AUSTIN — As Addison Stricklin talked about her Lancaster teammates who’d be running the final race of the UIL State Track & Field Meet, the 4x400, two of them – Datavia Hunter and Milan Lathan – began to dance.
Hunter and Lathan had just won the 4x200 with Stricklin and Aniyah Bennett and would later team with Sarai James and Saniyah Miller for the 4x400.
“They’re some dogs over here,” Stricklin said of her teammates who’d run the 4x400. Hunter barked to mark the point.
The Lancaster girls swept all three relay races and Miller added a 200 gold in Friday’s Class 5A UIL State Track & Field Meet at the Mike A. Myers Track & Soccer Stadium to win the Tigers their first state title since 2021. They compiled 70 points, 27 more than anyone else. Lovejoy came in second with 43 points.
Lancaster wins its second straight state title in 5A girls 4x100 relay, running 46.08.@SportsDayHS @LancasterISD @TXMileSplit @TTFCA pic.twitter.com/L3EOgO2sfC
— Greg Riddle (@DMNGregRiddle) May 3, 2024
“I’m over the moon. It feels not real, I don’t know how, it feels like I’m up in the clouds, like this is a dream,” Hunter said. “... I’m really proud for me and my team. We really worked hard for this, and we finally have it, and it’s awesome.”
A year ago, it came down to the 4x400. The Tigers watched as Smithson Valley and Lovejoy finished first and second in that race and climbed past them to also take the top two spots on the team score podium.
Lancaster locked up the team title well before the final relay on Friday evening.
Stricklin, Kristian Nichols, Lathan and Miller won the 4x100 with a 46.08 even after a messy first hand-off. Then, the Tigers’ 1:36.86, a cleaner performance, won the 4x200. Miller’s gold in the 200, running a school-record 23.52, clinched the state title for Lancaster.
“The goal is always to win state,” Stricklin said. “We never want to come to state and just be here. We want to be the show. And of course everybody knows we’re going to 6A, but we want to end 5A with a big bang, so that’s what we’re here to do.”
The 4x400 served as an exclamation point. Lancaster edged past the two rivals it lost to a year ago, Smithson Valley and Lovejoy, with a time of 3:45.38. Lovejoy’s anchor Kailey Littlefield nearly caught Miller on the back-stretch, but the Tigers sophomore stayed ahead.
“We redeemed ourselves,” Hunter said, echoing what Lathan and James were saying beside her. “We were aiming for a very fast time. In the end, it turned out to be a fight, but we were victorious, and it’s just amazing.”
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