Oklahoma City University can add four names to its national champions list after the men’s 4x400 meter relay team took the title in the NAIA Indoor Track and Field National Championships.
A first for the track and field program, Super Stars of the Week Randy Lighteard, Ontorio Shaw, John Parks and Kianti Gix took the Geneva, Ohio by storm as they raced to the title in three minutes, 10.07 seconds. The mark is one of the top times ever run in the NAIA, less than a second off the record.
One of the impressive things about this feat is a relay foursome is a fluid entity. But that fluidity has to be as graceful as a baton pass, with no interruption in team unity. And this particular group of four has only run three total races together – with three victorious results.
Last season, the relay which included Lighteard and Parks took second at the outdoor nationals behind Oklahoma Baptist.
Parks, the lone senior of this season’s relay team who hails from Fort Worth, Texas, had the 2010 season in his mind during his leg of the race.
“I didn’t want to lose to that team again, and I’m a senior so it was my last indoor,” Parks said. “I had to just do what I had to do. I was more focused on coming out and competing good, just go out and compete at your best. For me, I’m going out with a bang so I’m just going to run all I’ve got.”
Lighteard, a sophomore from San Antonio, Texas, attributes some of the team’s success to overall chemistry.
“I personally think that if you’ve got good team chemistry, you’re always going to run good. If you have good experience, good energy around you, I think you’ll always run good.”
Gix, a transfer from American River and junior from Sacramento, Calif., agreed. “I feel like every day that we practice we always had to have some kind of bond to get a little closer so when the relay did happen there wouldn’t be gaps in between. We already had a relationship.
“I already had a state of mind that I was going to come and run with some of the best. It made me want to get myself in shape to come and come help them win something that was never brought to this school.”
“Coming together at the end, it’s kind of hard,” the elder statesman Parks said. “But we knew what we were capable of, we knew what we had to do. We knew what we can do on the track. The two new guys had to adjust real quick to what we’ve been doing, and it’s kind of hard. But we stuck together. We came together and made it happen.”
And now that they’ve earned top spot on the podium, they’re ready to streak to the top in the outdoor season. These men are looking to the future, poised to continue their success to next year with three-fourths of their championship team intact.
“That’s already set in our mind again that we’re going to be repeat champions,” Shaw said. “Winning puts us in a great position because now we know what we’re capable of, and when outdoor comes we can do it, we know we can do better.”
But Shaw, a junior from Wichita Falls, Texas, knows that no spot on the relay is guaranteed. There is stiff competition from other OCU teammates on who will comprise the 4x400 relay for not only the outdoor season, but also next year’s team.
“No matter who’s on the relay – whether it’s the same, whether it’s different, we’re still going to go out and do what we always do best,” Shaw said.
And what they do best is win.
“That’s what you work for every day, sweat blood and tears for – nationals,” Lighteard said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Gix said with a laugh and a smile, “outdoor season, here we come!”
