Nevada runner’s team breaks record

In runner's terms, Corey Moody is a "thoroughbred."

He and his three teammates proved worthy of that term when they set a world record in the men's 50 4x400-meter outdoor relay race at the 2011 World Masters Athletics Outdoor Track and Field Championships July 17 in Sacramento, Calif.

"Quarter-milers are called 'horses,' " he said. "We are considered thoroughbreds, like Big Brown and Secretariat."

The relay race, where a baton is handed off after 400 meters to the next runner, was held under the auspices of the USA Track & Field Club. The U.S. men's 50 4x400-meter team had a time of 3:31.76, breaking the previous record of 3:35.31 set by a team from Great Britain in 2008.

Moody began in the outside lane, which he said is his favorite, with "no one to chase, so there was no pressure."

He said at the last turn, the 200-meter mark, "I felt no one was near me so I went, 'Let's open it up and give him (his handoff teammate) the lead he needs.' "

His teammates were Michael Sullivan, Darnell Gatling and Ray Blackwell, all part of Team USA, which consisted of men and women competing in different age groups.

Moody is a Summerlin-area resident and the only Nevadan on the team. He also won the silver medal in the men's 400-meter dash for his age group at the event, with a time of 53.04.

The 50-year-old began running track his senior year of high school in Ann Arbor, Mich. Back then he ran the 100-yard dash and 220-yard dash, and some of his high school records still stand. He also won two state medals.

He was offered a track scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he was selected as Athlete of the Year in 1981, when he broke the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference 400-meter record.

He also set records at Morehouse that still stand today when he was a member of the 4x200-meter relay team and sprint medley relay in 1982.

Moody trained at Morehouse under Napoleon Cobb, who has coached several Olympic medalists. But a car accident cut short Moody's dream of competing for a position on the 1984 U.S. Track and Field Olympic team. He suffered further injury at an indoor track meet at the University of Tennessee.

After graduating with an accounting degree and becoming a certified public accountant, he became a businessman and opened a CPA office in Georgia in 1988. In 1992 Jack Bennett joined him as a partner. Moody moved his family to Las Vegas in 2003, and in 2010 he opened his Nevada CPA office.

In 2003, after an 18-year break, Cobb enticed him back to the sport.

Moody continued training and began to race in meets throughout the United States. His Sprint Force 4x400-meter relay team won the gold at the Penn Relays in April 2011. He also competed in the world championships in Italy and Finland and won a bronze medal for the 400-meter dash at the Lahti Games in 2009.

With all those track meets under his belt, one might think he'd be collected and calm before a race. Not so.

"I get real antsy," he said. "I can't sit still."

He finds out which lane he'll get, then said he goes off to visualize the race and "get in the place I need to be ... then I try to make it come to fruition."

He almost didn't compete in the race that earned him the world record. The iliotibial band behind his left knee was sore, and he didn't want to hurt the team's chance of winning. The IT band is a thick, fibrous band that spans from the hip to the shin and lends stability to the knee.

A self-described holistic junkie, he got a therapeutic massage and a body realignment. Afterward, he said he felt ready to race.

Teammate Gatling said he had a gut feeling they would break the record at the meet and, being an optimist, he wasn't concerned about fumbling the baton handoff.

"We just make sure we don't release it until it's pulled out of our hands," he said.

Moody has helped coach students at Spring Valley High School, one being Jordan Rincon, who was a state champion in 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the 400-meter race and earned a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.

Moody's daughters also have the running bug. His oldest daughter, Kourtney, was on the track team at Spring Valley, was All-State in cross country and won the state championship on the 4x800-meter relay team in 2008. She also holds records in cross country and track and field at Spring Valley. She is a senior at the University of Michigan and a member of the cross country and track teams there.

Katelyne, his second daughter, was an outstanding soccer player at Spring Valley and is a junior at Purdue University.

Moody's youngest daughter, Kelsey, was an honor student at Spring Valley, where she was a member of the basketball and track teams. She is a sophomore at the University of Arizona.

Next up for Moody is a meet this month in St. George, Utah, where he hopes to set an American record.

"It's only a second or a second and a half over his best (time)," said Cobb. "He can do it. It's just a matter of will."

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.