An Unlikely National Champion: The Story of Flint’s Tee Muex

A young Tee Muex never thought he’d be called a track star, as until just a few years ago, basketball and football were his sports calling. Or so he thought.
 
Track seemed like it didn’t fit him – until he tried it. He’s since become a high school national champion who has transitioned to being a key sprinter on the Michigan State track team.
 
Muex, raised in Flint Township, Mich., was always enamored by his dad Terrence Sr.’s ability to play basketball. Wanting to follow in his footsteps, he played basketball throughout his youth and eventually at Carman-Ainsworth High School. He tried track as early as eighth grade, but didn’t truly focus on it until his senior year of high school.
 
“I wanted to play basketball or football, but everybody just happened to have been a little bit better,” Muex, who just finished his junior year at MSU, said. “I started to focus on track. I just happened to be good at that.”
 
A wrist injury from playing basketball his junior year also helped Muex to take another look at track. He realized, while he was sidelined, that even though his arm wasn’t working –­ his legs certainly still could.
 
“I had broken my wrist,” Muex said. “I wasn’t able to lift weights my whole senior year because I had to focus on trying to get my wrist back together, so I just started using my legs and running. I still wanted to go to college for something – football or basketball, but that messed up my process. So, I had to focus on track.”
 
As his senior year went on, track became the focal point of his life. Sprints were his game, and the 400-meter was his event. His times kept getting better, and more eyes began to set on him. Suddenly, he was being called a “track star” as he walked through the halls and being challenged to races after school. It wasn’t long before Muex’s name made it’s way beyond the walls of his high school and entered the minds of those on the national stage.
 

In the 2021 MHSAA Outdoor Track & Field finals, Muex ran a 400-meter dash in just 46.52 seconds – a time good enough to not only win the individual state title by nearly a full second, but also to set the record for the fastest-ever recorded time in the state finals.
 
Just a few weeks later, a state championship already under his belt, it was time to truly compete on a national level. Muex and his dad made the…