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AUSTIN — The Normangee Panthers had been waiting a year for the 4x200-meter relay.
A few extra weeks just added fuel to the fire.
The four Panthers who won the silver medal a year ago in the event won the Class A gold Saturday, but they had to earn it, fighting off the Itasca Wampus Cats for the victory at the UIL State Track and Field Meet Saturday at the Mike A. Myers Track Stadium.
The win kicked off an exciting celebration when Jordan Mullinnix's impressive anchor leg finished helped Normangee finish in 1 minute, 30.27 seconds. Itasca was second at 1:30.60.
The last two legs were some of the most exciting dueling of the afternoon. Landon Hodges battled Tolar's Eugene Musick to make a perfect handoff to Mullinnix, who seemed to scoot forward immediately and retained that lead on the home stretch.
"We wanted that, because we had that seventh lane, and it's hard not to see your competition," Mullinnix said. "I was really glad it was right there, so we would have something to fight the whole way. It gave us someone to go catch. I like that."
"It's our senior year and we couldn't finish second," Hodges said. "Shoulder-to-shoulder was OK with me."
"I could hear [Hodges] behind me telling me to run, so I gave it everything I had," said Mullinnix, who finished, turned toward his teammates across the track and pumped his fist in salute.
Dillon Wolfe got the Panthers off to a solid start and Justin Mullinnix put them in position to medal with his second leg.
"It's the last 200 meters we are going to run, so we were just pushing it and giving it everything we had," said Justin Mullinnix, Jordan's twin brother. "We've been talking about winning state since we were in elementary school."
If not for the three-week delay for the state meet, leadoff leg Dillon Wolfe would have been a long shot to compete.
"I had a hernia and had surgery right after the district meet," Wolfe said. "I didn't get to run with these guys until today. I was nervous the whole time and have been panicking for about two days."
Four took the medal stand, but Justin Mullinnix explained that it was a six-man team.
"We had Cody Wolfe, [Dillon's] little brother, and Kolton Relles, and without those two, we wouldn't be here in the first place," Justin Mullinnix said. "Three different guys have run that first leg this year."
After anchoring his team to the gold in the 4x200 relay, Jordan Mullinnix took fourth in the 200, running a time of 22.57.
Normangee's multisport rival, Bremond, made a serious run at the team championship and had an outstanding day. Sophomore Johnathon White won the 800 and senior LiDarral Bailey concluded his stellar athletics career for the Tigers with a gold medal. He won the 300-meter hurdles after placing third in the 110-meter high hurdles.
After a 56-second first lap in the 800, White fell behind Canadian's Paul Lewis to begin the second lap.
"I didn't want to be the leader, because it saps your strength when you are leading," White said. "I felt if I stay in position on him that his speed would pull me around."
Lewis held the lead on the turn. When the runners hit the backstretch straightaway, White attacked. He pushed forward but could never completely pull away, yet had enough stamina left to hold off Lewis and Elkhart Slocum's Logan Foster at the finish.
"Every time in the 800, it's that third 200 where you are going to get tired," White said. "That's where it starts to hurt."
White just missed a medal as a freshman when he was overtaken late and finished fourth. He ran as though he was still angry, notching a career-best 1:58.07. Lewis ran 1:58.45 and Foster was at 1:58.70.
"Last year, they caught me at the end," White said. "This year, I wasn't going to let that happen."
White was wobbly even after receiving his medal, but still ran a 51.22 in the 400 meters, falling just short of points with a seventh-place finish. Knox City's Derrick Coleman ran 49.27 to win.
Bailey moved smoothly to the lead early in the 300 hurdles and appeared to be in solid position to win, but clipped a hurdle and Canadian's Clint Cockrell nearly caught him on the final hurdles.
Bailey was significantly quicker than Cockrell over the last hurdle, stepping across the line with the win in 39.53. Cockrell took the silver medal at 39.95.
"Oh, this feels good," Bailey said. "Last year, when I got [disqualified], it made me come back this year and work a lot harder. As I got around that corner, I knew I was going to stick it down real hard, get the lead leg over and get there as fast as I can. Finish strong and get it done."
Earlier, Bailey's strength carried him to a bronze medal in the 110-meter hurdles. He banged three hurdles hard with his trail leg -- including the opening hurdle after a quick jump out of the blocks -- but still ran 14.85.
"I had a hard time getting my trail leg up," Bailey said. "I think I clipped every one of them. It always slows me down, but I just tried to keep going and finish strong."
Westin Williams of Wellington ran 14.15 to win, missing the Class A record by one-hundredth of a second.
The Tigers entered the afternoon's final race before a crowd of 10,476 with a chance to win the Class A team crown. They needed to finish no worse than fourth and ahead of Canadian and Mart in the 4x400 relay to win.
They fell out of contention for that early.
Seniors Bailey and Jacob Flowers teamed with sophomores Jeffery Drymalla and Johnathon White to run 3:31.80. They placed eighth, and Canadian's fourth-place finish in a time of 3:25.23 gave the Wildcats the team crown with 35 points
Bremond finished fourth in the team race with 27 points. Normangee was fifth, getting 24 points out of their only two events.
Round Top-Carmine junior Laurie Byrd followed her 3,200 win Friday by sprinting home for the gold medal in the 1,600. Byrd completed her second straight double in the events. She took the lead early in the 1,600, but Crosbyton freshman Meghan Bass and Winters' Jessica Rodriguez held close.
Both were within reach with 200 meters to go when Byrd made her move. By the straightaway, she began to pull away, winning in her best time of 5:17.28. Bass, who was second in the 3,200, ran 5:18.43, giving her a second silver medal. Rodriguez was third in 5:19.21.
"My coach and I have been working on a quarter-mile kick," Byrd said. "I wasn't sure how much I needed at the end so I saved all of it for the 200 mark when I could really, really kick it. I like having a kick."
