RECORD-BREAKER: LMS’ Wright sets school, league marks

By Andy Brown
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Updated: May 31, 2017

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Louisburg Middle School seventh-grader Delaney Wright sprints toward the finish line in the 400-meter dash during the Frontier League meet on May 6 in Spring Hill. Wright broke four schools records and a league record this past season.

For most track athletes, breaking one school record would be something they would remember for a long time.

One record wasn’t enough for Louisburg Middle School seventh-grader Delaney Wright. She decided she was going to have one of the best days in LMS track history.

In late April at the LMS home meet, Wright broke four school records – including three individual marks. She broke the school record in the long jump, 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash and helped the 4×400-meter relay to a record as well.

“I just want to get better and try my hardest all the time,” Wright said. “People ask me all the time, ‘Why do you get nervous? You know you are going to do good.’ I am nervous all the time because I always want to push myself and do better. There were a lot of family and friends who were watching me and it was really fun to go out there and compete.”

Wright started the meet at the long jump and early on in the event she got a mark of 16 feet to break her first school record of the day by almost a foot.

Then came the 400-meter dash when Wright won the event in 1:03.62 for her second school record, which was followed by a record-breaking time in the 200-meter dash in 27.33 seconds.

In the last event of the day, Wright joined Mable Graham, Jordan Mynstead and Ruth Minster to set a school record in 4:45.

“My first event to do was long jump and in the very first run through I just tried to jump my hardest,” Wright said. “After they said what it was, I was just really happy. So for the rest of the day, I just kept trying to push myself and it was just really fun.

“I like to do track as a team and not just go out there by myself. It is good to know that someone is there running against you, helping you get better and is cheering you on and you are doing the same for them.”

With all the success, that might not have even been her best day of the season.

On May 6, Louisburg competed in the Frontier League meet and again Wright took center stage as she earned three league titles and broke two more records in the process.

Wright broke her own school record in the long jump as she recorded a leap of 16-2.5, which won the event by more than two feet. She was also less than an inch shy of breaking the league record.

“Long jump is my favorite event because I just like jumping off that board and landing in the sand,” she said. “It is really fun.”

In the 200-meter dash, Wright set a new Frontier League record as she won in 27.6 seconds. Wright broke the old mark of 27.73, set by Gardner’s Cassie Wait in 2008.

Wright just missed breaking her own school record in the 400 dash as she won her third league title in 1:03.84.

“I was nervous about league, but at the same time I was just really excited,” Wright said. “I was just happy to be able to go to league and compete. It was just a really fun time to be able to go to the team.

“It was pretty exciting. It was really great to see my teammates supporting me once they announced (the league record) over the loud speakers. They were high-fiving me and stuff and it was awesome. It was really fun to see how our whole team supported each other.”

LMS track breaks or ties three other records

Delaney Wright wasn’t the only Wildcat athlete to earn a spot on the LMS track record board. The Wildcats broke records in two other events and tied another this past season.

Justin Collins broke the 100-meter dash eighth-grade school record as he recorded a time of 11.5 seconds to break the previous mark of 11.9.

Andy Hupp, Eli Johnson, Ben Wiedenmann and Jay Scollin shattered the school’s 4×200-meter relay in 1 minute and 44.3 seconds. The old record was 1:48.

On the eighth-grade girls’ side, Alyse Moore tied the school record in the pole vault as she cleared 8 feet this season. She is currently tied with Gwen Baumgardner for the record.