US #1 Sprinters Showcase
The sprint fields at NON were loaded with some of the fastest high school athletes in the country. In the girls' 100m final, Mia Maxwell, ranked US #2 entering the meet with a season-best of 11.04, won in 11.35 seconds with a slight 0.1 tailwind. Her twin sister, Mariah Maxwell, finished second in 11.52, and Ava Kitchings took third in 11.62. Dana Wilson, who held the US #1 ranking in the 100m with an 11.02 season-best, opted to race the 200m and won decisively in 22.71 seconds, the only athlete under 23 seconds in the field.
The boys' 100m final featured a showdown among the nation's top sprinters: US #1 Tate Taylor, US #2 Maurice Gleaton, and US #3 Brayden Williams. Taylor, the national record holder with a personal best of 9.92 seconds, edged out Gleaton 10.10 to 10.11, while Williams finished third in 10.17. These three were clearly in a league of their own, as the next fastest time in the final was 10.43 seconds.
Jayden Horton-Mims, a national record holder in the indoor 300m and currently US #1 in the 400m, won the boys' 400m title in 45.58 seconds and also claimed the 200m championship with a time of 20.76 seconds, the only athlete under 21 seconds
Now, to add some barriers on the track, and the name Ja'Shaun Lloyd immediately comes to mind. Lloyd of Corsicana, TX, was a standout hurdler at Nike Indoor Nationals, where he recorded the second-fastest 60m hurdles time in high school history with a clocking of 7.49 seconds. This performance secured him the championship by nearly a quarter of a second and put him just a tenth of a second shy of Trey Cunningham's national record. At NON, Lloyd continued his dominance by winning the boys' 110m hurdles championship with a time of 13.28 seconds, narrowly edging out Le'Ezra Brown's 13.34. Behind them, impressive 9th grader Jasir Fontenot ran 13.37. Lloyd's winning time also broke the high school venue record.