NEDERLAND — There is fast and then there is Port Arthur Memorial fast.

The Titans’ relay times did not slow down at the Nederland Bulldog Relays from last week’s opening meet. In fact, Memorial only got quicker.

Memorial set the national-best time in the 4×100-meter relay with a blistering 41.63 seconds. The Titans ran 41.79 last week at the Clear Brook Wolverines Relays.

This week the Titans displayed a new lead guy out of the blocks in De’Andre Angelle. He flew out the blocks and the Titans never looked back, well until Kary Vincent Jr. was able to look over his shoulder when coming down the stretch.

“I expect nothing else from our team,” Vincent said. “We work very hard for this and I think we deserve everything that is happening for us.”

Memorial won the meet with 151 points. Central came in second with 132, Barbers Hill was third at 102 and Nederland finished fourth at 78.

Kameron Martin and Marcus Younger joined Vincent and Angelle in the 4×100 relay.

Central’s relay team of Devwah Whaley, Devin Broussard, Calen Ragsdale and Patrick Thomas finished second at 41.95.

Quantae Connor, Angelle, Vincent and Martin then took first in the 4×200 relay with a time of 1:27.31. Central placed second with a time of 1:27.65.      

“We want to sent a message to the state of Texas that we are rolling,” Martin said. “It is not a game.”

The theme of this season for the Titans is to prove the squad can overcome last year’s graduation of Corey Dauphine. The current Texas Tech running back won the state gold medal as a junior in the 200 meters and placed second last year. He was a central figure in the team finishing second overall at the Class 6A Track and Field Championships last May.

Memorial track coach Darrell Granger said he would love to have Dauphine still around, but will let his team use any motivation it needs.

“Anytime you can come out the second week of the season and you are putting times down that in my eyes are regular track times, you feel good about your program,” Granger said. “That is something the kids have heard in the community and in the state that we were going to be down when Corey is gone. That is a driving point in our kids. It is no disrespect to Corey because he took our program a long way. He inspired our kids to be like that.”

Younger finished second in the 100-meter dash in 11.31 and was behind Hamshire-Fannett’s Kendrick King, who won in 11.26.

Memorial’s Elijah Hines won the 200-meter dash in 22.27 and Terrance Pitre took the 400-meter dash at 51.25.

Bryan Moore won the 110-meter hurdles and was third in the 300-meter hurdles. Javonta Butler was third in the 110-meter hurdles and second in the 300-meter hurdles.

Memorial’s 4×400 meter relay team of Jaquan Francois, Connor, Rickey Thomas and Pitre placed second behind Central.

Jkoven Celestine won the triple jump with a leap of 44 feet, 10.5 inches. He was third in the triple jump.

Nederland did well at its own meet. Bulldogs senior Justin Carr was second in the discus with a toss of 149 feet, 7 inches.

“We had a lot of kids returning and we knew we could do some good things today,” Nederland track coach Chris Theriot said. “We did some things well and there are some things we have to work on. I think a lot of our kids are dead-legged right now. We always tell them it is not how we start but how we finish and we want to be at our best in April. That is what we are striving to be.”

A major bright spot for the Memorial girls’ team was the jumps of Chakayla Gilbert. Gilbert was a winner in both the long and triple jumps. She won the long jump at 17 feet, 5.5 inches and went over 36 feet in the triple jump.

The Lady Titans 4×200-meter relay team of Aniya Duhon, Jamiya Dixon, Ayala Stevens and Gilbert won the event with a time of 1:45.27.