OXFORD — There’s an art to putting together a successful relay team. It isn’t just about collecting the fastest individuals and hoping for the best.

Ole Miss’ women’s 4×100 team had consisted of senior Akilah Lewis, senior McKenzie Long, sophomore Gabrielle Matthews and senior Jahniya Bowers since first running together around the time of one of the meets at LSU. The order of operations, however, was slightly different; initially Bowers ran the first leg, Long the second, Matthews the third and Lewis was last.

A switch to the lineup before the SEC championships — switching Lewis and Bowers’ places — resulted in a second-place finish and more than a second off their most-recent time. A few weeks after that, school history was made.

The Rebels’ women’s 4×100 team won the NCAA championship with a time of 42.34 seconds, the first national title in a relay in Ole Miss men’s or women’s history. Per Ole Miss sports and information, it marked the first time since 2002 a school that had never won the event emerged victorious.

In addition to being a member of the winning 4×100 team, Long won individual national championships in both the 100-meter and 200-meter races, becoming the 15th women’s runner in NCAA history to win both.

“For me, I think it was seeing all the smiles. Seeing everybody’s smile, every picture, every photo, every single moment,” Bowers said. “ … It was just smiles across the board.”

Before the race itself began, a chip was placed on the relay team’s collective shoulders. Lewis said she remembers that, during introductions before the heats, there was no mention of their second-place finish at the SEC championships. That didn’t sit particularly well.

“(It was) like OK … let’s see. Let those teams come beat us,” Lewis said. “Because I’m like, we’re the team to beat in my head.”

Passing the baton to perfection

There is an art form to relays. It’s about recognizing individual strengths, maximizing each person’s talents and understanding fine details. Things that seem simple — baton passes, for instance — must be perfected. It’s a skill Lewis admits can take months. She says she has been on national teams where passes were only practiced at the competitions themselves.

The Rebels’ relay team, meanwhile, began practicing its baton passing in October, Bowers said. Bowers, who previously ran at Youngstown State, said the way Ole Miss’ coaches taught passing — having the receiving hand up higher — was different than what she was used to. It’s partly why she thinks she started the season running the first leg of the race.

“You will be surprised how much time you can lose not getting a baton off correct,” Bowers said. “You can lose tenths (of a second) that you wouldn’t even realize until you learn to do it the correct way. … Batons can drop. People leave too early. People step out of the lane. It’s so much small stuff that matters. … The small things will be the big things.”

But the perfect baton pass? There’s nothing quite as smooth.

“When you give the stick to the person, you’re like running along with them. Because you’re sharing a lane, essentially,” Lewis said. “ … It’s like an adrenaline rush.”

Part of relay chemistry is also learning where people run their best races. Some people run well around curves while some thrive on the straight-aways, Matthews said. Some are starters and some are finishers. Learning the best spot for each runner is another one of the details that can be the difference between winning a race or finishing last, Matthews notes.

Those lessons are learned at practice, Monday through Friday and on weekends at meets. Trust and familiarity — seeing each other every day and being friends off the track as well — go a long way.

“Akilah, she is a really good starter. She starts amazing. For Jahniya, she’s really good on the straights. She has that top-end speed. For me, I run a really good curve. And McKenzie runs … really good from a rolling start,” Matthews said. “So, I feel order was the best order we could have used, for everybody and their strengths.”

It took a little while for the gravity of being a national champion to hit Lewis once the race concluded. But standing at the podium with a trophy in hand made things very real.

Lewis had long felt her team had what it took to take home hardware — they never planned to “go on hope,” she noted — but to see it pay off was an experience to treasure, even if she isn’t sure where she will ultimately put her trophy. Hers and Bowers’ are currently sitting on their respective dressers in their boxes, they both said with a chuckle.

“Most of the races, you don’t get a reward. You just run, and your reward is your time,” Lewis said. “ … But it’s super nice to have a competition … (where) you have something physical to represent (the work) that you’ve done.”