The term “country comes to the city” could be the title of Craig McElroy’s athletic fortunes.

McElroy spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at rural Charles City High School, enrollment 285.

As a junior, he transferred to suburban Henrico High School, enrollment 1,780.

During the transition, he never broke stride and wasn’t intimidated by the more consistently stiffer competition.

Charles City High competes in Division 1A, Virginia’s smallest classification based on public school enrollment.

Henrico High competes in 5A, the second from the largest division.

“I wasn’t worried about transferring,” McElroy said. “Athletes from big schools bleed same as you. It’s all about who works the hardest.”

No one will question McElroy’s training regimen or all-round athleticism after he won the high jump (6-6) and 110-meter high hurdles (14.36 seconds) at the State 5A meet in Newport News on June 3 and 4.

The long-stemmed, 6-foot-5 McElroy also raced a leg on the Warriors’ fourth place 4x100 relay quartet.

“Winning at states meant a lot to me,” he said. “I wanted to go out with a bang as a senior.”

He will continue track and field on an athletic scholarship at Norfolk State University.

McElroy also played wide receiver and safety on the Henrico High football team, but has no plans of doubling up in sports at NSU.

At Henrico High, McElroy was introduced to Coach Lamont Bowles, who is one of Virginia’s most respected hurdling mentors. When Bowles was a senior at Richmond’s John Marshall High School, he ran the high hurdles in a blistering 13.7 seconds, while finishing third in the state Group AAA in 1976. Bowles went on to become a CIAA champion at Virginia State University.

McElroy is among numerous champions Coach Bowles has coached at Henrico High. Others include Drequan Hoskey, who went on to shine in football and track at the University of Virginia, and Carlton Edwards, currently a track standout at North Carolina Central University.

Another hurdler on the rise is Henrico High sophomore Chauncy Chewning, who was fourth at the 5A state competition in 15.11.

In working with McElroy, Coach Bowles says “precision” was always the key word.

“Craig has tremendous ability and, at 6-foot-5, he looks like he was born to run the hurdles.

“All that’s good, but you still have to be precise, become a technician and be able to maintain composure at full speed with everyone screaming and hollering at you,” Coach Bowles said.

The precision didn’t come overnight.

At the state outdoor competition in 2015 and the state indoor competition last February, McElroy tripped over a hurdle and did not place.

He got it right just in time.

In fact, on June 11 he ran a personal best — 14.29 — in winning the DMV Meet of the Elite in Northern Virginia. It’s an even stronger field than the 5A States.

McElroy and his family felt the move to Henrico would enable him to maximize his considerable potential. As a junior, he moved into the Henrico zone with his father, Craig McElroy Sr., a Henrico High alumnus, and grandmother, Elizabeth Richardson.

Right away, he picked up his weight room conditioning under Henrico High assistant football Coach Gary Chilcoat, the former head coach at Varina High School.

McElroy had flashed potential at Charles City High, where he trained under Coach John Christian, a former teammate of Coach Bowles at VSU.

As a sophomore, McElroy was fifth in hurdles (15.8) and 14th in high jump (5-10) at 1A state competition at Radford University.

Now he faces another transition — from high school hurdles, 36 inches high, to college, 42 inches.

Success breeds confidence and it seems apropos NSU has the same colors as Henrico High — green and gold.

“I’ve done the work,” McElroy said of advancing to the next level. “It should be a piece of cake.”