Mallard Creek sprinters take aim at NCHSAA state championship

Samuel Willoughby acknowledges the obvious. He coaches relay teams that have set state records and will be favorites to win state championships this Saturday.

But there’s more.

“These guys would do really well against some basketball teams,” Willoughby, boys’ track and field coach at Mallard Creek High, said of the members of his 4-by-100 meter and 4-by-200 relay squads.

A few months ago, members of the track team had some free time, and a pickup basketball game broke out.

Several members of the Mavericks’ varsity and junior varsity basketball teams squared off against five members of the relay teams.

“The guys from the relay teams won,” Willoughby said. “That’s how athletic these guys are. I think they’d do pretty well against some basketball teams.”

They certainly fare well on the track.

The 4-by-100 team – Curtis Clark, Benjamin Black, Jaidan Lee and Christian Dixon – set a meet record last week in the 4A West Regional, and its time of 41.04 seconds is the second-fastest alltime in North Carolina high school track.

And the 4-by-200 team – Darren Morrison, Black, Lee and Dixon – not only set a meet record in the regional but has the fastest time in the event (1:24.49) in state history.

They hope to run even faster Saturday in the 4A Track and Field State Championships, set for N.C. A&T in Greensboro.

NCHSAA state finals on deck

The 1A and 3A state meets take place Friday, with the 2A and 4A athletes competing Saturday.

Several Charlotte-area teams are state championship contenders.

Cuthbertson is the defending champion for both the 4A boys and girls. Mountain Island Charter will seek to defend its 1A boys’ championship. And Pine Lake Prep took second in the 2A girls’ meet last year.

Mallard Creek, which captured the 4A West boys’ regional title last weekend, also hopes to make some noise in Greensboro.

“I think we have enough talent to be up there among the leaders,” Willoughby said.

The relay teams figure to provide a heaping helping of points.

“I think we can go even faster,” Black said, pointing to the 4-by-200 relay time. “We’d like to get down around 1:23.”

That would be national-best territory.

Running with the nation’s best

The Mavericks competed against the nation’s best at the Penn Relays in early April but didn’t fare well.

“It just wasn’t our day,” Willoughby said. “The weather was bad, and we didn’t run well.”

That performance was an outlier. In other events this year, the Mavericks have blitzed the competition.

Willoughby said his relay runners are superb athletes, but he said it takes more to win.

“You’ve got to work together, and these guys do,” he said. “They’re buddies. They cut up a lot and are fun to be around. They really seem to enjoy each other.”

Morrison said it actually begins on the football field.

“We all played football here,” he said. “We work closely together there, and it carries over.”

Black said the relay teams are basically the same as last year, and that helps.

“Last year” is a sore subject with the Mavericks.

“We didn’t do well at states last year,” Lee said. “It was disappointing.”

Dixon, a sophomore who also will compete in the 100 and 200 meter dashes Saturday in Greensboro, had a hip injury. Other members of the team were nursing minor aches and pains. The Mavericks finished fourth in the 4-by-100 and fifth in the 4-by-200.

“That’s fueling us for this year,” Black, a junior, said.

Dixon, who runs the anchor leg on the relay teams and will compete in four events Saturday, said he has learned to stay healthier.

“I get tired, but I know when to get my rest,” said Dixon, who was a football and baseball standout in elementary school but now focuses on track and football. “Besides, I’ve been staying busy like this for a while.”

Willoughby said that unlike other track and field events, relay races have many little things that can go wrong – a bad handoff, a runner stepping outside the area allowed for a handoff.

“That’s why it takes a group of people who know each other and care for each other,” he said. “These guys have it.”

There’s something else fueling some of the Mavericks this weekend.

“Jayden and I are seniors,” Morrison said. “This is our last chance. We want to win. We’d like a record.”

Morrison added, “We know people want to beat us. That just means we have to work harder.”

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle

This story was originally published May 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM.