High School Track Athlete Assaults Opposing Runner With Baton During Relay Race

A high school track and field meet in Virginia turned violent when one runner physically assaulted her opponent with a baton during a relay race.

Brookville High School's Kaelen Tucker was the second leg runner for the 4×200 meter relay at the VHSL Class 3 State Indoor Championships at Liberty University on Friday. The junior was attempting to cut into the inside lane during a tight battle for second place as she was rounding turn four.

That's when another runner from IC Norcom High School wound up and smacked Tucker in the back of the head with the baton.

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"I was so in disbelief," Tucker later told ABC News 13. "I didn't even know what happened. So I got hit in the head, and I just fell off the track."

IC Norcom was disqualified from the race.

Video of the incident shows Tucker veering off the track, grabbing her head and falling to the ground in pain.

"As she pulled away, just to see the strike… the whole section just gasped," Kaelen's mother, Tamarrow, recalled. "And then when I just saw her go down, all I could do was just run out of the bleachers. I just knew I had to get to her."

Tamarrow said medical staff immediately rushed to her daughter's side as well. But no one from Norcom — not the opposing coaches or the athlete herself — came over to apologize or to explain themselves. 

"No apologies. No coaches. No athlete. No anything. Even if it was an accident, which I don't believe it was...nothing," Tamarrow said in an interview with a local n news station. "And it's been more than 24 hours now, so I guess that was the major thing. My child was hurt, and nobody came to check on her."

Doctors are currently treating Tucker for a concussion and a possible skull fracture.

The Tuckers say they reached out to both the parent of the runner who hit Kaelen and the IC Norcom athletic director, who both apologized on the student's behalf.

Kaelen Tucker, though, has two simple questions for the runner who assaulted her: "Why did you do it, and why haven't you apologized?"