Around 900 teams, over 7,000 athletes and an infinite amount of unforgettable experiences are taking place at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays from Mike A. Myers Stadium this chilly weekend in Austin.
Beyond the professional and collegiate standouts headlining the event, the stakes have never been higher for a set of participants people often look past — high schoolers.
High school athletes from across the state are looking forward to competing in the second-largest track meet in the country. For Vandergrift High School senior and Texas track commit Kai McCullough, the motivation to do better stems from the meet’s host, which is soon to be his team.
“Knowing I’ll be training at UT in the fall pushes me to treat every race as an opportunity to prove I’m ready for the NCAA,” McCullough said. “At the same time, I’m also deeply motivated to finish this final season strong for my high school team and the coaches who have supported me from the start. I want to give them my absolute best during these last few meets to ensure I leave this program on the highest note possible before I compete at the collegiate level.”
Coming up on his fourth consecutive year competing at the Texas Relays, McCullough is ready to experience the tournament as a high schooler, one last time.
“Beyond my own race, I’m looking forward to cheering on my high school teammates as many experience this meet for the first time,” McCullough said. “While also supporting my future teammates, I’ll be officially joining this fall.”
Fellow Vandergrift senior and Austin local, Tibbie Mustacchia, knows that the Relays present a unique opportunity not every high school athlete has the chance to experience.
“It’s such an honor to be able to compete at Texas Relays because it’s such a selective and iconic event,” Mustacchia said. “Being there in uniform means you are recognized as one of many elite athletes in Texas and given a rare chance to race alongside the best of the best.”
In order to prepare for the professional-level atmosphere, Vandergrift track and field coach Colin Sully is setting his focus on daily improvement in practice and overall team culture.
“We try to simulate pressure in practice when we can and keep the focus on execution,” Sully said. “At the end of the day, we want it to feel like just another race.”
The Texas competition will be on full display this weekend, and for national champion and U18 60m world best Dillon Mitchell, this is his time to prove that it’s not wind-assisted performances, it’s all him.
“Honestly, I’m just really hoping for a PR,” Mitchell said. “I really want a wind-legal PR so people can stop talking about the wind.”
For any short sprint performance to be officially recognized, it must be wind-legal; a mark made with the wind reading exceeding two meters per second or higher will not be accepted. At the Texas A&M Bluebonnet in March, Mitchell ran a “wind-aided” 9.88-second 100-meter dash, resulting in a first-place win and record-breaking time.
Coming from the breezy Houston coast, it’s hard to find a track meet in the area that will produce a wind-legal performance this time of year. The straightaway at Mike A. Myers Stadium can give Dillon that opportunity.
“We kind of have this mantra of, you know, as long as people keep watching, we’re gonna keep on giving them something to see,” Billy Mitchel, Dillon’s father, said. “ (Dillon) gravitates to that. He loves the competition. He loves to be pushed. It’s kind of hard not to pick a time when he did not raise his level to whatever the competition was.”
From the track to the sand pit, and everything in between, the four-day tournament at Mike A. Myers Stadium will host the best of the best in the state.
