled out with a scratch leg by Dallas Carter junior LAKYRON MAYS. Mays, who is the UIL 4A runner-up in the 400m, ran a personal best 47.36, in the open 400m at the GSW, earlier in the day. Coming off a PR, Mays upbeat demeanor had to be from feeling confident. He lined up with Burrell on his inside for Team USA, who had over a full second PR over him. It didn't matter as Mays almost made Burrell obsolete by equalizing him with his first leg run. Burrell had the stagger almost fully made up at 300m, but Mays relied on his 800m strength and Dallas toughness to pull out a tough as nails home stretch handing off just tenths of a second after Burrell. Mays said, "He tried to pass me at the 300 mark but I had to show my little kick, it was a good race."

I'm confident that most fans aren't very familiar with the name ASHTON HICKS, either. Well, he is the UIL 4A state champ in the 400m finishing just ahead of Mays back at the state meet. His 47.36 at state was a PR and his only race in the 47s prior to the GSW. He followed that up with a 47.91 in his GSW heat. Hicks had the daunting task of running against All-American and top ranked U.S. quarter miler TYRESE COOPER. Cooper's personal best is over two full second faster than Hicks'. Hicks wasn't scared. He ran his lap around the track chasing Cooper around the track was reminiscent of Ricky Bobby getting in his car with the cougar. Other than some scratches, Ricky Bobby came away very well and the same with Hicks. At the exchange, there was very little damage done and Team Texas was very much still in the race, Hicks said, "He tried to leave me, but I had to stick with him. He gave me a good race and I think I gave him one too." To be behind by a limited margin after two legs of going head to head with two of the top national 400m runners, Team Texas was clearly ready for the battle.


However, the race was just halfway done and there were two legs remaining. Next for Team USA was Florida's JAMAL WALTON. Walton, earlier had won the GSW 200m in 20.91 and was personally looking forward to the 4x400 action. CAMERON NEELY of DeSoto was the lone Texas relay member ranked in the top 10 Texas 400m runners coming into the day. Neely, who had ran second leg for most of the season for his DeSoto squad who were a top ranked 4x400 team throughout the season was a very good choice for the Texas coaching squad. In what was a difficult task running with Walton who has international experience representing the Cayman Islands, Neely's experience was valuable. 

Running anchor for Team Texas is perhaps one of the hottest runners in the state. TERRANCE MULLINGS of Dallas Hillcrest didn't even qualify for the state meet in the 400m this season. Mullings was running well all season season and didn't have regional final race he would have liked. He did still qualify for the 200m and placed third in 5A with a 21.39. Mullings then went on to PR this weekend at GSW in both the 200m (21.30) and the 400m (46.81) to tie him for Texas #4. Mullings ran a strong anchor leg for Team Texas bringing home the Dallas area squad in 3:08, right behind Team USA also placing Team Texas as one of the fastest times by high school kids.



The Texas relay teams had pride in representing their state all weekend. The 4x400s had an unforseen challenge in the USA squad but still carried the "Don't mess with Texas" attitude all of the way until the end. Texas didn't win the race, but they did finish first among state assembled teams and they did so with passion and pride as well as the only way Texas knows how to do it....big and fast!