By Tamas Mondovics
Hard work, commitment and dedication displayed during the 2014 spring athletic season paid off for members of the Durant High School Cougars boys track team.
While competing in the 4A region 2 track meet held at Leto High School on Wednesday, April 23 the Durant High School boys 4×800 relay team was represented by seniors Duncan Fisher, Danny Butler, freshman Haftom Fliegelman and sophomore Jake Brownfield under the direction of program Head Coach Matthew Wright.
The boys broke the Durant school record with the team’s official time of 8:13.94, which was seven seconds faster than the previous school record that stood since 2005.
Shaving the seven seconds helped the team to qualify for the state finals held on Saturday, May 3 at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
Fisher, who is committed to Florida State University next year, ran the 4×400 relay, 400 meter and the 800 meter.
Teammate Danny Butler will be attending the University of Florida next year. He has been a lead runner in the 1,600 and 3,200. He also qualified and competed in the regional competition for the 1,600.
“These kids worked especially hard the entire year to get to the state meet,” Wright said. “We always had a goal to gradually get better during the track season to ultimately make it to the state track meet.”
Wright was especially pleased with his boys post season push.
“They really dropped a lot of time over the last month to accomplish this goal,” he said.
Wright said that his boys held their ground at state running about the same time as they did at regionals, and for a team with two underclassmen they did well. Durant’s regional competition qualifier Jevonte Reaves, placed 4th.
For more information, visit www.flrunners.com.
