McMorris, Sims, Norwood, Casseus are track champs
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Hakim McMorris had spent more than an hour sitting alone, far away from everyone else, stewing over his earlier performance. Only one thing could make him forget the sting of disappointment he had felt in his first race Friday at the Middle Tennessee State University track.
In his final competition of what had been a long day and a grueling week, McMorris finished strong by winning the Division II state championship in the 300-meter hurdles. That win bookended his decathlon state title to begin the week and also made amends for the 110 hurdles earlier Friday, when he clipped the final hurdle and fell to the track, dropping from second to a sixth-place finish.
“It was really hard mentally to run that last race, just because I was still so upset with myself from the 110s,” said McMorris, who competed in four events Friday, with a second-place finish in the triple jump and a fourth in the high jump. “I pushed myself too hard to try to catch the leader and got out of my rhythm, and it cost me.
“I threw my medal and my shoes to the ground and just sat by myself thinking. I didn’t want to have to talk to anybody else. I needed some time alone to get myself mentally ready to come back strong.”
Arts & Sciences freshman Brevin Sims was impressive in his two events, winning the Class A/AA title in the 110 hurdles in a photo finish over Page’s Michael McMahan and finishing second in the 300 hurdles.
“Even though I won my first race, I ran terribly,” Sims said. “My form wasn’t good, so I wasn’t real happy even though I won. I’m all about progression. I want to grow and get better every race, and that first race was just messy.
“I was happier with how I ran the second race. The guy I was chasing was the defending champion, and it was a race I finished eighth in last year, so that was a much better race.”
Brainerd junior Joseph Norwood won the A/AA state title in the long jump Friday morning with a personal-best leap of 22 feet, 4.5 inches. And he ran the final race of the night, helping the Panthers in the 4x400 relay.
“Winning the state is a great experience,” said Norwood, who also plays basketball and football for the Panthers. “I still have a lot of work to do because I want to have the farthest jump and there were people in Class AAA who had better jumps. But that was a great way to end my junior year.”
Cleveland junior Benjedi Casseus won the Class AAA 110 hurdles, with Walker Valley’s Zeke Westfield finishing third. Casseus becomes the first athlete from Bradley County to win a state track title in six years.
Bradley Central’s Spencer Goode was second in the shot put and Red Bank’s Kedrick Wilbanks narrowly finished second in the 100-meter dash, with his brother Kendrick taking third. Kedrick was second in a photo finish, crossing the line in 11.09 with Maplewood’s Jeremy McDowell clocking in at 11.08.
Lions coach Hugh Enicks protested the finish, but once he was shown the finish-line footage, he admitted, “It was clear. It’s really tough, but the lean got him.”
“Kedrick didn’t get a good start,” Enicks continued. “But he fought back and powered through and was right there at the end. He’s just real disappointed.”