Unlike Clark Kent, McCallie’s Tons Ferguson doesn’t have to remove his glasses to turn in a super performance. The talented junior, complete with black-rimmed prescription glasses, finished off his four-event, two-day sweep at Thursday’s Division II-East region meet at GPS, winning the 110-meter and 300-meter hurdles to qualify for next week’s Spring Fling.
Ferguson, who won the triple jump and high jump earlier this week to earn the right to compete in four events at the state meet, immediately left Thursday’s competition to hurry back to McCallie to help the Blue Tornado baseball team.
“It’s very tough to be ready for this meet because I have only practiced once all season and had only ran in three meets before today,” said Ferguson, whose time on the track is limited because of his obligations
with baseball. “I try to stay mentally prepared as best I can, and then once I’m out on the track I think the will to win and my competitiveness takes over.”
In between his races, Ferguson was keeping up with the first game of McCallie’s doubleheader through texts with friends at the game. He arrived in time for the second game, in which he stole two bases and scored a run to help that team qualify for the state tournament as well.
“To me, what he did in the 300 hurdles is the most impressive thing of the day,” said McCallie coach Mike Wood. “That’s a very grueling race. You have eight chances to crash and burn with those hurdles, and here’s a kid who hasn’t really practiced all year and he goes out and wins. That just tells you what kind of incredible athlete he is.”
Baylor runner Sara Corum, right, passes the baton to teammate Kate McVay in the girls’ 4×800-meter relay during the Division II regional track meet Thursday at Girls Preparatory School.Ferguson was joined by Blue Tornado teammates J.J. Lewis (100 meters) and Myles Patton (200 meters) as automatic state qualifiers by winning individual events Thursday. Those two sprinters, along with Pete Pritchard and Alex Trotter, also made up the first-place 4×100 relay team. All but Pritchard returned from last year’s state champion relay squad; because of injuries to sprinters from other schools, only McCallie ran in that event Thursday.
“That was a little more nerve-wracking than if we had other teams on the track to race against,” said Lewis, who helped make up the team that set a school record (42.27) in the event at last year’s state meet and turned in a season-best 43.26 Thursday. “When it’s just us running by ourselves, we think more about making sure we don’t drop the baton or make a mistake that’s going to cost us, but once we get to state next week and have other teams to run against, we can relax and concentrate on just running fast.”
Baylor distance runner Alex Sumida also qualified in multiple events Thursday, winning the 1600 meters and 800 meters and helping the 4×400 relay team take first place in the final event of the evening. Despite complaining of feeling light-headed after his first event (1600), Sumida was able to gut out a narrow win in the 800, overtaking Webb’s Reece Rose in the final 20 meters.
“I didn’t have class at school today, so I just felt out of my normal routine all day,” Sumida said. “I didn’t feel great before or after I ran, but once I was on the track I was able to just concentrate on what I needed to do.
“With about 200 meters left (in the 800) I didn’t think I was going to be able to catch (Rose). But he kind of faded down the stretch and I just kept pushing until I caught him.”
Baylor’s Will Raines won the 400 and the Red Raiders also won the 4×800. In the girls’ meet, Baylor’s Rachel Smith won the 100-meter hurdles and was second in the 300-meter hurdles, while two teammates won individual events – Hayden Bryant (300-meter hurdles) and Catherine Cansler (800 meters) – and the Lady Raiders were first in the 4×200 and 4×100 relays.
Any athlete who didn’t win an event must now wait to see if his or her time or distance will earn one of the three at-large spots for next week’s state meet.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.