Montgomery is ‘right where I need to be’
Cougars’ senior among favorites at the NCAA Outdoor Championships
Each year, as a new group of high school football and track and field athletes begin another season, Jon Pereiro tells one of his favorite stories.
It’s a rags-to-riches story: how, before Kahmari Montgomery became the Illinois record-holder with the fastest 400-meter time in state history, he did not even crack 60 seconds.
“61.24 seconds,” Pereiro, Montgomery’s former high school coach, tells the roomful of teenagers. “They have big ol’ wide eyes when that comes out. I think it’s a great story of perseverance. He stuck with it.”
Four years (and a detour to the University of Missouri) later, Montgomery is nearing the end of his collegiate track career when he competes with the University of Houston at the NCAA Outdoor Championships beginning Wednesday at the University of Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium.
Montgomery enters with the fastest qualifying time in the 400 field — a programbest 44.78 seconds set at the West Regional prelims May 24 — and is among the favorites for an individual national title. He also will run anchor leg on the Cougars’ 4x400 relay.
“I’m where I need to be,” Montgomery said recently during a break from practice. “I’m right where I need to be. I still have a lot left in the tank, which I hope to expose when I go to nationals.”
As he reflects on his final collegiate meet, Montgomery pulls up his left sleeve. On his bicep is a tattoo depicting an angel and cross. Before he settles into the blocks, Montgomery will gently kiss his hand and tap the tattoo that has come to symbolize more than just ink.
“That’s her watching over my success,” Montgomery said.
The final conversation Montgomery had with his grandmother, Mary Brown, just happened to be about track. He had joined the track and field program at Plainfield Central — about 40 miles south of Chicago — as a sophomore and, a year later, was on the verge of quitting to focus on football and basketball.
“I just didn’t care at that point. I just didn’t want to do anything,” he said. “I was actually about to quit. Our last conversation I remember her telling me she didn’t want me to stop. She wanted me to continue to do what I was set out to do – and that’s run. Ever since then I haven’t looked back.”
As a senior at Plainfield Central, Montgomery pulled off the unprecedented triple crown, winning the 100, 200 and 400-meter races at the state meet. His time of 46.24 seconds in the 400 was a state record.
“I don’t know if that record will ever be broken,” Pereiro said.
At the start, Pereiro said Montgomery leaned toward the shorter sprint races, the 100 and 200, and took some convincing to give the 400 a try.
“His body style and type, he’s able to hold his speed longer than anybody I’ve ever seen,” Pereiro said. “He definitely fought me on that initially. It took some cajoling and some long-winded conversations to get him to toe the line in a 400.”
Along the way, Montgomery had to face “some downs” and self-doubt, Pereiro said, after the loss of his grandmother.
“He took it very, very hard,” Pereiro said. “I’m glad she had the wisdom to point his arrow in the right direction. His path is a brighter one.”
In his first season at Missouri, Montgomery won the Southeastern Conference indoor and outdoor 400meter titles and advanced to the NCAA championships, finishing 11th and ninth, respectively.
Montgomery did not experience similar success as a sophomore, failing to reach the finals in any event. In August 2017, during preparation for the World University Games in Taipei, Montgomery crossed paths with UH head coach Leroy Burrell. He opted to transfer from Missouri.
“It just didn’t fit for me at all,” Montgomery said.
In his first season at UH, Montgomery swept the 400 indoor and outdoor titles in the American Athletic Conference and finished second in the outdoor 200. At the Penn Relays, Montgomery ran one of the fastest splits ever with an anchor leg 43.38 as the Cougars won the 4x400 relay for the first time at the prestigious meet.
In his final season, Montgomery repeated as AAC indoor champion in the 400 with a time of 45.04 seconds, finished national runner-up in 400 and won a national title in the 4x400 relay.
At the West Regional, Montgomery posted a time of 44.78 seconds, the thirdfastest collegiate time this season.
Burrell said a time of 44.5 seconds in this week’s 400 should be enough to win the title. Montgomery should also get a competitive boost with teammate Obi Igbokwe, a former rival at Arkansas, running in the same opening heat.
“I hope since they are in the heat together and they are going to run against each other twice this week that they push each other,” Burrell said. “And when it’s all said and done, they are the first two across the line.”
Then Pereiro would need to update his story.
“That would be a nice final chapter,” he said. “That he went on to win the national championship.”