For nearly a decade, Chattanooga has been the home of the state's fastest female prep sprinter.
It began eight years ago with Howard's LaQuisha Jackson, an All-American who set state records in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She was followed by Signal Mountain's McKenzie Ethridge, who never lost a race in her four years before graduating last spring.
Now it appears the Scenic City may be about to introduce another precocious freshman, Baylor's Makayla Packer, to the rest of the state at next week's Spring Fling. That is, provided she can find time to compete in the four events she qualified for in dominating fashion at Thursday's Division II-East region meet at GPS.
Packer is also a starting outfielder for Baylor's softball team, which opens its state tournament Wednesday. If the Lady Red Raiders win their first two games, Packer would be free to compete in the state track and field meet Thursday evening. But if Baylor stumbles and has to play at the same time the meet is being held, Packer already has decided to stay with her softball teammates.
"I've been playing softball since I was 4, and I love it," said Packer, who prefers to play select softball instead of running with an AAU track team in the summer. "I've never really trained in track. I just listen to my coaches and then go run. I'm hoping I get to do both next week."
The toughest part of the day for those watching Packer was trying to figure out what was most impressive about her performance.
Despite running in only her third meet of the season - and against several veteran sprinters with experience at the state meet - she blistered the field to claim titles in the 100 and 200, and she also anchored Baylor's first-place finishes in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. And she did all that just one day after blasting two home runs and driving in five runs to help her other team sweep a doubleheader and advance to state.
"What Makayla has is all God-given. You can't coach it," Baylor coach Bill McMahan said. "We worked with her a little before spring break because she had never even used starting blocks. It's hard to say just how good she could be, but she's already pretty dang good."
Baylor softball coach Kelli Smith was keeping up with Packer's track exploits while watching the Red Raiders host McCallie in a baseball quarterfinal series Thursday evening.
"I hear she's putting on a show," said Smith, who noted Packer is batting better than .500 this season and leads the team with seven homers. "Usually Coach McMahan doesn't even try to get softball players to run track, but once he saw her in middle school, I think he got real excited and started talking about figuring something out for her to do both.
"The bottom line is it's all about Makayla, so we work together to make sure she has the chance to compete in both sports. I'm excited for her potential, and one thing is for sure, she should be a lot of fun to watch in both for a while."
Baylor's girls easily won the team title at GPS, also getting wins from Rachel Smith in the 100 hurdles and Kayla Hayes in the 300 hurdles.
McCallie junior Hakim McMorris won both the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles, and the Blue Tornado also won the 4x400 on the way to the team title.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.