Without New Balance Nationals Indoor The Assault On Records Is Incomplete, But Athing Mu Got One Early In the 500 Meters

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Editor’s Note: We’ll never know. Over this weekend, where the tracks was empty at The Armory in New York, high school athletes from all over the country were prepared to go off. To see months of work pay off. To peak. Of the many things lost this weekend in the U.S., a Sunday session at New Balance Nationals Indoor was something special. It was a lost opportunity to shine and to make history as a result of the cancellation of several championship events. But we can’t forget the season that abruptly ended Wednesday night.

Here are the 10 best high school girls performances from the ill-fated 2020 indoor track and field season.

1. Athing Mu, Trenton Track Club NJ, 500 meters – Virginia Showcase, Jan. 19

She was already a U.S. senior women's record holder in the 600 meters after her jaw-dropping performance at the Toyota USTAF Indoor Championship in 2019 at Ocean Breeze. But her senior year opened to great promise with a national high school record in the 500 meters that was ripe for the plucking in her fourth indoor meet of the new season. 

Mu ran 1:10.22 on the track at Liberty University in Virginia to smash a 12-year-old high school record set by Chanelle Price (1:10.30) of Easton Area PA. Mu was pushed by three athletes who all ran into the all-time top 20 – Kayla Davis, Michaela Rose and Aaliyah Pyatt. By the end, however, Mu was two seconds clear of all of them. 

In the same meet, the Texas A&M signee ran the third-fastest 300 of all-time, clocking 37.36 seconds and eding out Davis, who ran 37.38. She would go on in her season to show elite range from 400 (53.14) to 800 (2:04.08).

Over the final week leading up to New Balance Nationals Indoor, Mu was convinced to switch events. She moved from the 400 meters to the 800, where she would have been part of a marquee race with Juliette Whittaker, Roisin Willis and Sophia Gorriaran. The absence of that race, due the meet cancellation, leaves a sting. 

2. Tamari Davis, Empire Athletics Club FL, 60 meters – Gamecock Opener, Jan. 18

In her final act as an amateur prep athlete, Davis went after the national high school record in the 60 meters and checked that box before turning pro. Davis ran 7.19 seconds to match the time Ashley Owens of Liberty CO ran at the Simplot Games back in 2004.  

That perfomance broke the World U-18 mark of 7.24, established in 2007 in Houston by Victoria Jordan of Fort Worth Dunbar, Texas. Davis holds World age-group records at 14 (7.30), 15 (7.25) and 16 (7.19). She also became the No. 4 all-time American U-20 performer and matched the 10th-fastest performer in World U-20 history.

Davis built up to challenging the record after a sensational freshman season in Florida and won the New Balance Nationals Indoor title in the 200 meters in 2019. She went down with an injury at the outdoor national meet in the 100. 

Her coaches and parents assessed that her best chance to train for a possible berth on the U.S. Olympic team was leave the high school scene, sign a professional contract, and train full-time. Before she left, Davis put her name at the top of a national high school list, or at least right beside Owens.

3. Marlee Starliper, Northern Area PA, Mile and 3,000 meters – NYRR Millrose Games and David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Feb. 8/15

Although we're only going to list her once, Starliper's sensational mile victory at the NYRR Millrose Games  and her 3,000-meter performance at Valentine Invitational at BU a week later both earn a spot high up on this list. 

At The Armory, Starliper ran 4:37.76 for the full mile and collected an additional US#1 with her en route time of 4:19.40 in the 1,500 meters. Starliper crushed a strong field that day by six seconds, racing the clock and history. She finished the day behind only three runners ever indoors – Mary Cain, Alexa Efraimson and Katie Rainsberger.

Starliper tested her fitness again a week later at BU, hoping that running against a higher level of competition might take her under nine minutes in the 3,000 meters. In a field of pros and post-collegians, she ran 9:07.14 for a massive personal best. The only high school girls to ever do it faster are Katelyn Tuohy, Cain and Efraimson (on an oversized track). Pretty good company. 

4. Juliette Whittaker, Mount de Sales MD, 800 meters – Fast Track Last Chance Invitational, Feb. 28

Running unattached in what was little more than a tune-up meet at Ocean Breeze, Whittaker offered a glimpse of where she was headed with an eye-popping time of 2:03.01 in the 800 meters. Unlike the two other girls who ran sub-2:04 on the same day in Boston, this was a solo effort. Whittaker won the race by 11 seconds. 

Whittaker's season was dotted with spectacular times from the 800 to the 3,200 (10:23.14), but her 800 at Ocean Breeze zoomed her all the way up to No. 3 on the all-time list behind Samantha Watson and Mary Decker. 

Whittaker proved to be a talent with mind-boggling range, even when measured against Watson or Mu or Decker – one of whom ever qualified Foot Locker Nationals in cross country. Whittaker was 13th in San Diego – over the 5,000-meter distance – in December. 

5. Katelynne Hart, Glendbard West IL, 5,000 meters – David Hemery Valentine Invitational, Feb. 15

Venturing into a race with older competitors in Boston, Hart switched out of a 3,000-meter showdown with Marlee Starliper and into the 5,000 a couple of days before the meet and landed in a race that included former 1,500-meter world champion Jenny Simpson.

Hart settled in on the BU track and finished ninth in a race won by Simpson. Hart's time, 16:09.56, is the fourth-fastest in prep history behind Tuohy, Brie Oakley and Weini Kelati – all recent national high school champions. 

In just her first race of 2020, Hart went through the first 1,600 meters in 5:06.58 and went through 3,200 in 10:16.26. It was perhaps a sign of things to come. Hart was entered in the 5,000 meters this weekend at New Balance Nationals Indoor, where there was potential to go even faster. 

6. Roisin Willis, Stevens Point WI, 800 meters – BU Last Chance Meet, Feb. 28

It was presumed after Willis won her section and finished seventh overall in the 800 meters at the BU Last Chance Meet that she had catapulted to US#1 and was primed and ready to defend her New Balance Nationals Indoor title in the event.

Lo and behold, by the end of the day, Whittaker had bested her by .04 seconds. It's unfortunate that the head-to-head matchup, and a highly anticipated race this weekend, won't happen. However, track fans can take some solace in the fact that these two are only 10th-graders. (They were in the same race at the NYRR Millrose Games, with Whittaker taking second in the mile to Willis' fifth).

Willis ran an age 15 world best when she won the second-fastest section of the 800 meters (freshman Sophia Gorriaran of Moses Brown RI broke her freshman class national record in the same race, less than a second behind her in 2:03.98).

Willis' continued ascension will have to peak again outdoors, hopefully at some point this spring.

7. Monique Hardy, Webster Thomas NY, Weight Throw – NYRR Millrose Games, Feb. 6

Hardy was one of the athletes preparing to break a national high school record this weekend.

More than a month ago, the senior from the Rochester, N.Y. area, came to Manhattan and launched a throw of 66 feet, 11.25 inches (20.40m) to win the junior women's weight throw at the NYRR Millrose Games. It was the second-longest throw in history and put Shelby Ashe's record (68-2.50 from 2011) squarely in her sights. 

The LSU recruit said it didn't feel like an especially robust throw, a sign that something bigger could have been brewing. 

"I fouled on my first throw, so my second throw was supposed to be my safety throw," she said. "I'm surprised that it went that far. ... That's not all I got, because it felt so easy to me."

She subsequently won her third New York state title on the lead-up to NBNI.

8. Leah Pasqualetti, Orchard Park NY, Pole Vault – Section VI Indoor Groundhog Classic, Feb. 1

Coming into her final season of indoor track, Pasqualetti had only been over a bar at 13 feet or higher once in competition. That all changed with a two-week span of rapid progression at the end of January that took her to peak clearance of 14 feet, 3 inches (4.34m) – good enough to erase a long-standing Mary Saxer state record and move up to No. 4 all-time indoors behind Chloe Cunliffe and twins Lexi (Jacobus) and Tori (Hoggard) Weeks.

At Houghton College in Houghton, N.Y., Pasqualetti broke Saxer's 2005 state record and then concluded her day, mission accomplished. The jump was the lastest in a three-meet progresion that saw her match her PR at 13-3 on Jan. 18 and then make 14-0 a week later at the Trent Jackson/Cedric Walker Invitational.

“It felt like all the work my coach and I have put in finally came together at the right time,” she said. “Nothing to compare it (the feeling) to.” 

VIDEO 

Pasqualetti was undefeated in 12 pole vault competitions in 2020 and made bars higher than 13-6 in four of them.   

9. Kayla Davis, RunUXpress Club, 300 meters – Virginia Showcase, Jan. 19

One of the biggest news developments late in the indoor season was that Davis had transferred and was planning to compete for Hough High in North Carolina this spring. Up until then, she had competed almost exclusively for her club team, RunUXpress.

Davis ran 37.38 and barely lost to Mu in the 300 meters at the Virginia Showcase, a performance good enough to break a Sydney McLaughlin national sophomore class record. She is No. 4 on the all-time list.

Davis came into the season with lofty expectations after running 51.17 in the 400 meters as a freshman, the nation's fastest time of 2019. 

The plan called for Davis to compete some with her high school team this spring while keeping an eye on her biggest opporunity to date – to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials. 

At the moment, those plans are in jeopardy unless the outdoor season can be safely re-started.

10. Sydney Thorvaldson, Rawlins WY, 3,200 meters – Simplot Games, Feb. 15

The final spot could easily belong to Zofia Dudek, who ran a US#1 time of 9:56.72 in the GVSU Elite 3,200 meters in Michigan on Feb. 14, or Taylor Ewert, who broke her own high school record in the 3,000-meter racewalk at the Virginia Showcase by clocking 13:00.56 to rank 15th in the world and ahead of all the top U.S. professional female athletes. Katelyn Tuohy ran a fast 1,500 to win her third straight New York indoor title.

But for the sheer tenacity of what she did at the Simplot Games, the spot goes to Thorvaldson, who ran 10:06.58 to smash her own meet record at 4,460 feet elevation. A conservative altitude conversion estimate would trim 11-12 seconds from that time. 

Not only that, two days prior to the final, Thorvaldson broke the meet record with an audacious run of 10:11.43 in the prelims. Coming back 48 hours later, the junior from Wyoming had the crowd on its feet as she attempted to stay on sub-10 minute pace and do something no girl has ever done in the Rocky Mountains. Thorvaldson paid for an early 4:55 first 1,600 and couldn't quite keep her legs moving fast enough over the final four laps. 

Still, it was a gritty and thrilling effort that won't soon be forgotten at Holt Arena in Pocatello, Idaho.

"It was so crazy, the energy was great," Thorvaldson said. "It was so compelling just running around the track and hearing (the announcer) say that I'm close, but I don't know. It was really great, and I don't think I could have got that time withouth the crowd."