High Schoolers Shine at USATF Juniors

One of the greatest gatherings of America's Under 20's put on a Hell of a show in Eugene's legendary T&F venue, Hayward Field, these past two days.
And the ones who were the supposed stars, the ones who several pundits were featuring in everything they said or wrote, actually UNDER-performed!!

But there is such a wonderful salad of material to report, so let's get on it!!

BOTH 100 meter HSR's were broken, and it happened just hours apart!!

Trentavis Friday--in his HEAT!!!---broke Jeff Demps mark of 10.01 from 2008, running 10.00!
In his HEAT!!
Besides the HSR, it's also the 12th Grade record, the Meet Record, and it moves him from 6th to 1st on the A-T HS list!!

And then he false-started in the final!
Unbelievable!
Because a Race for the Ages was set up, with 9.97 man Trayvon Bromell having run an eased up 10.08 in his heat!
But it was a clear FS, so no protest was filed.

Bromell easily won the final.

I'll return to Friday in a moment.

In the Girls 100 heats, 16 year old Sophomore Kaylin Whitney sprinted an 11.17.
This mark tied the Soph Class mark of Marion Jones (!!) from 1991.
It moved her from 17th A-T HS up to 8th, tied with 2 others.

Then in the final, Whitney finally opened up just a bit.
Her time of 11.10 broke the HSR of Angela Williams from 1998 by the same margin of 0.01 as with Friday.
It also set the Meet Record, and broke that Class Record tie with Jones!
I don't keep Age 16 records, but I've learned that's a WORLD Age 16 record!

Two other HS 100 people had good marks.
Kendell Williams (the MALE version!!  LOL) ran 10.27, making him 23rd A-T HS, tied with 6 others!
And Arianna Washington ran 11.30, moving from 24th A-T HS, tied with 1 other, up to 19th, tied with 1 other.

But Friday and Whitney weren't finished!
Each returned on the 2nd day in their respective 200's.

Whitney---and remember, she's just 16 and just ended her sophomore year---became the 2nd fastest HS 200 meter runner ever, sprinting a great 22.49.
In so doing, she defeated several Collegians, including LSU's Jada Martin, who finished 0.53 behind!!

This is the new Meet Record, as well as the Soph Class record!
The old MR had been one Allyson Felix's, dating from 2004!
The old Soph Class mark belonged to....Marion Jones!  That mark (of 22.76) was shattered by a solid 0.27 seconds!!
And get this!
Her time of 22.49 is FASTER than the ELEVENTH Grade record, also set by Marion Jones in 1991 with her 22.58!

And don't forget, this makes this 16 year old wunderkind # 2 on the A-T HS list!
Shoved OFF the list was Jackie Thompson.
Her 23.08 was run in...1973!

Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Whitney's time would rank her 21st on the A-T Collegiate list as well!!

Mr Friday's 200 final?
Well, you could say there was good news and there was bad news.
(Sort of like his 1st day saga, with the HSR and the FS!!)

He didn't FS this time.
In fact, he actually ran better than he did in the 100, IMO!

His time of 20.03 (!!) would have shattered the HSR of 20.13 by a full tenth of a second.
But a slight breeze of 2.9 nullified any chance of a record!
Kendell Williams finished 0.43 seconds behind!!

Just an amazing display of young American sprint talent!!

A great match-up was created when Collegiate Frosh Heptathlete Kendell Williams (the FEMALE version!!) decided she would enter just the 100H, and forego a certain place on the US Junior Multi's squad!

She ran a great 12.98 in her heat, but it was wind-aided.
Her main rival would be HS'er Dior Hall, who ran an easy 13.17 in her heat.
No one else was close.

And they came through, even though Williams was a decisive winner.

Williams ran a great PR time of 12.87.
This is the new Meet Record.

Hall finished in 13.00 for the Senior Class record (breaking her own mark of 13.09!).
It moves her up one place on the A-T HS list, from 3rd to 2nd.

In the Boys 110H race, Theo Viltz didn't win, but his 13.42 moves him from 24th A-T HS (tied with 2 others) up to 18th.

The longer Hurdles races produced some fireworks....just over a day after the 4th of July!!

Sydney McLaughlin's achievements perhaps weren't as spectacular as young Kaylin Whitney's, but she had a halfway decent excuse.
This girl is a year younger than Whitney, and is just a Freshman!!
In fact, she's even too young to compete in the World Junior Championships in a couple of weeks!!
(Though she was allowed to compete here.  Strange rules!!)

Ms McLaughlin, like Whitney in the 200, became HS's second fastest performer ever, running a spectacular time of 55.63, just 0.43 off the 1984 (!!) HSR of Leslie Maxie (which I was privileged to witness in person)!!
She lost the race to College Frosh Shamier Little, but only in the final 30 or 40 meters when Little powered past her.
But it smashes her own Frosh Class record of 56.89 by a whopping 1.26 seconds!!
What could she run in the Big Show in 2 weeks....if she were allowed to compete??
The mind boggles!
(Oh yes, this moves her to 2nd from 7th place A-T HS!)

In the Boys (Men's??) 400H, Kenny Selmon ran 50.13.
This moved him from 17th A-T HS up to 12th.

The Girls PV had the possibility of being a close shadow of the Lausanne DL Men's High Jump.
You know, that one where 4 members of the 2.40 meter Club clashed.

In this Vault competition, you had HSR holder Desiree Freier, as well as 2 very good Collegiate frosh, Lakan Taylor and Annie Rhodes, and the 9th and 10th Grade record holder, Kaitlin Merritt.

But only Freier performed up to par.
She got over the bar set at 14-1.25, setting a new Meet Record.
She missed 3 times at 14-5.25.

But making up somewhat for the other 3 was another High School girl.
Her name is Bonnie Draxlert, and her 13-11.25 took 2nd place.
It also moves her from 17th A-T HS up into 9th!

Bailey Roth, sort of the Evan Jager of HS Steepling, ran a great time of 9:03.92, making him 9th A-T HS!

Why did I connect him to the American Record holder?
Well, remember Jager had never run a Steeple prior to 2012, when, after just a handful of races, he broke the AR with his 8:06.91.

Similarly, Roth hadn't even SEEN a SC hurdle prior to HIS first race last year!
In a very brief time, he ran the fastest 2000SC in HS history.
And now, in his very first race over 3000 meters (with hurdles and a water pit!), he runs a 9:03!!
Think he has a chance to get the 35 year old HSR of 8:50.1 in the WJC's??

Myles Marshall (son of one of the best-ever American 800 men, John Marshall) ran 1:48.43 in 2nd place.
But it makes him 15th A-T HS!

Megan Glasmann won the JT with a throw of 175-0.
Not her PR, but it did garner her the Meet Record!

One other High Schooler (Audrey Belf) performed against a group of Collegians as if she WAS a Collegian.
Despite looking like she was dying (during the middle of the 5000) in the 90ish heat of Hayward, she somehow had the strength (and the talent!!) to increase her pace over the last few laps.

She beat the Collegians (including one who just ended her Frosh year at the University of....Oregon!!) with a fairly slow time of 17:01.75.
But her margin of victory was a humongous 22.14 seconds!!

Those mega-stars I mentioned earlier?
Normally, as any good Public Relations person will tell you, you'd mention THEIR performances FIRST.....no matter the quality (or lack thereof!).

But this blog is about Records and truly great marks, ones good enough to be rated on one of my Top 24 Performers lists!
And these girls---yes, they were all females!---DID run times that normally would rank them VERY high on my lists.
Only trouble was, their times didn't match either their true potential, or what they'd already achieved!!

Mary Cain----she of the multitudinous HSR's, indoors and out, and of the 1000's of stories written about her already, despite her just reaching 18 two months ago, and having just graduated from Bronxville (NY) High School----Mary Cain broke the Meet Record in the 3000 with her time of 9:15.81.

Yes, it set the MR.
And yes, it made her 8th A-T HS.  (See an earlier blog wherein I explain that I'm accepting whatever she's run since turning Professional last November as eligible for my HS lists, and for HSR's!)
(BTW, moved OFF my list by Cain's entry was Erin Keogh's 9:24.6 from 1986!)

But she ran just enough to time qualify for the WJC.
She COULD have run around 8:40 if she'd wanted to.
(Hopefully, she'll be ready to run that fast in 2 weeks when she battles REAL competitors....from the Continent of Africa!!)

Her main "rival" looked to be Stephanie Jenks, like Kaylin Whitney and others, just ending her Sophomore year!
And Jenks DID stick to her like glue.
For about 6.5 laps of the 7.5 lap race!
Then Mary decided to stop doing her calculus homework, or texting her Bronxville pals, and put in a bit of effort.

She easily left the talented Jenks in her wake, winning by more than 12 seconds....most of it gained in the final 400 meters!!

The two other mega-stars were Alexa Efraimson and Elise Cranny.
They met in the 1500 final.  (They'd walked through separate heats in the mid-to-high 4:30's!)

And if you like all-out final 400 sprints in distance races, then the Alexa & Elise Show rated a standing ovation!

They cruised through the early laps in about 70 and 72.
They reached the 1100 meter mark at 3:15.89, still going at the same pace as earlier.

Finally, just before coming off the penultimate curve, Alexa revved up her gears!!
But Cranny moved with her.....or a split-second later....leaving her a few feet behind.

And it pretty much remained that way over the last 300.
Efraimson won in 4:16.87 to Cranny's 4:17.40.

Third place was about 9 full seconds back of the Dynamic Duo!!
(And most of the rest of the field were collegians!!)

Efraimson's final lap---run without any apparent stress or release of sweat----was 60.98!
Cranny's was about 61.8, but that reflected her hesitancy in following Efraimson's initial move, not any lesser talent!

All in all, a good race, but nothing to write home about, when compared to their greater achievements!

I'll close this rather lengthy treatise by leaving the Junior meet behind, and moving to some small meet 1000's of miles away from Eugene.
Doesn't matter the meet's name, or where it took place.  (Telling the truth, I don't know, and don't care!  Although I DO know it was at about 1000 meters of altitude!)

Botswanan Isaac Makwala had his Day of Days earlier today.
He first sped a Botswana National Record in the 400, with a great time of 44.01.
His previous best was just 44.83 from earlier this year!

This makes him 11th A-T World!!
Moved OFF my DDD list was the legendary Wayne Collett, whose 44.24 from 1972 had been 24th on the list!

Then, apparently just an hour or so later, he sped a 200 in another Botswanan National Record, timing out in 19.96.

I did some research (asked someone on Twitter!  LOL), and found out he had a 100 PR of 10.40.
(And a wind-aided 10.13, so he'll probably improve on that 10.40!)
Anyway, if you add his 100, 200, and 400 times together, the Combined time is 1:14.37.

He just misses my short list of Best Combined 100/200/400 Runners by 0.07 seconds.
But I added him to the list anyway!
It's led by Michael Johnson, whose 10.09, 19.32, and 43.18 add up to 1:12.59!!

Next week is the Glasgow DL, which is promising to be one of the best!  (Where have you heard THAT before??!!)
And probably more.