The second longest standing NCHSAA All-Class State Meet Record on the boys side was held by Delton Hall of Grimsley who ran 46.41 in 1983. Only Greg Roseboro of Hillside holds a longer tendered record of 1:51.39 in the 800m set in 1980.
Hall's mark stood as the North Carolina 400m State Record until Chantz Sawyers took it down in 2017 running 46.31.
Wrice, the Wisconsin commit, entered the event as the North Carolina State Leader after running 46.90 at the All-American Track Classic in mid-April. James had been great all season in all sprint events between the 100m, 200m and 400m, but had thrown down 47.83 and 47.35 at his conference and regional meet respectively moving him to NC#2 behind Wrice.
James kicked off his dash running 10.54 in the 100m Prelims followed by a 3rd place finish in the finals clocking a 10.46. Wrice was only entered in the 400m and ahead of the 4A West Regional had not raced a 400m in a month. But ran 47.28 so you knew he was in good form heading into the state meet.
Wrice was in lane 4 with James on his right and in clear view in lane 5. Cuthbertson's Amari Barrow was out hot in lane 6 pulling James with him to have a slight lead early on Wrice. Wrice would make up the slight distance on the curve going past 200m and pick up a slight lead on James over the turn with Leesville Road's Chase Harrison on his inside shoulder in lane 3.
The two would distance themselves ahead of Harrison and would be neck and neck the final 60 meters heading toward the finish line with Wrice looking to hold a slight advantage. At 20 meters to go James would start to move up just slightly ahead of Wrice and would narrowly hold him off through the line running a full second personal best of 46.20 to Wrice's 46.25. This would take a full second off James' personal best heading into the meet and make him the fastest high school 400m runner of all-time in North Carolina!
Wrice would break the former state record as well in a .65 second PR for 2nd with a time that would have beaten any other North Carolina high school in any other race over their high school careers. He unfortunately makes a great case as being the best North Carolina athlete to never win a state title.
Harrison would hold on for third in 47.38 as Mason Kelly of Mallard Creek would run 47.90 for fourth to round out your podium finishers.
James would come back later in the day and run a personal best in the 200m as well running 21.22 to finish third overall.
While the regular season has wrapped up I imagine we see both of these guys run a few postseason events and take a crack at becoming the first North Carolina HS athletes to break 46 seconds in the open 400m. Delton Hall's NCHSAA State Championship Record stood for 41 years and shows how fast these young men ran today battling to break it.
North Carolina HS Boys All-Time 400m Rankings (Full Rankings)
