By this time next year, a high school track meet will be held in Port Arthur.

“Yeah, it’s pretty exciting to have a track meet back in Port Arthur,” Memorial boys track and field coach Darrell Granger said. “It’s been about eight to nine years since we hosted a track meet.”

The oval around a recently installed football turf at Memorial High School has been repaved with only a surface yet to top it. That will pave the way for a meet to finally be held in a town with a deep track and field tradition. (Memorial has been state runner-up twice since 2015, once in 6A and more recently in 5A.)

Another important meet is on deck for the Titans — the District 21-5A championships at Barbers Hill High School, which starts Wednesday.

The Titans have been training at the auxiliary field behind Memorial Stadium at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. Senior sprinter Micheal Odoms said that hasn’t been an issue for the team.

“It hasn’t really had that much of an impact because no matter where we are, we’re still going to do our workouts,” Odoms said. “We’re still going to work hard. So, it’s not that big of a deal, just a change of location.”

Granger said the Titans have found their groove with pleasant weather touching Southeast Texas in recent days. Their success is showing in the latest chart of Beaumont-area track and field leaders organized by Tom Halliburton, as Memorial leads in six events.

Senior Allen Santos-Williams and Odoms are one-half of the 4×100-meter relay team that has run an area-best 42.14 seconds. Sophomores James Ward and Tyrence Augusta complete the relay team.

Memorial also is fastest in the 4×200 (Jatavian Neal, Augusta, Odoms, Ward) and 4×400 (Jaylon Guilbeau, Lamont Freeman, Santos-Williams and Neal).

“I like the 4×1 because of the rush, but I like the 4×4 because of how much effort you’ve got to put into the last stretch,” Santos-Williams said. “I just like the way it feels.”

Odoms said the Titans have been moving the runners around in different legs in search of the right combination for championship meets. They’ve had to go without junior Ireon Brown, who was second in the 5A state 200-meter dash last year, due to an ACL tear at the end of football season.

Junior Harold Mosley is the fastest 110-meter hurdler at 14.41 seconds, junior Freeman leads the 800-meter chart at 1 minute, 59.46 seconds; and freshman Kristopher Ross top the shot put chart with a school-record 53 feet, 2 inches. Teammate Tre’Vonte Caines won the District 22-5A and Area 11-5A shot put titles as a freshman last year.

“We’re looking for big things from them for now and the future because that’s going to be a staple in our program,” Granger said. “Kris has done everything we’ve asked him to do.”

Other area leaders in The News’ coverage area include: Caryss Carpenter of Bridge City in girls high jump (5-feet-4); Jacie Droddy of PNG in girls long jump (18-5.5), 100 meters (11.84 seconds) and 200 meters (24.88); Josh Mazyck of Nederland in boys 100 meters (10.67); Aniya Duhon of Memorial in the girls 400 meters (1:00.21); and Shelby Walker of Hamshire-Fannett in the 100-meter hurdles (15.81). Memorial, Nederland and PNG compete in 21-5A; Bridge City and H-F are in 22-4A.

“We just finally started coming into our groove right now, with us transporting back and forth from the auxiliary to the school,” Granger said. “With them laying the track down and going to practice, we’ve been fortunate to have some good weather the last couple of weeks, so that’s really helping us to run faster. We’re in that transition from endurance training to speed training, so that’s why the times are going to drop.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews