Cooper and Claye Are This Week's Performance of the Week Honorees

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Cameron Cooper

With 39.03 percent of the vote, Cameron Cooper won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Sydney McLaughlin with her second-place tally of 34.28 percent.

Cooper, an Oak Park MI senior, had one of the best competitions of his life at the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships. Representing the Motor City Track Club, he set the track on fire in the Friday in the prelim, running 1:48.60 and finishing nearly three seconds ahead of the next qualifier.

The LSU-bound runner then followed up with an even more impressive race in the final. Leading from the gun, Cooper led the field through 400 meters in 51.9. Going into the final lap, he opened up a lead of several meters.

That lead held until Clemson's Terrell Jackson came up on Cooper's shoulder with 60 meters to go. But that would be as close as Jackson got. He dropped away in the final meters. Cooper crossed the line in 1:47.59 to Jackson's 1:48.37.

Cooper's time ranks him as the #5 prep all-time, just behind Michigan state record holder Donavan Brazier, who ran 1:47.55 in 2015. Brazier won an NCAA title in 2016 for Texas A&M, breaking the collegiate record in 1:43.55. On Sunday, Brazier won his first USATF title, stamping his ticket to the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in London.

Cooper, who shows similar front-running ability to Brazier, will be representing Team USA at the Pan American Junior Outdoor Championships in Lima, Peru next month.

For the past two years, Cooper has finished second at New Balance Nationals Outdoor, but each time he has also run a full slate of relays for the Motor City Track Club. This was the first chance to see him race against top flight competition while focusing on his individual race.

Watch Cooper's Prelim | Final | Interview

Editors’ Choice: Will Claye

There were many deserving recipients of this award this week. Ryan Crouser, Dalilah Muhammad and Sam Kendricks all had all-time great performances, Both Crouser and Muhammad broke the USATF Outdoor Championships meet records in their events.

Crouser became the #6 all-time performer and #3 American in the shot put with a huge mark of 74-3.75 (22.65m) on his final attempt. He needed a big mark after Joe Kovacs took the lead with a mark of 73-4 (22.35m) as the penultimate thrower in the competition. Crouser responded, retaking the lead with the biggest put since 2003.

Muhammad also became the #6 all-time performer in the 400-meter hurdles as she led the deepest 400-meter race of all-time. In addition to becoming the #4 American ever and breaking her own meet record in 52.64, her competition set all-time bests for third, fourth, fifth and sixth places in a 400-meter hurdles race. It was the first time three women broke the 53-second barrier in a single race.

Kendricks too would be deserving for his six-meter clearance in the pole vault. After already winning the competition and clearing a world leading 19-4.75 (5.91m), he had the bar raised to 19-8.25 (6.00m). He went clear on his second attempt to become the #5 American to clear that height. The other four vaulters were all in attendance, many of them now coaching the event.

However, this week's award goes to Will Claye for his performance in the triple jump. He did not break any records, but he had the best triple jump series ever. He jumped over 58 feet four times in the competition, finishing with a best of 58-9.25 (17.91m). No other jumper has ever jumped over 58 feet that many times in a single competition. He now ranks #9 in the world all-time and the #4 American.

Watch the Men's Triple Jump Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4