Teagan Malcom found himself in a rare disposition.

Atop the podium at the state track and field meet last month, the outbound Longmont senior had just repeated in the Class 4A 300-meter hurdles. What should’ve been a moment of pure bliss, however, was nagged with some feelings of disappointment.

Malcom, named the Longmont Times-Call boys track athlete of the year, came .02 seconds shy of breaking the 4A state meet record in the 300 hurdles in May. He’d run the record time of 36.81 seconds during the season but not at the state meet. So it didn’t count.

He was the rare state champion that didn’t pump his fists or smile wide after their winning finish. He cried.

“It was very disappointing in the moment to have missed it,” Malcom reflected.

To know him, you begin to understand why.

“It’s always been my goal to leave a lasting impact,” he said. “And I feel the best way to do that is breaking records.”

Malcom’s first time trying hurdles was in eighth grade at Lyons Middle School.

It was late in the track and field season, and he’d just returned from a nasty bout of COVID-19, but he figured there was still plenty of time to bolster the legacy he’d leave behind.

He said he scanned the school’s board of track and field records, looking for one he could beat. And something about the middle school 100 and 200 hurdles marks jumped out to him. He figured that was his best bet.

“I came back from COVID for our final meet of the season and it was my first time doing hurdles,” he said, “and I ended up getting both of the records. … So, I figured I might as well stick to it.”

In high school, Malcom’s times steadily got better through his four years with the Trojans. Yet arguably his most impressive leap came between his junior and senior seasons.

He’d started working with REAL Training hurdles coach Darius Reed a little over a year ago. Reed was the nation’s second-best 110s hurdler when he was a senior at George Washington High School in 2006 and is still in the top 10 in Colorado’s record books in both the 110 and 300 distances.

Reed said Malcom — who trimmed 1 1/2 seconds off his best 300 hurdles time as a junior (38.38 seconds to 36.81) and more than half a second in the 110s (14.61-14.06) — has just scratched the surface of his potential. He watched as Malcom passed him on the 300-hurdle state record list during the spring.

“As a former athlete, you live to see that,” Reed beamed.

Malcom finished his career at Longmont by winning back-to-back titles in the 300 hurdles. His best time (36.81) of the season was tops in the state and 32nd in the country.

He then made the podium twice more at the state meet, finishing second in the 110 hurdles and third in the 400-meter run. His best 110-hurdles time (14.06 seconds) was fourth-best in the state.

He is committed to run at the University of Colorado.

“We’re going to have his picture hung up in our gym lobby with all the other state champions that we’ve had,” Longmont track and field coach Scott Dickinson said at last month’s state meet. “He’s the first one (in my nine-year tenure) that’s going to say, ‘Back-to-back state champion.’ People are going to look at that and say, ‘That’s the kid. I want to be like him. I want to be like Teagan.’”