Sue Wright stood in her office Tuesday morning and completed the annual task of updating the Wright City track record book.The Wildcat 400-meter relay team made her job a little more difficult this …
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Sue Wright stood in her office Tuesday morning and completed the annual task of updating the Wright City track record book.The Wildcat 400-meter relay team made her job a little more difficult this year.Mercedes Wray, Emajahnai Hunter, Kia Campbell and Danielle Dyer broke the school record four times this year and finished their season at the Class 3 state meet in Jefferson City Friday.The Wildcats finished 10th overall in 50.95 seconds.“The experience of being there is going to be huge. That time is good, too,” Wright said. “They got the experience, and it’s pretty overwhelming. But now they have that under their belt and they’re all back, and that’s the best part of this.”Campbell and Dyer — both juniors — were the only upperclassmen on the relay team.Hunter is a sophomore and Wray is a freshman.All four runners are expected to return in the event next spring, which is rare for state-qualifying teams.“Most of the time, your relay teams will have at least one senior leader,” Wright said. “I’d really like to know what Kia ran in her split because she smoked it. If they had run a bad time, it would be a different story looking to next year. But they gave it their all. Their handoffs were good, and they’ll be back and strong next year. I’m really excited to see them next year."McCluer South-Berkeley won the race in 48.37.Wright City missed out on the finals by less than two-tenths of a second.“Hopefully they realize how much work they will have to put in to get back there again,” Wright said. “The repeat is not always the easiest thing to do.”Wright said sprint relays can be one of the most challenging races in track, for two reasons.The margin for error that exists in distance races disappears in a sprint, and all four runners need flawless handoffs to advance.“If I run a distance race, I have a lot of room for error where I can still do well,” Wright said. “In a 100-meter dash, you better get it or don’t. So it was exciting to see them do so well. They’ll have two senior leaders, a junior and a sophomore next year, and that will be good.”.FIRST LEG — Mercedes Wray runs out of the blocks in the 400-meter relay Friday at the Class 3 state meet in Jefferson City. The Wildcats finished 10th in the race. Kory Carpenter photo.
