The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/846301
146 ■ THE WOLFPACKER At the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships this spring, Charleston won titles in the 100 and 200 meters, and ran on the Wolfpack's first-place 4x100 relay. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS The Charlotte native remembers winning the neighborhood race when he was 8 years old. Charleston waited a few years and for- mally went out for track at 11, but the focus was mainly to have fun and get faster for football. Charleston dreamed of being a wide re- ceiver or cornerback one day. He also didn't feel he was "any good" at track. Then he ran a superb time for his age group and qualified for nationals. The aura of being a talented sprinter usu- ally involves having a certain swagger, and Charleston had that at a young age. The ques- tion was whether he could maintain that status as he got older. "I remember being eight and thinking, 'You guys are slow and you'll never be at my level,'" Charleston recalled. "What hap- pened is everybody got faster [as the years went by]." Charleston enrolled at Charlotte Mallard Creek, and he wasn't the fastest athlete any- more. He was also cut from the football team at cornerback. "That was just so sad," Charleston said. "Our football team is so good. We breathe good football players." His freshman track season wasn't much better. He still recalls running a disappoint- ing 12.84 in the 100, which is 2.77 seconds slower than his current personal best four years later. "I was the fastest in middle school, but then I got to the high school and was like, 'Oh God, everybody here is big, strong and fast,'" he said. "That was not my year, but my sophomore year went much better." Charleston became close friends with a sprinter that was two years older than him — current NCSU standout Quashawn Cun- ningham — and the relationship altered his life. Cunningham and his sister Gabriele, who also attends NC State, helped make sprinting "cool" at Mallard Creek. Charleston came back rested, healthy and stronger for his sophomore season after at- tacking the weight room. He soon began to flash the confidence he had gained when he was a little kid, thinking he was faster than everybody. "Quashawn saw that I was fast and started telling my coach, and he worked me more," Charleston said. "During the indoor season, I came out of nowhere to finish second in the state to Quashawn." As track athletes are prone to do, he can recall the details four years later — Cunning- ham ran a 6.49 in the 60, while he posted a 6.51. "I carried that momentum to outdoor and did a personal record at 10.7 in the 100," A SPEEDY OPENING ACT Sprinter Cravont Charleston Had A Championship Debut For The Pack BY JACKY ZEMBAL N C State rising sophomore sprinter Cravont Charleston wasn't always the fastest person among his peers growing up. Long before running the second-fastest 100-meter dash in NC State history — a wind-aided 10.07 seconds to win the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships — he was just another little kid running in the neighborhood. Now he dreams of running a sub-10.0 in the 100. He wants build off his MVP trophy at the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where he won the 100- and 200-meter dashes and helped the 400-meter relay become victorious.