Austen Dalquist enjoys being the hunted. The senior long-distance runner from Keller doesn’t ease into races. Dalquist pushes himself to grab early leads and then uses the opponents on his heels as motivation.

His plan worked well Saturday at the 50th Jesuit Sheaner Relays. Dalquist shattered the 1600- and 3200-meter run records at what he called his best meet of the year.

“It kind of seems dumb that I take the lead right off the bat, but I just don’t like messing around,” Dalquist said after finishing with times of 4:11.97 in the 1600 and 9:00.49 in the 3200.

“It feels good that I’m able to hammer it down in the last part of the race. It makes me excited for the rest of the season.”

Dalquist knew the type of competition he’d be facing at Jesuit College Preparatory School, and he used it as a measuring stick to see how he stacked up against some of the best in the state.

“In years past, my team has run in some out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere meets that I would win by a good amount,” he said.

“It was hard to push. You really start battling yourself out there.”

Dalquist didn’t have any problems pushing himself on Saturday, posting the area’s best times in both events.

Sprinting for perfection: The girls relay teams at Cedar Hill made their presence known by winning both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays. De-Soto finished second and Duncanville finished third in both events.

“Every time we go out there, we’re trying to break a new record,” said I’Shunique Hamilton, who ran on both of Cedar Hill’s winning relay teams. “We push each other because we never know if we’re going to win or lose.”