Alexis Duncan of DeSoto High School, Texas, hopes to defend her national and state titles in the 100-meter hurdles.
Just how difficult is it to qualify for the Texas State Championship?
Even defending national champions have to take the qualifying rounds seriously.
DeSoto junior Alexis Duncan won the 100-meter hurdles at New Balance Outdoor Nationals and the Texas State Championship in 2014, but she's not leaving anything up to chance at the Region I-6A Championship this weekend.
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"In finals, I'm gonna give it everything," she said. "I'm gonna lay it all out on the table. You can't just run, you gotta run your hardest both times [in the prelims and finals]."
As a sophomore, Duncan ran a personal record of 13.33 for the 100-meter hurdles, her signature event, and 43.89 for the 300-meter hurdles. This season, she has raced 13.54 for the shorter event and dropped her 300mH time down to 42.23 already.
She wants to go 12.9 in the 100mH and 41 in the 300mH. She wants to break 40 seconds before she graduates in 2016.
Duncan won the UIL State Championship in the 100mH as a sophomore with a time of 13.39.
"I'm strong in both of them," she said. "I just put more effort into the 100 hurdles for some reason, because it's quicker and you have less time to make up if you make a mistake... For 100 hurdles, I have an awesome start and then I keep the speed and pick up after the sixth hurdle. For 300 hurdles, I start out fast and I try to end fast but [it's] not as fast."
Duncan has competed in track and field since the age of eight, with an exclusive focus on the hurdles since age 10. She does not compete in flat open events.
"The hurdles is more challenging," she said. "Running fast is easy, you need something more challenging. It takes more talent to jump hurdles."
Her summer track club, the Running Tigers, is hurdles-focused. A key workout involves running 100- and 300-meter repeats while gradually adding hurdles.
Duncan races the 100 meter hurdle prelims at the 2014 New Balance Outdoor Nationals.
"So when I do 300 hurdles, I know my body gets tired at the end of the race," she said. "So when I do that 100 workout, it's about how much energy I have at the end so I can work on my kick at the end of the race."
The five-foot-one wunderkind says she is stronger than ever just one year removed from winning the state and national titles. Her breakout sophomore year was sweet redemption after an injury-plagued frosh campaign that saw her season end after tripping over a hurdle at the District 7-8 Area Meet 5A.
"I fell during the race, but that was just part of it," Duncan admitted. "The other part of it was I wasn't focused enough on my race. I was focused on other people in the race and that threw me off.
"Sophomore year I wanted to be the year I come up and I did and won states."
Duncan (red jersey, far left) won the 2014 New Balance Outdoor Nationals 100mH with a personal record of 13.33.
She stayed fit and peaked for another month before making the 17-hour drive from Lancaster, Texas to Greensboro, North Carolina for New Balance. After the "horrible" drive, Alexis felt sluggish on her warmup.
"I didn't warm up that good, I was hitting some hurdles," she said. "But sometimes I usually do good when I mess up on warmups, I don't know why, I think to myself, 'I gotta be in this.'"
Duncan did put herself in it - after clocking the fastest preliminary time of 13.44, she shot to a 13.33 personal record in the finals to finish ahead of fellow sophomore stud Anna Cockrell of Providence Day School (NC), who placed runner-up in 13.46.
"I was so shocked," Duncan said. "That was like a close race but at the end of the race I was happy because I rode in the car for a long time to not win."
Her mother, Adriane, says she gets more nervous than Alexis before track meets.
"It's a proud moment," Adriane said. "I'm a single parent, so it means that much more to her and to me. She knows I'm her No. 1 fan and I'm always there to cheer her on and to see her go from age 10 running hurdles to now winning on a national level in high school... I get emotional all the time because she's my baby girl."
Adriane says she knew Alexis was something special from a young age. At three years old, the hyperactive tot picked up how to tie not only her own shoes - but everyone's shoes in her classroom. Her preschool teacher called home one afternoon and said, "she doesn't have to go around tying the kids' shoes every day."
The family originally lived in Louisiana, where Alexis dominated the boys' basketball team as a sixth-grader.
"I knew then she had a special gift as an athlete," Adriane said.
Duncan is prepping herself for a standout career in the NCAA ranks. Whatever college is lucky enough to add her to their roster will have at least one surprise in store when the aspiring veterinarian arrives on campus.
"I like goats, that's my favorite animal. They're really funny and they eat everything. My mom would not let me have a goat but I'm gonna have one in college, though. I'm gonna get an apartment," she said. "I want a black and white one named Oreo and a brown one named Sugar, they'll be brother and sister.
"I can't wait! It will workout with me, I can't let it get fat!"
