Runnin’ Rabbs in search of state title No. 7

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the State track meet wouldn’t be the same without Atlanta on the scene.

Five years ago the Runnin’ Rabbs brought home its sixth State championship in school history, and is in prime position to bring home its seventh overall when two relay teams and a triple jumper compete at the UIL State Track and Field Championship on Thursday, May 12, in Austin.

At the beginning of the season the goal for any team or individual athlete is to make it to State.

No matter the sport, making it to State is tops whether it’s your first trip or third.

In this case all of the Atlanta athletes and Queen City’s Toni McCellon will be gracing the State stage for the first time.

Atlanta

Stacy Darty

The “field” part of track and field is not always on best terms with our spring weather.

Many times a rain shower cancels out the field events and all of that practice for the week seems to go to waste.

Even on relay days where the field events were canceled Stacy Darty was able to compete in the hurdle events, but the Atlanta junior literally jumped his way to state after placing second at Regionals in the triple jump.

Darty turned in some impressive results this season especially against 5A and 6A athletes.

He placed first in the event at both District and Area and just missed first by one inch at Regionals.

Going into the State meet Darty’s Regional mark is sixth in the entire state in Class 3A competition, but that’s not going to deter him or his mindset going into the State meet.

“At Regionals I set a personal record by a foot further than I had before to get to State and I had a good mindset going into that competition,” Darty said. “When I found out I was going to State I was super excited and very emotional. It was an amazing feeling. Now we just need to focus on what we need to do, get it done and get a ring.”

Head Coach Nick Miller had this to say about Darty and his successful season.

“He has had a great attitude through it all. He would come straight from basketball practice and then run hurdles and practice his jumps,” Miller said. “We had a very young group of guys who overachieved last year and Stacy was one of those guys who stepped up and helped out on the mile relay.”

“He came out this year and we had some guys already set to run that race but he took ownership of what his role was on the team, and competed in the jumping events and hurdles and did a very good job of making it to Regionals,” Miller added. “He was an Area leader in the long jump but didn’t get out of Area in that event, but what he did do was get better in the triple jump each week.”

“He set a personal record at Area and at Regionals he was bumped down to third place after the first round of jumps,” Miller said. “He hit a personal record on his last jump and placed second overall. What that tells me about him is that he is a competitor. He looked at the bigger picture and said ‘what is it going to take for me to advance?’ and he went out there and took second place and advanced to State.”

Relay Teams

The Runnin’ Rabbs’ relay teams are, as Coach Miller always says, “our bread and butter”.

That’s due to the fact that Atlanta’s relay teams are year-in-year-out solid against state-wide competition and the amount of points you can rack up from placing first or second normally decides state championships at the State meet.

Although the lineups throughout the year have changed some the Runnin’ Rabbs’ relay teams were front and center at District, Area and Regionals.

Coach Miller said the 4x400m relay event is the toughest to run and Atlanta has not lost a 4x400m race this season.

In the five races before District, Atlanta cruised to wins over 5A and 6A schools in some instances.

At Area the 4x400m team turned in a time of 3:23.65 which beat out second-place Quitman who hit 3:24.19.

At Regionals the 4x400m team beat out Quitman again with a time of 3:22.27.

Going into the State meet the Rabbs have the best time in the state followed by Sonora at 3:22.67, Palacios at 3:23.03, McGregor at 3:23.11, Childress at 3:23.45, Canadian at 3:23.57, Quitman at 3:23.80, Universal City Randolph at 3:24.71 and Clifton at 3:24.75.

The 4x400m relay team has had lineup changes throughout the season but never wavered in its delivery to win races.

The team that will run at state is comprised of Isaiah Chandler, JaBranden Wells, Matthew Cauley and Eli Riojas.

Chandler and Wells have spent time on all three relay teams this year. Cauley has been on a couple as well.

The 4x200m relay team was strong all season and could have made it to State, but unfortunately the team was interfered with at Regionals and with no replay option Coach Miller’s appeal was not overturned.

The 4x100m relay team of Wells, Chandler, Zakyus Jackson and Markeylin Batton turned in the best time in the state at Regionals albeit a very close race.

The Rabbs finished Regionals with a time of 42.16 in the 4x100m race followed by West Rusk at 42.20, Daingerfield at 42.21, Franklin at 42.54, Shallowater at 42.58, Brock at 42.66, Yoakum at 42.82, Buna at 43.06 and Universal City Randolph at 43.07.

Wells, a junior, has been one of the instrumental pieces the relay teams needed, and has been running hard through an injury. He said that the Regional meet was very competitive.

“When we won our races I was very excited at the chance to run at state but also a little nervous since I’ve been running through my injury, Wells remarked. “To win State we have to keep pushing and don’t stop.”

Senior runner Matthew Cauley also thought the toughest competition to date was Regionals.

“There were some really good teams at Regionals and the races were the closest al year,” Cauley said. “Getting to State is the best feeling I’ve ever had as an athlete and to win we need to keep our winning streak going since we haven’t lost a 4x400 race all year.”

Sophomore Eli Riojas bounced from JV to varsity but performed well and earned a spot on the 4x400 team.

When asked how tough Regional competition was Riojas replied, “It was very nerve-wracking and tough, but in those instances you have to trust your team and run your best.”

His outlook on State was very positive.

“When we won the race I was humbled and had such a good feeling because I knew we could do it,” Riojas said. “I know we can win State if we run our best and run as hard as we can. If you run hard you can’t go wrong.”

Senior Zakyus Jackson enjoyed his opportunity to help the 4x100m relay team, and actually enjoyed the competitiveness of Regionals.

“At Regionals there were some really good teams that were fast and fun to compete with,” Jackson remarked. “To qualify for State was a crazy feeling and it has been a minute since we have won a State title. My mindset going in is to try my best and accomplish a championship with my bros.”

Another solid fixture on the varsity track squad is freshman Markeylin Batton who is an all-around solid athlete who also played varsity football for the Rabbits.

His take on Regionals almost echoed Jackson’s take.

“At Regionals there were some fast dudes and the competition was tough. It pushed us to perform better and we won the race,” Batton stated. “It feels good to have an opportunity to run at State and I’m going to compete and try my best when the time comes.”

Back in 2015 I wrote an article on an electric Atlanta Middle School 10-year-old who set the track on fire, and won both a Regional title and a State title in the 200m dash.

Isaiah Chandler won two gold medals competing in the 10U Division of the Texas Amateur Athletic Federation (TAAF) event.

Fast forward seven years and now the junior Rabbit is preparing for another chance at a State medal.

Chandler, like Wells, ran on all three relay teams the entire season and is excited to get to Austin and get to work.

“We had to give it our all at Regionals where the competition was tough,” Chandler said. “I’ve been a state champion before but this is a bigger stage and I’m very excited we have made it this far. We have worked hard and ran strong all year. I would love to win a State title so one of my goals is to run a 3.15 in the 4x400m race.”

Coach Miller had this to say about the progression of the state qualifiers over the course of the season.

“They’ve progressed tremendously. We had some issues early on with handoffs and finding the right order for our athletes to be in for each relay,” Miller said. “What never failed is every week, every practice they showed up and they trained as hard as they could, pushed themselves and didn’t have any bad days so through that each meet we got better and our times got better.”

“We went through a little spell there where we didn’t have as much competition but we still ran good enough to win and progressed from that to actually pushing ourselves when we didn’t have competition,” Miller continued. “Times have gotten better and the work ethic has stayed constantly great all year.”

Miller feels the biggest hurdle for the team to overcome was competition.

“We had to travel to find competition and knowing what we could do we were ready to compete,” Miller said. “Injuries here and there were also hurdles but we always had a guy ready to step in and step up to help the process go smooth. Overall competition and getting to our peak has been our hurdle.”

Coach Miller has seen the guys face some stiff competition this year between bigger schools and some really polished 3A competition, and shared his thoughts on how he feels the Rabbs fared at Regionals.

“They did great and it was a very big deal to them,” Miller stated. “They’re very serious about what we do and take nothing as a joke. They treat every meet as a business trip.”

“We had some bad luck in the 4x200 on day one and although it was heartbreaking they looked on the fact that it’s not always about winning it’s about what the kids learned from their experience,” Miller remarked. “We decided to put it behind us and concentrate on what we had left and I was proud of them for overcoming that letdown the day before and winning the two relay races the next day.”

The State meet is a big deal. The stadium is huge and will likely be packed. The pressure will be heavy and possibly intimidating.

Miller coached the Runnin’ Rabbs to a State title in 2017 and won multiple State track titles when he was in school. He knows what it takes to overcome jitters and pressure.

When asked what advice he’d give the team to mentally prepare them for what’s coming, Miller said, “Worry about you and you only. When I competed I always told myself ‘no one has outworked you so go out there and don’t let anything affect what you need to do’. I just tell them ‘go out there and do what you do and you are going to win’. I truly believe that. If you worry about you, you are going to make sure you leave on time on the relay. You are ready to run fast. Worry about you and your job and we are going to win.”

The determination and focus of these young Rabbits could very well net them plenty of accolades and the program’s seventh track and field championship.

Queen City

Queen City’s Toni McCellon has been on a mission since last season.

The junior placed first in nearly every 300m hurdle race she competed in last year, and missed a chance to compete at State after a no-so-fantastic finish at Regionals.

This year McCellon swept the competition and finished first in every 300m hurdle race she entered except Regionals where she finished second overall.

“She placed first in her heat but was slotted third behind the top two finishers in the other heat so she knew on day two she would have to compete hard for a chance to go to State and she did that,” Coach Doug Parr said.

McCellon kept topping her personal record over-and-over this season and hit a PR 46.13 at Regionals.

McCellon has been running varsity track since she was a freshman and after moving to QC a couple of years back she showed us why.

With the year she’s having competition seemed to fall behind her.

At Pewitt’s Doug Sibley Relays she won by nearly six full seconds, she cruised to victory in the Sabine Cardinal Relays, she won District by nearly four seconds and won Area by almost three seconds.

“For me the competition wasn’t as bad this year as it seemed to be last year especially at Regionals,” McCellon said.

After qualifying for State McCellon said she was very excited but nervous at the same time.

“I was very excited to make it through to State but I’m also nervous at the same time,” McCellon remarked. “But in my thinking I’d rather give it my all and finish last than not give it my all and finish first.”

That right there is a true competitor’s spirit when you look at it that way, but in talking to the champ she is going to go out there and leave it all on the track with her final performance of the season.

“She has worked hard and has kept her focus on her goal and throughout the season her times have gotten better,” Coach Parr said.

Girls’ Athletic Coordinator April Chism had this to say concerning helping McCellon stay in the right mentality going into State.

“I have stayed in her ear and told her it’s a race, go enjoy it. Don’t take it for granted. Understand the stage,” Coach Chism said. “You know she finished last coming out of Regionals last year and wasn’t used to being in that position. I believe that helped fuel her fire for this year and she’ll be competing on the biggest stage there is for high school sports.”

McCellon can very well medal by sticking to what she knows how to do and that is winning races.