LANCASTER — Lancaster’s girls 4x100-meter relay team ran the top two times in U.S. high school national history this season, breaking the national record with a 43.84 in March and winning the Class 6A state title in 43.91 on May 3. No one else has ever broken 44 seconds.
But Lancaster thinks an even faster time is possible next season.
“I feel like next year we could break the national record again,” junior Milan Lathan said.
Sophomore Taylor-Marie Wilson is expecting even more.
“I think we are capable of really big things. I’m seeing a 42,” she said.
That is not arrogance or bravado. It is just an extremely high level of confidence based on the historic season that Lancaster enjoyed in its first year competing in Class 6A, the UIL’s top classification, and it stems from the fact that four runners from this year’s 4x100 team are returning next year.
Central Florida signee Datavia Hunter, who ran first leg, is the only relay member graduating. Second leg Lily Pierrot and anchor leg Saniyah Miller were both juniors this season, and Lathan and Wilson will also be back, with Lathan having run third leg when Lancaster broke the national record and Wilson having subbed in for her at state after Lathan suffered a hip flexor strain at regionals.
“I think we’re capable of a lot,” Miller said. “Datavia was a key point, and she always will be, but we’re still going to be breaking records.”
Six of the top seven times in the United States this season belong to teams that ran in the 6A girls 4x100 relay at the state meet, and Humble Atascocita’s season-best time of 44.40 trails only Lancaster and DeSoto (44.24 in 2019) in national history, according to Track & Field News. But even though Wilson had only run the 4x100 once this year before state, Lancaster set a new state-meet record and dominated one of the fastest high school races ever as No. 2 nationally ranked Atascocita finished second in 44.54, third-ranked Alvin Shadow Creek took third in a season-best 44.85 and fourth-ranked Mansfield Lake Ridge placed fourth in a season-best 44.86.
That field also included defending 6A state champion Duncanville, Lancaster’s new rival, as the two powerhouses went head-to-head at every postseason meet in 2025. Duncanville owns the sixth-fastest time in the nation this season (44.99), and only seven schools in national history have run faster than the 44.70 that Duncanville ran at state in 2024, but Duncanville was no match for Lancaster this year and took fifth at state in 45.22.
“Being able to replicate [43 seconds] at state, especially after so many people doubted us and said we wouldn’t be able to touch 43 again, I wanted to cry in that moment,” Hunter said. “It was just a really amazing feeling.”
In Wilson’s only previous time on the 4x100 relay, she ran first leg. Lancaster coach LaKeidra Hayes took a chance and put Wilson on third leg at state.
“It was a really big gamble, and something I have never done in my entire career,” Hayes said. “It was the scariest thing I have ever done. Our first leg was just coming back off of injury, so it was natural to put her on first [leg], so we knew we just needed to put someone in for third. Taylor is the youngest person on our varsity team, but she is extremely mature, so it was a natural transition to put her there.
“We did heavy handoff work [before state] for third leg. It’s the toughest leg to run on a 4x100 relay.”
The 4x100 was the only Lancaster relay to make it to state, but the school did rank fourth nationally in the 4x200 (1:34.12) and ninth in the 4x400 (3:41.69), according to Track & Field News. And Hunter placed third at state in the 400 in 53.60 and Miller ranked in the top 20 in the nation in the 200 and placed sixth at state in a wind-legal 23.39.
Lancaster won the 5A state title in the 4x100 in 46.08 in 2024 and returned only Lathan and Miller from that team. But Lancaster still won its third straight state title in the 4x100 this year, and its new national record of 43.84 would have tied for third at the Big Ten Championships and placed fourth at the Big 12 and ACC Championships.
“We knew the group we put together was really fast, and we knew it had the potential to be the fastest group in history. We just executed and ran the fastest time in history. We are really good under pressure,” Pierrot said. “Our theme is ‘The tradition never ends.’ We are 14-time [team] state champions, but we just keep the tradition going.”
Others considered: Red Oak’s Zahria Bernard, Midlothian Heritage’s Angel Brefo, McKinney North’s Ryhan Balous, Arlington Martin‘s Caitlyn Cavitt
Recent winners
2019: Jasmine Moore, Mansfield Lake Ridge
2021: Brynn Brown, Denton Guyer
2022: Natalie Cook, Flower Mound
2023: Lauren Lewis, Prosper
2024: Indya Mayberry, North Crowley
Note: The 2020 season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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