Xavier Carter hasn\'t stopped his assault on the clock since coming back from injury just two weeks ago. Tonight at his regional meet he not only put up a commanding time to grab hold of the state leader position in the 400 meters, but he did so with flair.
X-Man made the trek down I-95 to Palm Beach Gardens for the regional meet at Dwyer High, the home track of Richardo Chambers, who until tonight held the state lead at 400 meters--his time of 46.27 from the Palm Beach County Championship. Carter apparently was not intimidated as he took nearly a second off of the state leading time to finish regional champion at 45.3h, Chambers was second at 47 and change. **Editor\'s note: The race ended up being hand-timed, due to a malfunction in the FAT system at the meet. This revelation was found out after this article was published. It is not clear at this time if the malfunction was limited to that event or affected all events. The impact on Carter\'s official time is a .14 second hand-timed penalty, making the mark 45.44 in our books.**
As if that time wasn\'t impressive enough, the Palm Bay senior took home two more regional titles with wins at 100m and 200m of 10.5x and 21.3x, respectively. (Official times are not yet known, hence the \"x\")
In case there is any doubt, Xavier\'s time is a new state record--by a comfortable margin. Geno White set the mark of 45.83 in 1997, which Carter beat by a half a second. The time also qualifies Carter for the B-standard of the US Olympic Trials (B standard is 45.85) **Editor\'s note: This may no longer be the case, since the USATF may not accept hand times. We are looking into this.**. He has come extremely close to the B standards in the 100 and 200, as well, and has until July 1, 2004 to qualify.
The national high school record of 44.69 is still a good distance away; however, with some competition (perhaps in the Trials) who knows! Congratulations, Xavier! You make us all proud!