Danville Christian has its first KHSAA state champion.

Emmanuel Dut gave the school its first state championship since it joined the KHSAA when he won the Class 1A boys 400-meter dash Thursday at the KHSAA State Track & Field Championships in Lexington.

“It’s cool. I just thank God,” Dut told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “I never thought I’d run track, but God always has a different plan than you think he has.”

DCA fielded its first track and field team only last year, and Dut earned medals at the 2023 state meet in the 400, where he finished second, and the high jump.

“This year I came with the mindset that I’m going to give it all,” he said. “I’ve been training a lot, running a lot of hills, and this feels great.”

He won the 400 in 48.66 seconds, finishing nearly half a second ahead of Fort Campbell’s Maurice Moore, who beat him by about the same margin last year at the University of Kentucky.

“We competed last year, so I was kind of ready for him. I wanted it so bad, and I never ran 48 (seconds) so I knew I wanted to run 48,” Dut said.

Dut also finished eighth in the 200, giving him four state meet medals in two years.

Dut, who graduated five days earlier, plans to play basketball and compete in track and field at Asbury University.