Mallard Creek 4x400 DQ'd from North Carolina state meet for celebrating; team loses meet by 2 points

The dude is either just trolling or has cognitive problems. It is best we just not bite or leave him alone.

What?

Imagine instead (you can keep your eyes opened or closed, the result is the same)

-You are a coach and were advised ahead of the meet that per the rules no early celebrating or disrespectful taunting would be allowed.

- One of your athletes is warned after an earlier event, but thankfully not DQ'd. (if your eyes are still open and can read lips, please see his behavior and what he mouthed in the first vid)

- On the final event, your athlete three strides from the finish line raises his hand with his palm facing the runners behind him.

-Your athlete and his relay team is rightly DQ'd. (Unfortunate for his teammates who had to suffer for the showboating)

The team who was two points back in overall points, is declared the winner of the meet.

And since you appear incapable of doing the minimum amount of research before casting aspersions, here is a photo of the team that won the meet Durham C.E. Jordon High School.

https://www.dpsnc.net/o/jordan/article/2913064

Notice anything? Look closely at the 18 young men. Anything at all?? Oh. I guess you will have to rewrite your screenplay.

I am done here. Geeez....

Has anyone been able to explain how this is “taunting” yet?

No, and that is because there was no taunting........at any point in the meet.

School named after a Duck Creek?

Why do you keep coming back to this concept of him breaking his normal stride pattern? How is that relevant?

Because it’s indicative of taunting, particularly in a final. Good coaches will always teach their athletes to run through the line to avoid these types of issues. I think there’s always been some leeway given to those who don’t run through the line in a prelim to conserve energy, but it’s a bit harder for someone to argue they were conserving energy if it’s the last race of the meet. It doesn’t happen as often as for raising the baton, etc., making hand gestures, etc, but I’ve seen maybe two DQs for runners breaking their stride pattern early in a final. It’s seen by some officials as showboating and taunting.

I think there may be more to this behind the scenes. The school had won indoor and outdoor titles for years. Maybe some of the track community in the state were butthurt about it.

I've seen a protest made because the colors of the bra straps of the athletes in a relay weren't all the same. The rule did say they all had to be the same color, but I don't know if the protest was upheld.

That's complete nonsense. Breaking your stride is absolutely not taunting in any way. It's a mystery as to why you continue to conflate celebrating and taunting.

They are the same thing when done during the race. What exactly is being celebrated if the job’s not finished? It’s not a celebration. Stop being intellectually dishonest. He’s taunting his opponents for not being able to catch him. He even got quoted in an interview yesterday by saying he would never *intentionally* taunt. The word choice was pretty telling. But the video even moreso.

They are in no way the same thing.

Celebrate - to say or show publicly that (someone or something) is great or important

Taunt - to reproach or challenge in a mocking or insulting manner : jeer at

Are you going to acknowledge that these are different and you're wrong, or are you going to continue to be intellectually dishonest?

That's a good movie and a perfect use of this example. I did have trouble reading this with my eyes closed though.

Anyone that thinks that's taunting doesn't know what taunting is. It's also not unsportsmanlike. It's officials that don't like kids and making it about themselves once again. Even if they were warned, there isn't anything that is against the rules. The officials invented some way to take down a bunch of kids and control the outcome of the meet because they wanted to prove they had more power than anyone else.

There is video upon video of athletes at this same meet, in race after race, "breaking their stride pattern" to finish while holding up a #1 finger, or stretching out their arms like an airplane, and so on.

Only one, of the many, many athletes to do this, was disqualified.

And he didn't taunt anyone any more than the rest of the athletes that appropriately celebrated a stride early as they claimed a state title.

"Breaking your stride pattern" to raise an arm in victory is not only not 'taunting" but it is a time-honored tradition in track and field.

Nope.

I was just thinking about this in terms of field events for some reason. If someone throws a good one in shot put and screams out while it's in the air celebrating how good it is, worthy of a DQ? Someone has a good long jump and lands and is clapping for themselves before it's measured, is that now DQ worthy? I saw a video of a high school high jumper who jumped 7' 1", he got up and pointed to his uniform and shouted, DQ worthy?

He is mocking and insulting his opponents. He barked and yelled and according to some lip readers, may have been shouting profanity after his first race. After the second race, he held up his hand in a mocking and insulting manner, as if to hold up a rear view mirror with no one being close.

What he did not do was cross the finish line and hand the baton to the official respectfully, as good coaches teach their athletes to do.

One of two things is going to happen here. Either the appeals panel will uphold the ruling, calling it discretionary, and finding there is no reason to believe the officials acted outside of reasonable discretion. Whether we like it or not, this is most likely.

Or two, the panel will agree it was taunting, but find the official wrongfully disqualified under the circumstances.

There is no scenario where anyone is going to say this wasn’t taunting except for some LetsRun trolls who have no power over the situation and who apparently haven’t watched the video yet.

Per a different article:

In 2025, Brown won the 4A Indoor Track and Field Farm Bureau Sportsmanship Award, which recognizes "players who have demonstrated the ideals of outstanding character and sportsmanship throughout the 2024-25 season.”

I’m surprised this isn’t being brought up more.