'Our coaches lied to us': Unaware of score, Pinckney wins last event to secure track title

PINCKNEY — When CeCe Thorington took the baton for the final leg of the 1,600-meter relay, she basically just needed to get around the track without dropping the stick to clinch a league championship for Pinckney.

But she didn’t know that.

Thorington and her three teammates in the final event of the SEC White track and field meet Thursday were told they needed to beat Chelsea to secure a team championship.

“We lied to them a little bit,” Pinckney coach Daniel Patrick said. “I told them they needed to win it to win the conference championship, because I knew it was going to push them.”

The belief that she needed to close about a 10-yard gap in the final 400 meters to bring home the Pirates’ first SEC White title since 2019 triggered something deep within Thorington. She unleashed a 58-second final leg to win the race by 1.49 seconds over Chelsea, then collapsed on the infield near the track, not coming to her feet for a couple minutes after being tended to by an athletic trainer.

“My legs locked up and everything was pretty black,” Thorington said. “I couldn’t breathe for a second.”

A second-place finish would have given Pinckney the title by one point. Winning the 1,600 relay allowed the Pirates to win by five over Chelsea with a score of 191.5 points.

“Our coaches lied to us,” Thorington said. “It helped us. We went out there and put everything we had into it.”

Madison Cooke, Addison Wroblewski and Brielle Reason ran the first three legs on a team that finished in 4 minutes, 12.00 seconds.

The Pirates finished well ahead of third-place Adrian in the last event, so Thorington could have cruised around the track. But with or without knowing the mathematics of the situation, Thorington isn’t wired to settle for second place.

It’s why she not only won three of her four events and placed second in another Thursday, but why she’s going to play softball at the University of Michigan.

“CeCe’s just another level of athlete,” Patrick said. “She’s a once-in-a-generation athlete. Nobody comes out and runs a 58-second split in their fourth event at a conference championship. She is just a beast. To see her be able to do that and finally after four years here get to hoist that conference championship is a big deal.”

After finishing second in the 100-meter dash in 12.69 seconds, Thorington anchored the winning 800 relay team and won the 400 in 59.50.

Thorington ran her final home meet, but another Pirate who made a major contribution is just getting her career started.

Davea Crowe won the 300 hurdles by more than two seconds in 46.15, a time that qualifies her for the freshman race at New Balance Nationals. The automatic qualifying time is 47.81.

“When I got to the race, I was really scared,” Crowe said. “After I finished, I thought, ‘I think I’ve got it.’ It’s just really scary to think about, but it’s just a 300 with hurdles.”

Crowe also had second-place finishes in the 100 hurdles (16.67) and 200 (26.63) and was on the winning 800 relay team.

“We’re just seeing the tip of it,” Patrick said. “She’s got the potential to be one of the fastest girls, if not the fastest, to come out of this school.”

Another freshman who played a large role in the championship was distance runner Jaelyn Ray. Ray was second in the 800 (2:31.71), third in the 1,600 (5:19.69) and second in the 3,200 (11:37.41).

Getting Pinckney off to a strong start in the first two completed events were Reason and Nadia Jacobs. Reason won long jump for the third straight year with a leap of 16 feet, 5.5 inches and Jacobs won pole vault at 9-3.

Pinckney was second in the boys meet to Chelsea, 147-103.

Pinckney senior Paul Moore won the 1,600 in 4:27.83, took second in the 800 in 2:00.62 and was on the winning 3,200 and 1,600 relays.

Jacob Duncan won discus at 125-5 and Colton Spinelli won pole vault at 11-9 for the Pirates.

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Pinckney wins first SEC White girls track and field title since 2019