“I always dreamed of playing baseball at the highest level,” said Ozark graduate Devyn Wright. “Playing MLB, Arkansas, Vanderbilt…”
He had the right idea with the University of Arkansas, but on a different playing field.
“I’m going here for track, it’s kind of crazy.”
Wright spent two years playing junior college baseball and then a few weeks with the Evangel baseball team before switching gears to track and field with the Valor.
“Last summer I was kind of losing my motivation for baseball a little bit,” Wright said. “My whole family did track: My dad was Olympic high jumper, my mom ran track in college, my sister does track, my brother did track, so I was kind of the oddball out.”
His experience on the track was minimal.
“I ran track in middle school, but not not high school because I played baseball,” Wright said.
He traded spikes on the diamond for spikes on the track and that’s where he found his stride. In under a year, he went from inexperienced to NAIA 400M national champion.
“So I was kind of in control the whole race until about the 300m mark and there was a guy from Texas Wesleyan that kind of was on my hip a little bit,” Wright said. “Whenever I saw him on a hip, I just hit the gas and I just gave it my all I had just tried to do what I had to do to win.”
A run time so good that he would finish top 20 in Division I. He is now on his way to compete for the team with the most track and field national championships at that level.
“Going to Arkansas it’s pretty surreal,” Wright said. “If you had told me a year ago that I would be going to Arkansas, I wouldn’t have believed you, but it’s definitely been a crazy year.”
A year that took a complete 360 on his previous ambitions.
“I don’t regret playing baseball at all,” Wright said. “I’ve met some of my best friends and I met some great people playing baseball, but I’m just happy I picked up track when I did.”
Wright is ready to focus on his new found love, now in cardinal and white.
