Top 10 Girls' Storylines for 2013 NBNO
By Steve Underwood
With so many events and so many prep track and field stars from almost every state, it can be hard to wrap your head around the biggest events and stories and exactly who the key athletes are. So here’s one take on what to keep your eye on most closely:
1. Frazier vs. Finn Finales
It’s hard to imagine a better way to ignite the 2013 New Balance Nationals Outdoor Friday night than with distance 
queens Ravenscroft (Raleigh, N.C.) senior Wesley Frazier and West Bloomfield (Mich.) senior Erin Finn batting in the girls’ 5,000. This race is significant on so many levels. First and foremost, it’s a rematch of their indoor 5k war that saw an under-the-weather Finn take a huge lead, then lose it in the final straight to Frazier – with the winner taking the national record from the loser. It is also notable that they represent two of the top 5,000 performers in NASF history since the foundation started contesting the event indoors and outdoors. Frazier has run three previous outdoor and three indoor NASF 5,000s, with two victories (2011 outdoor, 2013 indoor), while Finn set the previous indoor record in 2012 among her two indoor and one outdoor appearance. This is their fourth championship meeting over the distance.
There is a bigger picture: Both will also race (and be favored in) Saturday’s 2-mile and Frazier will again go for the triple by adding Sunday’s mile (where she is favored). This is the third year Frazier has tried the triple outdoors and she has three titles and several outstanding finishes to show for it. This meet could put an huge exclamation point on a career and a flawless 2013 senior track campaign (including US#1 3,200 and US#1 Dream Mile win). Finn, on the other hand, hopes for the first time since that 2012 indoor title to finish a great season on a positive note. Last spring she struggled in the USATF Jr. 5,000, last fall missed making the Foot Locker Final, and this past winter of course was outkicked by Frazier in the NBNI 5,000. Despite all that, she still has a great career full of accolades and is coming off two tremendous races at state with 1,600 and 3,200 PRs. If healthy, she absolutely can win either or both races.
Both girls have a shot at sub-16:00 for sure and, given that Mary Cain hasn’t put the USR way out of reach, it’s possible both could threaten that. More likely though would be a new meet record somewhere between 15:55 and 16:10. As for the 2-mile – again, if the conditions are decent and if Finn and Frazier are reasonably recovered – a meet/full 2M record shot is not out of the question either (Aisling Cuffe 9:54.22). And one more thing’s for sure, in either the 5k or 2M: While Finn would be advised not to start quite as fast as she did at indoor nationals, she’ll definitely have to take the sting out of Frazier’s kick to have a shot at all.
2. New Queen of the Shot?
As the entries were released for this past March’s NBNI, the presence of St. Francis (Minn.) senior Maggie Ewen 
among the shot putters was intriguing and kind of exciting, but not much more. After all, Ewen’s specialty was seen by national observers as being the discus, where she had ranked US#2 her soph and junior years. Her shot PR was good enough – 48-6 – to make her one of the favorites, but she had contested no major meets indoors. It looked kind of like a warmup for outdoors. But by the time Saturday was done, the world knew differently. Ewen had delivered a 54-1 shocker that elevated her to #2 all-time.
Unfortunately, Ewen then had to endure – along with the rest of her state’s track athletes – one of the worst weather springs ever in Minnesota. Several of her meets were cancelled, but she managed to notch bests of US#2 175-9 in the discus and 51-3.25 in the shot, leading up to state. Last weekend in the AA champs, however, she struck again: A monster 54-8.5 that made her #2 outdoors as well in the shot, and just two inches from Michelle Carter’s USR. This weekend, she has a chance to capture that USR as well as trying to make it a throws double in the discus and maybe get that PR into the 180s, at least. It’s possible, after this weekend, we could be talking about Maggie Ewen not only as a national record-holder, but the best combo-thrower ever.
3. Kendell Williams’ swan song
Ok, pop quiz, hotshot: Just how many New Balance Nationals championships has Kell (Marietta, Ga.) senior Kendell Williams won anyway? It actually seems like even more than the seven that a bit of research will yield. That’s because it simply seems like Williams is everywhere whenever she’s in Greensboro or at The Armory, always winning. But there’s five runner-up finishes there, as well (including 2010 Nike Indoor pentathlon), and Williams wasn’t in Greensboro last spring due to competing at USATF Juniors, which is usually held the same weekend during Olympic years.
That leaves seven titles: three outdoors and four indoors. Williams will leave behind quite a legacy, from stunning fans with her two outdoor hurdles titles as a frosh, to winning the first NBON heptathlon with a soph class USR in 2011, to this past winter at NBNI – where she had three tough runner-up finishes, but also smashed the USR in the pentathlon.
As for this weekend? Williams is contesting her first heptathlon of the year at next weeks’ Juniors, perhaps hoping to top the USR she set last summer, so this weekend she’ll go for two individual single-event titles. Thanks in part to significant improvement this sprint that has yielded a US#1 13.23, she’ll be the strong favorite in the 100H – though fans need to watch out for Dior Hall, the Coloradoan who fell at Great Southwest last weekend, but has a 13.18 PR from 2011 and has beaten Williams before. In the high jump, however – an event where she’s been slightly sub-par this spring – Williams will share a favorite’s role with Cyre Virgo, the impressive Fleetwood PA soph who beat her at NBNI this March. However many titles she winds up with after this weekend, national track fans won’t soon forget Kendell Williams.
4. Girls 800 Triple Threat
No, there will be no Mary Cain at NBNO – not in this 800, not in any other event, and quite possibly not ever in any high school race again. But don’t sleep on the girls’ two-lapper in Greensboro or you’ll miss what should be an epic race between three 2:06 performers from this outdoor season, each with very different seasonal arcs. From Brooklyn, N.Y. power Benjamin Cardozo comes Sabrina Southerland, who matured into a superstar this winter at NBNI with her #2 all-time 2:03.59 winner and victorious DMR anchor. She has continued strong this spring by anchoring the Penn DMR champs, scoring a 2:06.97/4:47.23 mile Loucks double, and hitting a US#2 2:06.09 at her state meet last weekend.
Camas (Wash.) soph Alexa Efraimson will make her debut in a New Balance meet by dropping to the lower end of her repertoire to battle for this title. She just moved to #4 all-time in the 1,500 last weekend with her 4:16.00 PR at the Portland Track Festival and her skills range from her 4th-place finish at NXN finals last fall to the US#5 2:06.54 she ran at her district meet. Then there’s the amazing rising star in the field from way up in Northwood, N.H. Coe-Brown soph Hannah Parker brought a 2:10.62 PR into last weekend’s New Englands and emerged with a stunning US#4 2:06.42 triumph.
All that makes for what should be a thriller between three girls of very different backgrounds, not to mention indoor US#3 Maddie Berkson RI (2:06.67) and several other sub-2:10 runners in the field.
5. Columbia and Baker Primed to Rule
NBNI, Penn Relays, the New Jersey Meet of Champions and, really, the whole 2013 track season has been pretty magical for Olivia Baker and the girls of Columbia (Maplewood, N.J.) under Coach Lisa Morgan. Of course, there are numerous schools with aspirations of one or more strong relay performances and/or victories at NBNO – and in some cases, combinations of individual and relay achievements. But Baker and Columbia arguably top the list.
Let’s look at a few of their accomplishments. At NBNI, Columbia set a US#1 3:42.03 meet record and Baker was 2nd to Precious Holmes in the 400. At the Penn Relays, the school produced a stunning, then-US#1 8:56.37 4x800 win and was 4th in the 4x4 (top US team). Then at the Loucks Games 400 in N.Y., Baker topped Medgar Evers’ Kadecia Baird in one of the season’s best sprint showdowns, 53.66-53.69. Finally, at the NJ MOC, Baker tripled the 100/200/400 and anchored the winning 4x4.
This weekend, Baker will be among the 400 favorites with Baird and Kendell Ellis from Florida. That’s her only individual event. Columbia tops the 4x800 entries and only Ellis and her US#1 St. Thomas Aquinas squad are ahead of them in the 4x400. Then there’s the sprint medley, where Columbia has run “just” 4:08 outdoors, but had a US#5 4:03.22 indoors and would seem to have sub-4:00 potential – which would put them in the mix for another win. If you were scoring them in a traditional meet, then, Coach Morgan’s girls would seem to have at least 36-38 potential points in them – a group to watch, no doubt.
6. Ky’s Comeback
In a season with several girls’ short sprinters capable of beating each other on a given day, Chandler (Ariz.) junior Ky Westbrook came into last weekend’s Great Southwest Classic in a position to establish herself firmly as the year’s best. She had won the big Dream 100 in New York, beating – among others – Colorado’s MaryBeth Sant, Florida’s Kali-Davis White and Kaylin Whitney, and Illinois’ Aaliyah Brown. And several weeks earlier she had won arguably the year’s next biggest 100, at Arcadia, by .01 over Davis-White.
But Great Southwest was a tough one for Westbrook. She was 5th in the fantastic 100 field and 3rd in the nearly-as-strong 200. Californian Ariana Washington won both, while Sant avenged her loss to Westbrook in the first race. So NBNO provides a nice opportunity to, well, let’s say “bounce back” instead of comeback. Westbrook should relish the fact that NBNO comes up right now for one very big reason: She’s the defending champ in both the 100 and 200. She dashed 11.63 last June in the shorter race and doubled up at twice the distance in 23.92. While some of her previous 2013 foes won’t be on hand, the fields will be very similar to 2012 NBNO, with Georgians Javianne Oliver and Shekara Martin returning, as well as Diamond Spaulding from Florida. Westbrook’s toughest foe, however, will likely be Aaliyah Brown in the 100 – who appeared to lean at the wrong line in the Dream 100 while being very close to the lead.
7. The Rhode(s) Back to 14
If you’re looking for an event with the best chance of a national record, besides the shot put, that would probably be the pole vault – that is, if fast-rising star Annie Rhodes can regain her top form.
The Midway (Waco, Texas) senior came into 2013 with a PR of 13-0, then ascended very quickly early this year, reaching 13-10 indoors in early February. She improved that to 13-11.5 outdoors, came to New York and won NBNI with a meet record 13-8.5, then cleared 14 feet a week later back outdoors.
But since winning the Texas Relays later in March with another 13-8.5, Rhodes has found further improvement and victories hard to come back. She was beaten at both her region meet and state 5A meet by fellow Lone Star State star Desiree Freier, though she did hit 13-6 in the latter. Now a month later, she comes to Greensboro. Her PR is just three inches off the USR, but it’s a long three inches when you’ve plateaued a bit. Stay tuned.
8. Youth vs. Experience in Horizontals
One of the nation’s most electrifying youngsters in any event and a veteran big meet competitor with one national title already this year are the principles in the girls’ horizontal jumps.
From Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.) – which brought you distance stars Amy Weissenbach and Cami Chapus – comes Courtney Corrin. Not only does this 9th-grader lead the nation’s long jumpers at 20-11, but she’s been consistent with seven meets over 20 feet. If anyone can challenge her, it might be Mt. Olive (N.J.) junior Keturah Orji, whose steady season includes a 20-2 best.
Orji is best, however, when it comes to the triple jump. At the NJ Meet of Champs, she hopped, skipped and jumped out to 42-6.5(nwi), the national all-conditions leader. She has at least nine meets over 40 this year, including her 41-0.25 to win NBNI. While Corrin isn’t in the TJ, Orji could be pushed hardest in a deep field by Spain Park (Hoover, Ala.) senior Simone Charley, who rocked a 42-3.5 in her state meet.
9. Kadecia Baird Watch
Every year among prep track and field’s brightest stars, there are those who can fairly be noted as more unpredictable than others – for whatever reason. Erin Finn (see above) has been one such athlete and Kadecia Baird is another. Baird, the Medgar Evers (Brooklyn, N.Y.) senior was outstanding in the 400 here last June, romping to a 52.14 victory – and even better at the World Juniors, where she ran 51.04 for her native Guyana. But injury issues were among the factors that contributed to a less than stellar NBNI in March (for example), which included a 4x200 win, but also a 200 DNC and a 4x400 sixth-place finish.
Outdoors, she hasn’t hit a big 400 yet – but then, she didn’t really start to roll last year until this meet, either. At NY State last weekend, she won the 100 and 200 and was on Evers’ fast 46.49 4x100. Here, she’s entered with her teammates in that 4x1 (they’re seeded second behind Aaliyah Brown and Illinois Elite), and individually in the 100 – near the short end of her range – and the 400, where she’ll try and defend against the above-mentioned Baker and Ellis.
10. Striding Back to the Top
Think back to the 2012 NBNI. The Wakefield (Raleigh, N.C.) girls were basically on top of the world. They had won the 4x200 and 4x400 with very impressive times, and senior Ariah Graham had claimed the 400. A year later, led by seniors Tyra Lea and Tiana Patillo, the girls had two tough runner-up finishes in the same relays, behind Medgar Evers in the 4x100 and Columbia in the 4x400.
Even tougher was a 4A state meet last month which included a 4x100 DQ, uncharacteristic lower finishes in the other relays and a runner-up finish to Southeast Raleigh after three straight wins. Now Wakefield (Jr Striders here) returns here to Greensboro trying to recapture some glory. They are the fastest entry in the 4x200 (thought beaten by Parkland at state) and second best in the 4x100. They are also a top three contender in the 4x400 and look like the team to beat in the Swedish medley.
