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Who's Coming - Sprints / Hurdles - 2019 New Balance Nationals Outdoor

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New Balance Nationals Outdoor   Jun 11th 2019, 5:23pm
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Who’s Coming: Sprints / Hurdles

Highlighting the top New Balance Nationals Outdoor commitments leading up to the championships on June 13-16

By Steve Underwood of the NSAF | Watch #NBNationals Live Webcast June 13-16

Justin Robinson – Everything’s changed

In less than 45 seconds this past Saturday night in Albuquerque, everything changed for elite prep 400m star Justin Robinson. It was 44.84 seconds, actually, the time it took him to shred one lap of the track and win the Great Southwest title. Fans knew Robinson was capable of sub-46; he’d been running in the low-mid 46s since the previous summer and led the 2019 list for his Arcadia victory at 46.22. But to break 45 and become prep history’s #2 quarter-miler – with the fastest time since Darnell Robinson’s previously untouchable 44.69 HSR from 1981 – that makes the Hazelwood West HS (MO) junior the World Youth record-holder and a candidate for “greatest prep sprinter ever,” especially since he still has a year to go.

Robinson knows all about surprising people, though, and had shown significant talent earlier in his HS career. In his first year of track, he won the Missouri Class 5 400 title as a freshman at 48.83. Robinson nearly broke 48 later that summer, then improved to 47.24 as a soph at Arcadia in ’18. Then, entering last spring’s USA Juniors with a 46.93 best, he blasted a stunning 46.20 for 4th and a Team USA 4x4 berth at the IAAF U20 champs in Finland – where they won silver. Now this junior year, prior to GSW, Robinson had established himself as the nation’s best prep 1-lapper – an unbeaten NBNI champ who has led the U.S. indoors and out. Last Saturday, though, exceeded all else and thus means that at NBNO, this fantastic young talent will have a chance to make history.

Jan'Taijah Ford – Long-awaited breakthrough

Like Justin Robinson profiled above, Jan’Taijah Ford had a performance at Great Southwest Saturday night that changed things up for her – even if it wasn’t quite as dramatic as becoming history’s #2 quarter-miler and nearly breaking a 38-year-old national record. What Ford did was break through a 400m plateau at 52.17 – a PR standard that she had maintained since late March – and retake the national lead with a barrier-breaking 51.57. The Northeast HS (Orland Park, FL) junior has had a superlative outdoor campaign since February, unbeaten with a 3A state title. But she hadn’t been in the 52s again – maybe she just needed some competition to really push her.

Ford’s performances in early spring of her sophomore year – including a 52.82 victory at the Louie Bing in February, 2018, her first sub-53 – had attracted enough attention that she was chosen as part of Team NSAF to compete in the Bahamas that May. She had also won state and then it was at the USA Juniors in June that she broke through again at 52.52 for 5th. Ford now has a pattern, perhaps, of running outstanding standard-setting races in the early season, then finally breaking through again in the post-season. Now she’s the girl to beat again in a super-loaded NBNO field that includes several others in the 52s.

Tamari Davis – Building her NBN legacy

To say that Tamari Davis has “quietly” put together yet another national championship-caliber season seems like almost an oxymoron. How can it be said that any prep girl that can run low 11s in the 100 and high 22s in the 200 is doing so quietly? Well, when you accomplish as much as Davis has done and run as fast as she has in your 8th- and 9th-grade years, it takes a lot to reach the next breakthrough and capture the track and field zeitgeist again. The Oak Hall, FL soph has been rolling along, having completed another unbeaten season through her state 2A 100 and 200 sweep – with stellar US#2 bests of 11.27 and 22.96. And, with in-state rival Brianna Williams competing outside of a standard prep schedule, there hasn’t even been those matchups to look forward to.

But know this: Davis is on the fast-track to compiling an NBN record the likes of which no one has ever seen. She already has five titles in five tries, having doubled last year’s 100 and 200 here, the indoor 200 this past winter, and both the 60 and 200 at NBNI as a freshman in 2018. She’s entered in both dashes again here, with a great chance to increase her championship ring total to seven at the halfway mark of her career. There’s certainly the potential for Davis to finish her career with 10-15 individual New Balance titles – more than twice what anyone has done before. Unless and until she starts going for US teams or even considers turning pro down the road, that will be a tough-to-top legacy.

Joseph Fahnbulleh – Putting Minnesota on the sprint map

When Joseph Fahnbulleh ripped a 10.23 100m dash in his Section 7AAA True Team meet on May 9, he became the third fastest prep in the event this year. Yes, the big PR performance may have taken place without a wind-gauge and, as such, can’t be compared to Matt Boling or Micah Williams ahead of him or the 10.2-types behind him with legal marks. But that still means that many folks will look at the Hopkins HS (MN) senior as the favorite and guy to beat in a Boling/Williams-less NBNO 100 this coming weekend. Minnesota isn’t known as a sprinting hotbed like Texas, Florida and California, but Fahnbulleh and his teammates are changing that perception.

Fahnbulleh is also running the 200 at NBNO and his credentials are actually better there. While his wind-legal best in the 100 is in the 10.5 range, the Florida signee finished off his regular season at the Minnesota state meet with a PR 21.21 200 – into a 4.6mps headwind(!!!).  That puts him at about 20.94 in neutral conditions – right up there with the top seeds. And, if you look back at 2018, he clocked a blazing 20.69 in the USATF JO meet – the #3 national performer of the season and the top returnee. So he’s just getting into top form … and so are his teammates. They’ve clocked 41.23 4x100 at sectionals and 1:25.58 4x200 at state – two of the best championship entries this weekend. Don’t be surprised if Fahnbulleh is on the podium at least 2-3 times.

Aaliyah Butler – Florida’s latest young sprint star

On almost an annual basis, Florida has been producing female sprint prodigies. We’ve watched the great careers of Kaylin Whitney, Brianna Williams and Tamari Davis over the past five years. Now meet Aaliyah Butler. As a middle schooler, she had a strong career – running 24.28 for 200 and 55.98 for 400 – but her marks weren’t necessarily those that would lead you to anticipate what she’s done so far as a Piper HS freshman in 2019. The Louie Bing Memorial in February was her coming out party as an elite 400m runner as she beat a fine field with a 2-second PR of 53.44, then added a 24.57 200 triumph.

Butler then won the Sam Burley meet (53.56) and at the high-powered BCAA Champs, she was 2nd only to Jan’Taijah Ford with her 53.11 PR. Meanwhile, she took her 200 under 24 and then to 23.65 in her 4A Regional 4 victory. Finally at the big 4A state meet, Butler took another big step with a stellar state meet record 52.25 400 triumph – beating a Sanya Richards-Ross record, no less – and added the 200 in 23.91. That completed a season admirable in not just her PRs and titles, but in her steady progression. Now, with sub-52 performer Ford and several low-52s in the field, Butler will have to be at her best to even make the podium. But as the youngest rising star in the field, she has a great chance to expand her growing legacy.

Jasmine Jones – Grisly spike wounds can’t slow her down

When Jasmine Jones was laying on the track in Havana last weekend, the skin on her ankle shredded and bloodied by a teammate’s spikes during a botched relay practice exchange, it was easy to imagine the Georgia standout hurdler’s post-season going up in smoke – not just with Team NSAF there in Cuba, but for NBNO and anywhere else she might race for a while. But, fortunately, her Achilles tendon and other muscles and ligaments were fine – and Jones was not in significant pain. The NSAF’s top-notch medical team treated the wounds and the Greater Atlanta Christian (GA) junior was able to run near-PR 100H races (13.42 final in a close defeat) the next day.

Jones has been the nation’s short hurdler to beat outdoors since a memorable West Coast trip in April where she ran 13.49 at Stanford and a still-standing US#1 13.33 at Arcadia – victorious over great fields in both. She went on to a state AAA title in the hurdles, plus winning PR performances of 24.05 in the 200 and 20-2.25 in the long jump, for an epic triple. That followed an indoor campaign where Jones was runner-up in the NBNI 60H to Shadajah Ballard after taking 3rd in 2018. At NBNO, she has unfinished business after missing the final in ’18 and – against a field that includes Ballard and other 13.4-13.5 talent – it should be a real barnburner.

Sincere Rhea – Seizing an opportunity

When favorite Kurt Powdar hit a hurdle and was unable to finish his NBNI 60H final, it was the second straight year that the Virginian had extreme misfortune in the event (he false-started last year). But sometimes such happens open doors for others to break through and that’s what happened for Sincere Rhea – who ripped a 7.69 to claim the hurdle title and set himself up for a great outdoor season. Rhea had run 7.88 coming into NBNI (but also a superior 7.22 55H), then he rocketed to a stunning 7.64 prelim behind Powdar’s 7.63. That set up a great final, but the St. Augustine Prep NJ junior was a solid .12 clear of the Powdar-less finish at the end.

Now Rhea has had an outstanding outdoor season over 110H to set himself up for a chance at NBNI/NBNO double. He lost to Andre Turay of Bullis in an April meet, then went unbeaten through his season leading to the NJ Meet of Champs, with an all-conditions PR of 13.52w at the Loucks Games and a state Group title along the way. At MOC, he won the 400 in a PR 47.89, but then pulled up in the 110H final due to a misstep (and after a 13.78 legal PR prelim) and watched Jaheem Hayles win in 13.55. With Hayles also in this field, along with defending champ Powdar and California standout Warren Williams, Rhea will be more than motivated.

Ryler Gould – Going for a Penn/NBNO double

For 400m hurdlers up and down the East Coast, the Penn Relays is a great launching pad to a successful high school season – and many who have won or placed high at Penn have gone on to be New Balance All-Americans. But since 1991 – the year of the first NSAF outdoor championships and the first Penn Relays 400H race for preps – no hurdler has achieved a Penn/NBNO double. Rickey Harris went back-to-back at Penn in 1998-99, then won outdoor nats in 2000, but no one has done it in the same year. Now Ryler Gould – the Penn champ in 52.55 and the fastest entry at NBNO – has a great chance to make history in 2019.

Gould is unbeaten in the 400H this year, having won the New York Relays, Penn and the Loucks Games leading up to his state championships last weekend. There, with a huge and unexpected challenge from Sean Hewitt, the Newburgh HS junior lowered his PR to 51.81. That gave Gould a defense of his 2018 title, but last year after that he bypassed the event at NBNO and went on to win the USATF JO crown. Now, at NBNO, he’ll again face Hewitt, as well as a handful of 52-second types.

 



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