This Week In Hurricanes History: 23-Year Old Track Record Broken
By Ashleigh Young
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Records are meant to be broken.
And that is exactly what Miami’s men’s 4×400-meter relay team did on April 13, 2019, at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational.
The 4×400 program record time of 3:07.15 held by Tony Gaiter, Alfredo Richards, Maxwell Voce and UM Hall of Famer Davian Clarke set in 1996, was taken down by three freshmen and a junior 23 seasons later. Running against a highly-touted LSU relay team that went on to run the then-second fastest relay time in the NCAA, the young Canes squad set out to run their best time of the season.
McKinly Brown, Tyrees Moulton, Thomas Burns and Davonte Fuller showed out on the track, running a time of 3:06.75 after an energetic speech from men’s sprints coach Diego Flaquer.
Last time out, this happened 👀 pic.twitter.com/XBH5GZK5bv
— Miami Track/XC (@CanesTrack) April 24, 2019
“Coach Diego was hyping us up and getting us ready to go. He told us that’s what we’ve been working on and told us to stick with them and, if we did, we were going to run something fast and that’s what we did. We went out there and broke the record.” -- McKinly Brown
Brown, the lone upperclassman on the relay, came to Miami wanting to break records and etch his name into Hurricane history. Not only did he lead the first leg of the relay, but his coach says he helped set the tone for his younger teammates.
“McKinly brought experience, tenacity and a positive attitude to that squad. Everything we talk about from a relay perspective is that we have to lead from the front and that’s what he did. Everybody feeds off the guy in front of him and they saw what he ran and that’s the exciting part of the relay.”-- Diego Flaquer
For Fuller, who ran the anchor leg, there was excitement and nerves, both of which were over in a second, as soon as Burns passed him the baton.
“We knew coming into the race that we were ready to run something fast, I just didn’t know it would be that fast. I remember watching everyone else run before the baton got to me. I was a little nervous, but as a soon as I got it, my mind calmed and all I was worried about was executing the race. The last 100 meters, I saw the time on the board and heard the crowd screaming and when I crossed the finish line and saw the time, I couldn’t believe it.” -- Davonte Fuller
“We’re all still friends to this day and every year before the track season starts up, they call me up and ask if they think our record is going to hold up another year? I didn’t think our records would last as long as they did, we were just trying to break records and walk around with our letterman jackets.” -- UM Hall of Fame Inductee and 6x All-American, Davian Clarke
With the likes of Brown – who has one more outdoor season of eligibility – Fuller and Moulton still making headway into their young careers, the men’s track program is on the rise. The three hold two of the top five times in the indoor 4×400 relay, while Brown owns the 600-meter run indoor program record, along with the No. 2 spot in the outdoor 400-meters. Fuller ranks just behind Brown in the 600 meter and holds the fourth-fastest 400-meter outdoor time in program history.
“Those four men took tremendous pride the 4x400m and were determined to leave their mark in the record books. It was exciting to watch them compete with such confidence and compete from start to finish.”
Director of Track and Field / Cross Country -- Amy Deem
Both Brown and Fuller say the future is bright for the men’s track program, especially because of the talent coaches continue to bring to Miami. The pair believe the standard is continuing to be set, with the likes of Raheem Chambers and Kevin Arreaga reaching the NCAA Indoor Championships this season. And Brown’s belief is that the work ethic is what will set this Canes team apart.
“We have to continue to build off each other’s successes and not take the little things for granted when this all comes back,” Brown said. “Going into my freshman year, I said I wanted to break as many records as possible and I’m still trying to break more before I leave.”
