Track

For some teens, summer is a time to relax and take it easy. It’s a time to slow down and take a breather.

That’s not the case if you’re a Carroll athlete, especially for a select few members of the Dragons track team. Instead of winding down, they kicked their effort into high gear and recorded a fast enough time to earn them a place among the nation’s elite.

Carroll track members Colby Lowe, C.J. Brown, Jack Peterson and Mason Williams competed in the distance medley relay event at the Nike Outdoor Nationals that took place June 19-21 in Greensboro, N.C. To say they fared well would be an understatement.

The Carroll relay members not only won the race among 20 other teams chosen to compete from across the nation, but they recorded the third-fastest time in the history of the event run by high school athletes in the U.S.

"They got close to the national record, but they broke the state record," said Carroll boys track coach Tony Holmes, who accompanied the athletes to the national event last month. "[The state record time] won’t count, because it wasn’t run in Texas.

"They had been training for the event since school let out," he said.

However, even though all of them had competed in either sprints or long distance events this spring for the track team, scheduling differences didn’t allow them to practice together much leading up to the Nike event.

Everyone was expected to stay faithful to their own training, Brown said. Brown ran the opening 1,200-meter leg, Williams ran the 400, Peterson ran the 800 and Lowe ran the mile to combine for the distance relay.

"I was looking more ahead to my cross country training that we do in the summer, but nothing special," Brown said. "Jack was doing training with his running club, while Colby kept up his two-mile training after winning the event at state. Mason had spring football practice, so we just trusted each other to be ready for the race.

"It’s so hard to have all your guys in a relay to race their best and their fastest at the same time," he said. "It was great that we were all able to do that on the same day and take care of business."

The Dragons runners finished with a time of nine minutes, 56.54 seconds, well ahead of the second-place finishers from Danbury (Conn.) High School at 10:02.11. The national record stands at 9:49.78, set in 2001.

With a cross country team that has already had its moments in the spotlight by qualifying to compete in national events, Carroll’s ability to win its first national track title in the Nike Outdoor Nationals should allow Dragons track to begin receiving that same level of recognition, Holmes said.

"They’re becoming nationally known," he said. "I think this win is going to help [the Carroll track athletes] make a name for themselves nationally as well."

Lowe’s reputation as one of the top one-mile and two-mile runners in the nation was kept intact at the meet. Lowe finished the high school season defending his 1,600 and 3,200 titles at the 5A state meet in May. The recent Carroll graduate, who will run cross country and track at Oklahoma State University this coming year, finished third in the 3,200 at the Nike Outdoor Nationals.

Lowe posted a time of 8:47.07, trailing only German Fernandez of Riverbank, Calif. (8:34.40), and Luke Puskedra of Ogden, Utah (8:47.06).

"He ended up running the best time he’s ever run," Holmes said of Lowe. "The kid that beat him ended up breaking the national record. … There was pretty tough competition there."

Carroll pole vaulter Hayden Clark also competed at the national meet, though he was unable to final during his performance.

Brown, who will be looked to as a leader for the boys track and cross country teams with the departure of Lowe, said he expects that the national exposure his team received will benefit the rest of the Carroll track team.

"I think it’s going to spill over and produce a desire for the rest of the [track] program," he said. "Hopefully it will carry over and it will become infectious in helping produce results next year."

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