Paralympian, Pole Vault Prodigy Earn 2017 High School Boys Performer of the Year Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's High School Boys Performer of the Year poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Hunter Woodhall

With 50.49 percent of the vote, Hunter Woodhall won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Reed Brown with his second-place tally of 10.85 percent.

Woodhall, of Syracuse UT, changed the game in the United States and earned comparisons to blade-running pioneer Oscar Pistorius. Woodhall ran 21.17 for 200 meters and 46.24 for 400 meters to win state titles in Utah. 

But it was his traveling -- to Idaho for the Simplot Games, to New York for New Balance Nationals Indoor, to Los Angeles for the Arcadia Invitaitonal, and to Seattle for the Brooks PR meet -- that made an impact. Hundreds of other high school athletes got the chance to pause, watch, and think: Wow, I've never seen that before. 

Woodhall, a double amputee, also became the first Paralympian to earn a track and field scholarship at the University of Arkansas, where he can begin to challenge a whole new group of people to identify and understand his courage and work ethic.

Editors’ Choice: Armand Duplantis

There was no denying that Duplantis, as a Lafayette LA junior, took the pole vaulting world by storm. 

The son of 1980s pro Greg Duplantis has been perfecting his craft in his backyard since he was in elementary school. He has been at the top of the world, for his age, since he was 8 or 9 years old. 

But in 2017, Duplantis began to destroy the national high school records and begin an assault on global supremacy. He's not there yet. He was ninth at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships, competing for his mother's native Sweden. But with time, and more strength, the event could belong to him very soon. 

Duplantis added chunks of tape measure to his personal best last winter and topped out at 19-1 at New Balance Nationals Indoor to break the Armory record, the World U-20 record and the family record. 

Then at the Texas Relays, Duplantis jumped up again, to 19-4.25. 

He competed in his first Diamond League meet at the Prefontaine Classic and got his first taste of professional track and field during an extended summer season in Europe. 

This fall, he committed to Louisiana State University -- the place where his mom and dad met and where his brother competed in the College World Series final in June.