Cummings star D’Anna Cotton rises from frustration to state record holder

D’Anna Cotton nearly walked away from track after a painful second-place finish, but one promise from Cummings coach Donnie Davis changed the direction of her life. He agreed to meet her for early-morning practice, and that simple bargain helped turn a frustrated athlete from Burlington into the most decorated performer in North Carolina high school track and field history.

How frustration became fuel

That turning point matters because Cotton’s rise was never just about raw talent. It was about learning how to stay in the work when a bad result felt bigger than the season, then using the next practice to answer it. At Cummings High School, Davis gave her a structure that rewarded persistence, and Cotton gradually built the habits that would carry her from disappointment to dominance.

Davis was the right coach for that job. NCHSAA profile material says he has been involved with nearly 150 individual state champions at Cummings, while an older profile credited him with more than 140 individual champions, 27 team state titles and 12 runner-up finishes. He served as an assistant coach from 1987 until 2003, then became head coach, which helps explain why Cotton’s breakthrough looks less like a surprise and more like the latest chapter in a long-running championship culture.

The freshman who announced herself early

Cotton did not wait long to show what kind of athlete she could become. As a freshman in 2023, she won the high jump at 5-06 and the triple jump at 37-06.75 at the NCHSAA state meet, then added third-place finishes in both the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. That combination of sprint speed, jumping power and competitive poise marked her as a rare all-around scorer from the beginning.

By the next season, she had moved from promising to overwhelming. In 2024, Cotton won the triple jump, high jump, 100-meter hurdles and 300-meter hurdles and was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Performer. HighSchoolOT reported that she also set a meet record in the high jump at 5-8, breaking the previous mark of 5-7 set by Mikel Franklin of T.W. Andrews in 2016. For a school in Burlington, that was not just a big day, it was a public declaration that Cummings had another once-in-a-generation athlete.

Records that reset the standard

Cotton’s indoor work pushed the story even further. At the February 2025 state meet, she left with three gold medals and one silver medal, including one new 1A/2A record and one tied record. Another meet recap said she won the 55 hurdles, high jump and long jump, then placed second in the triple jump, while also tying the 1A/2A high-jump record at 5-06.00.

That indoor season also mattered to Cummings as a team. Reporting around the title run said the Cavaliers captured the school’s 12th indoor crown and 30th combined track and field team state championship. A separate Alamance News report said the 2024 girls title had been Cummings’ 18th outdoor championship, which places Cotton inside a program that keeps translating individual brilliance into team trophies.

Her later success continued the same pattern. A 2026 HighSchoolOT report said Cotton won four titles as Cummings claimed its 13th indoor girls track and field championship. Another later report said she remained undefeated that year in the 300-meter hurdles, 100 hurdles, long jump and triple jump, evidence that her range was not shrinking as her reputation grew. By then, Cotton had reached a historic benchmark: 24 individual NCHSAA championships across indoor and outdoor seasons, the state record.

Why the benchmark matters in Alamance County

That number carries weight beyond one athlete’s trophy case. It tells the story of a Burlington program that has become a pipeline for elite results and a reminder that Alamance County schools can compete with anyone in North Carolina. Cotton’s record also reflects the kind of consistency that is hard to build and even harder to sustain, because it requires a coach, a school and an athlete all moving in the same direction for years.

Her path to the University of South Carolina adds another layer to the local significance. Cotton formally committed to the Gamecocks on November 30 and signed on December 9, 2025, giving her a direct route from Cummings to Columbia, South Carolina. For a local program, that kind of Division I landing spot is not just a reward for one athlete, it is proof to younger runners and jumpers that Burlington can produce talent ready for a major stage.

A legacy built on more than medals

Cotton’s story also fits neatly into the broader Cummings tradition Davis has spent decades building. Earlier standout athletes coached in that system helped set the standard that Cotton later chased, and one of those records was eventually broken by Cotton, a sign of how championship cultures are passed from one generation to the next. That continuity is what makes this more than a personal triumph.

At Cummings, the lesson is visible in the record books and in the practice habits that produced them. Cotton did not become a state record holder by accident, and she did not do it alone. She did it by turning frustration into training, accepting correction, and staying inside a program that expected excellence every season. For younger athletes in Alamance County, that is the real inheritance of her run: the proof that a setback can become the start of something historic when the work is relentless and the standard is high.