9. Texas Fast: DeSoto's Girls Break 4x100 National Record Over Two Straight Weekends, State State Record In 4x200
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Back in 2004, track and field fans in California and Texas witnessed two high school girls relay teams run extremely fast -- on separate occasions.
At the time, it was unheard of. Just three high school girls team had ever broken 45 seconds, though one team, Houston Alief Elsik, had done it twice in 2003.
Another, Long Beach Poly, had accomplished that feat, too, but 2004 was their year: The California program lit a match to the track at The Penn Relays, posting a new national record of 44.50 seconds. A month later, Dallas Skyline went 44.60 at the Texas state championships.
And then for 14 years, nobody could touch it -- though many tried.
That was until 2019.
Enter the DeSoto girls. The Lady Eagles had an epic run to finish out the spring, breaking the 4x100 national record -- and entering that elusive 45 second club -- in successive meets.
They now own the fastest two sprint relay times of all-time.
DeSoto first broke the national record at the UIL Region 1-6A Championships, with the squad hitting 44.44 on the clock. Even though that was the fastest national time ever, it wasn't good enough for them to have the state record: The girls would have to repeat their performance in Austin, Texas at the state meet to officially own that mark in Texas.
But it's exactly what they did. The quartet of JaEra Griffin, Jayla Hollis, Rosaline Effiong and Taylor Armstrong followed up their epic regional performance with another historical run.
This time, it was in front of the entire state -- and nearly 15,000 spectators to witness.
In the end, DeSoto ran away with a state record and their second consecutive national record with a new standard of 44.24.
But the plan for fast times didn't just start at the end of the season. DeSoto had been on a mission since the beginning of the year. They ran well all season long, starting off the year off with a clocking of 45.47 seconds and had a 45.35-second season average in the event, running five races in the top 25 all-time.
- William Grundy, Texas MileSplit