Xai Ricks

Long Beach Poly Tech, Long Beach, CA, c/o 2024
AthleticNET Bio

Just think of this. You are at the California State meet- an all class best of the best meet and your schedule is the following:

Friday- 400m prelims
Saturday- 4 x 100m relay finals, 400m finals, 4 x 800m relay finals and the finale, 4 x 400 meter relay.

Your team is in the hunt for the state championship and they are relying on you to bring home the points to give them a chance in the deepest and most competitive state meet in the nation. Who do you turn to? King Xai! That’s right Xai Ricks of Long Beach Poly.

Xai Ricks was challenged with the unfathomable. He lined up for what would be a first in California history. A triple in all three relays and the open 400m to boot. But first his team needed to qualify in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m prelims on Friday and he had to run the 400 m prelims and qualify.

So they did just that. In the 4 x 100m they took fourth in 41.47. In the 4 x 400m, they qualified seventh with a 3:18.36. Both relays were run without Ricks who saved himself for the 400m where he ran the second fastest qualifier with a 46.68( first was Dijon Stanley of Granada Hills Charter in 46.66 - a Utah football running back recruit).

On Saturday, Ricks lined up for his first event final, the 400m relay where he ran the third leg. His team finished fourth in 41.22. Stanley’s team would finish first in 40.39. 

Ricks rested as the 1600m girls and boys finals, then the 100m hurdle girls finals, the 110 hurdles boys final and the girls 400 meter finals went off. In all he had about 30 minutes rest before he was ready to go again for the 400m final. He ran a personal best of 46.06 and finished behind Stanley again who finished in 45.77.

Seven events later, he was on the line again. This time it was for the 4 x 800m. Getting the baton in sixth place on the final leg, Xai was only thinking of getting to the lead. He sped to a 51.65 opening 400m bringing his team to sixth(4.92 seconds behind) to second(1.13 seconds behind). The high octane pace took its toll as he slipped to fourth at the finish in 7:40.57. His split, an eye-popping 1:49.59!(57.94 final 400m).

With one final race left, King Xai began to feel the effects of his efforts. His coach came to him and asked, “How are you feeling?”

His response , “Coach, I am gassed. If someone passes me, I don’t know if I’ll be able to go get him or  he might be able to go and I won’t do nothing.”

Well, at the final handoff, Xai was a mere 0.20 ahead of Los Gatos and at 200m, their anchor leg was challenging and passed Xai. From somewhere and somehow, Xai found another gear and sped away leading his team to victory in 3:12.99(46.94). Stanley split 45.90 to bring his team from fifth to third.

“The guy came up on me and passed me by the 200 or 150 to go.Coming off the last turn I just had to gun it home and we got the win which was good.”

Unfortunately, Xai’s heroic efforts weren’t able to overcome Stanley’s and his teammates' efforts. Granada Hills won the team title with 36 points and Poly finishing fourth with 28.

Xai has always been around track and field. At four years old he and his twin sister, Mai, were introduced to it by his aunt, Taine Gibson who ran track at USC. The longer 1,500m and 800m were his best events early on.

"I didn't really have  that 400 speed at that time so my training was more in the 15 and eight and just longer distances.”

He was a small skinny kid he remembers and as he developed he was able to get faster and compete in other events.

“In middle school, I ran the four and the eight. That's when my 400 got better. I won the 400 city league and also I did the high jump there. It was great. That’s when I developed more range between the 2, 4 and the 8.”

His freshman year, he tried the 300m hurdles and the 400 meters. An overuse injury to his hip forced him off the track for most of the season. When he returned, he ran the 800 meter in 2:03.37. His second go around at the distance, he dropped to 1:59.22. Injuries to teammates allowed him to run on the postseason 4 x 4 team to finish out his freshman year.

His sophomore year, he had injuries again. A tweaked hamstring midseason left him below 100%. He finished fourth at the CIF- Southern Section finals(49.06) and in the 800m, he had a season best of 1:55.82.

“Sophomore season was good, but could have been better,” says Xai. 

He rehabbed the hamstring during the season, doing strengthening exercises and receiving therapy as well so he could compete. He continued to rehab and strengthen to be stronger going into his junior year. 

The work paid off as he opened his junior season with an indoor best of 47.27 at the Texas Tech Under Armour Classic. Three weeks later he ran the CA Winter Championships on Arcadia HS’s outdoor track and surprised himself. His 600m was a sizzling 1:16.13  and he won by nearly 4 seconds.

Xai’s training at the time was focused on 60s and 150s with nothing over 400 meters. He ran 47.74 on Mach 11 and on March 18 ran a 1:53.91.

There were no plans to run the following week, but friend Bodie Ligons(Cathedral) told him about the 800m invitational at Azusa Pacific Meet of Champions. 

“He hit me up on instagram and said ‘Yo, bro you need to come out here and run this 800m’,” Xai recalls. “It’s going to be stacked. Aaron Sahlman is  gonna be in there. It will be good.’ So I told my coaches about it. ‘ Hey, I'm trying to run it and let me get in this race so I can see what I can do.’ And so they let me do it and I just got in there and just did what I did.”

The race lived up to the hype. Newbury Park’s Aaron Sahlman blasted the first 200m in 25,  the first 400m in 51.8, and 1:20.2 through 600m and was pushing hard. Xai didn’t bite on the hard running tactics and eased through splits of 25.7, 52.9, and 1:21.8. Sahlman began to feel the effects of his hard running and Ricks began to close heading into and then out of the final curve. His final 100m was a 12.5 as he passed Sahlman and then won 1:49.19-1:50.86. 

“Going into  the race. I was  thinking he was going to take it out fast. So my thing was just  getting out fast and just staying right behind him within a good striking distance. He  took it out fast in 51. I think I came in like at 52 high. I stayed there and tried to stay close going into the second lap.  Coming up on 300  I could see him kind of slowing down so I tried to make a move early. By the 200 mark, I just found another gear, I could hear everybody on the sidelines saying ‘you gotta to go now!’ That gave me a burst of energy and just finished  the race off strong. There was a little fatigue, but I knew I had to run strong. It felt great.”

With so many positives coming from this past season, Xai is turning his attention to Michael Granville’s 1:46.45  800m record run in 1996. He has 21.10, 46.06 and 1:49.19 personal bests and his Herculean effort at state gives a glimpse into the type of talent he possesses.

“This year, we're trying to focus more on eight. I just want to do better in that. Hopefully, I can try to get in enough shape that we can hopefully go for that record.”

He may also run some 300m hurdle races as well. He ran the hurdles when he was younger and trained for the 300m hurdles his freshman year before the injury.

“I may just do the hurdles just  for fun. I know for sure I want to stick with the 800 this year. I'm really looking more forward to that.”