Leroy Burrell? Carl Lewis? Dunbar hurdler ready ‘to get my Ph.D. in track and field.’
When Paul Laurence Dunbar hurdler Mario Paul met United States track legend Leroy Burrell at a nationals meet two years ago, he didn’t think much about it.
Burrell, the head coach of the nationally ranked University of Houston track and field program, stopped to say hello.
“At that time, as a sophomore, I was like, ‘Houston isn’t looking for sophomores.’ OK, cool, I met you. … “ Paul said, remembering how dismissive he was at the moment. “He said, ‘Hit me back when you’re running good times.”
Then, last year, Paul ran the fastest 400-meter hurdles time in the nation for a high schooler. And, “funny enough,” Burrell called him.
“‘I need a hurdler down here,’” Paul remembers Burrell saying. Paul also remembers Burrell not knowing the time he just ran in Indianapolis (or maybe feigning so). “He said, ‘Well, send me that video and we’re going to talk about paperwork’ and all that stuff to get me down there … It was an amazing conversation.”
Burrell committed to Houston in November. The signing has been a relief and Paul believes he’s running better because of it. While it has increased expectations on him, it has also eased the pressure of having to “run for a scholarship.”
A week ago, Paul set the No. 1 400-meter hurdles time again at 52.27 seconds only to see a South Carolina runner top him a couple of days later at :52.16.
“Now, I’ve got to go out and find another 400-hurdle race and run better than that,” Paul said. “I’ve been training really well. I think I’m going to hit that 51-low, 50-high mark.”
At Monday’s Class 3A, Region 6 track and field championships at Bryan Station, Paul easily won its 300-meter hurdles race for the Bulldogs in a time of :37.44, more than three seconds faster than his nearest competitor.
It was one of three events Paul won for Dunbar, a team coached by his father of the same name, Mario Paul. The younger Paul finished second in his other event, the 200-meter dash, losing to Scott County sprinter Bryce Chisley. Paul won the 110-meter hurdles and anchored Dunbar’s winning 4-by-400 relay team.
He qualified for the state meet in each event and will have opportunities to run in several national events this summer before heading to Houston, his father said.
“I’m very proud of him,” Coach Paul said. “We’re going to gear up for state here … (then) he’ll have to choose where he wants to go (during the summer), but we’re very excited. It’s a fun time of year.”
The younger Paul said he’s learned a lot from his father, who ran for the University of Kentucky and Middle Tennessee.
“Me and my dad, sometimes we don’t see eye-to-eye, but at the end of the day, he knows me best and he knows what makes me click,” Paul said.
Coach Paul joked that his son hasn’t run quite as fast as he did in his prime. The younger Paul quickly dismissed the jibe.
“That’s college times, man,” Paul said, laughing, after hearing of his dad’s assertion. “I’m not there yet. Wait till I get there. … He knows who’s faster for real. He knows who’s really fast. I’ll just be out there chillin’.”
Being in the Paul family also means having an appreciation for track and field history, which probably helped Houston’s Burrell woo Paul during his unusual COVID-19 altered recruitment that meant a lot of Zoom calls and long road trips.
In his prime, Burrell took turns with one of his assistant coaches at Houston as the fastest man alive in 1991. That assistant coach’s name is Carl Lewis, one of the most famous track athletes in the world.
Even though he was born more than a decade after that storied time, Paul can’t wait to learn from them.
“You’ve got to know about Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell. How do you not know those guys?” Paul said. “You’ve got some minds down there, some track minds. And I’m ready to go down there and get my Ph.D. in track and field.”
