From the depths of despair to the top of the world. It sounds like the plot of some corny Hallmark movie, but it was a real-life scenario for Mekhi Stafford.
As injuries and other circumstances kept knocking him down, Stafford was starting to feel at one point as if his track & field career was destined to go nowhere. “It was just like something was trying to stop me from racing to my full potential,” he said. “I had so much potential, I’ve still got so much more potential. But something was holding me back. It’s pretty frustrating, it makes you want to give up but I feel like my will and my drive helped me keep it up.”
It all came to fruition on June 15 at Franklin High School, when the Ewing High senior ran a personal best 10.5 to win the gold medal at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions. It was Stafford’s first MOC appearance since winter track in his freshman year. His day started with graduation practice so “I was pretty chill” driving up to Franklin. But then things got dicey, as Mekhi ran a 10.9 in his preliminary heat. He won his group but was fifth overall after being the top seed entering the race.
“It was a slow start, it felt like a pretty bad race,” he said. “I’m not gonna lie, I was scared for a little bit. I had a pretty bad lane as well, I had lane two.”
Going into the finals he worked to refocus himself. “I got out and got a blazing start and after that it was over,” he said. “It was my start that won it all. The first 20 meters I had it. I didn’t see anybody after that.”
It was all a matter of clearing his mind of the sub-par prelim race, which he did by doing what he always does—turn to faith. “I came into the race today knowing God has to be good for me,” Stafford said. “I’m a pretty religious guy, I thought God was testing me; seeing how I would react. But I was gonna keep trusting him, I knew he had something for me and he showed that. I had to come back and really put it down, and I did that.”
Prior to the MOC, coach Dan Montferrat had no worries about Stafford’s confidence level. “Confidence is key for any great athlete and with the way Mekhi has been going out, competing, and executing on the track; it’s special,” Montferrat said. “He’s performing at an all-time high right now.”
It was the perfect finish to what could safely be termed an imperfect career for the snake-bitten Stafford.
After being the fastest kid in the neighborhood when his family moved from Trenton to Ewing, the youngster decided to try track at Fisher Middle School. His sixth-grade year was foreshadowing of things to come as a broken pinkie and a concerned mom prevented him from running.
He started in earnest in seventh grade, and Montferrat already saw that confidence brimming.
“I can still remember meeting Mekhi during a Fisher spring meet,” the coach said. “He was long jumping, but didn’t shy away in telling me about how fast he was and how he wanted to be one of the best to come through Ewing. From middle school until now he has always had a confidence that has separated him from his competitors.”
Stafford burst on the scene as a freshman, taking second at the Central Jersey Group III and the Group III state indoor meets before finishing eighth in the Meet of Champions.
Little did he realize he would not be back to an MOC until his final high school season.
“As a freshman, he had an outstanding winter/indoor season and we were all very excited for what the spring was going to bring,” Montferrat said. “Unfortunately Covid shut that down.”
And that was just the start.
After playing football his freshman year, Stafford quit, saying “Track was just screaming my name.”
But. . .
“Sophomore year I had hypertension, the doctor wouldn’t clear me so I couldn’t run at all that year,” Stafford said.
Mekhi returned for his junior indoor season and took second in the 55 in both the sectionals and states; but a pulled hamstring kept him out of the MOC. He did manage to compete at Nationals and took second in the Emerging Elite division.
“That made me feel like I could accomplish more,” he said. “It showed me what I could actually do.”
In the spring, Stafford took second in the county meet in the 100 and first at the sectionals before a dirt bike accident ruined his chances to go further.
“By then I was just overly stressed from track, mentally,” he said. “I just cut my season short and tried to come back healthy for this year.”
He came back strong. This past winter campaign he finished second in the 55 in sectionals and states, but was again denied a MOC berth due to a pulled hamstring. At that point, the sprinter knew he had to do something, and began therapy on the right leg that was giving him so much trouble.
“It actually works so now I’ve been doing better with that,” he said. “It’s really unorthodox. It’s finding a way to get more oxygen to your muscles. It’s hard to explain. But it left me pretty relaxed. It was a lot of focus, a lot of slow breathing, technical breathing.”
It helped breathe new life into the hamstring and the runner.
“Coming into this year I kept my confidence to a certain level so I wouldn’t get too arrogant,” Stafford said. “I always respected the competition in every single race. So my whole goal this year was to do what I could to execute.”
That goal included winning everything in sight.
“His goals for this season were to be at the top – county, section, state, and even beyond,” Montferrat said. “He did everything he needed to to get himself to that point; mentally and physically. Although he didn’t run at counties (due to the prom) he showed everyone just how at the top of his game he was the weekend before at the (Mercer) Coaches Classic and he continued to be that way through his NJSIAA post-season run.”
Stafford won the Coaches Classic in what was then a PR of 10.60, and claimed gold in the sectionals (10.69) and states (10.6) before busting out with his latest PR of 10.56 at the MOC.
Although 100 and 200 are his main events, Mekhi has also done jumps, run the 400 and competed on numerous Ewing relay teams, including the 1600 SMR Relay that won the Mercer Meet and the 800 SMR Relay that qualified for New Balance Nationals. Stafford also qualified for the Nationals in the 100.
“What makes him such a good sprinter is his preparation and knowledge,” Montferrat said. “He warms up understanding what he needs to do to ensure his best possible race. He watches races over and over and pays close attention to his form, his mechanics, and is always looking to perfect it. He even talks to other runners about it and helps them in their forms and technique. He has shown great growth and progress every year on the track,”
He grew into the fastest 100 sprinter in New Jersey, as his MOC time was best in the state this spring.
“It feels so good,” he said shortly after the race. “It’s like, words can’t say how it feels. It feels like I’ve finally done it, I finally got what I deserved, got what I worked for all these years.”
It was a true tribute to his determination, work ethic and faith. He never lost it, and found a gold medal because of it.
Mekhi Stafford celebrates after winning a gold medal on June 15, 2023 at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions.,
