2014 USATF Juniors (Trials for WJC) Previews: Men’s Track

by Steve Underwood

Event-by-event previews for the men's track events at the 2014 USATF Juniors in Eugene (men's field HERE, women's track HERE, women's field HERE).  Top two in each event qualify for the World Junior Champs later this month on the same track (provided they meet the performance standard) – though a host country rule actually allows one entrant in each event for the U.S., regardless of whether they’ve met the standard.

100m dash

No aspirants for the Team USA squad for Eugene seem more ready for World Championship stardom than Baylor freshman Trayvon Bromell.  His killer senior year at Gibbs (St. Petersberg, FL) HS in 2013 included an impressive run to a 3A Florida title, a fast Golden South win, a disappointing 5th in the adidas GP Dream 100, but then a sequence that included a legendary 9.99w at Great Southwest, a New Balance Nationals Outdoor (NBNO) triumph into a headwind, a Juniors win into a huge headwind, then a bronze at the Pan Am Juniors in August.  But that was just the preface to his stellar 2014 at Baylor, which first opened eyes with his 10.02 Texas Relays win, a 9.77w at Big 12s with the friendly altitude of Lubbock, then a World Junior Record 9.97 NCAA title – the first by a frosh since Walter Dix in 2005.  To say he stands as the WJ favorite in 3-plus weeks is an understatement.

Which brings us to our top prep, Trentavis Friday (GJTC), the unbeaten Cherryville, NC senior who with his 10.17 PR would be the favorite at many Junior meets over the years.  2013 was a groundbreaking year for Friday, too, though many of his performances were trailing Bromell – like Golden South, NBNO and adidas.  In 2014, he’s been unpressed in bursting to his blazing New Balance Nationals Indoor (NBNI) 60/200 double and NBNO 200 crown.  He is, in fact, the 200 favorite (see below), but in the 100 will face a great challenge that could push him to new heights.

And the 100 field shall not be lacking for quality Team USA suitors, should either of the above two falter.  The top collegiate contender would be Jalen Miller, the Ole Miss frosh who has run 10.24 this year – improving significantly from his days with Rosa Fort HS in Mississippi 4A.  Florida prep stars Kendal Williams (1st Coast TC/Stanton Prep senior) and Terry Jernigan (Life Speed/East Ridge senior).  Williams led the nation much of the spring with his 10.28 best, won 3A state and then the adidas race.  Jernigan lost only to Williams before his state 4A crown, then won Golden South (10.27), was 3rd behind Williams at adidas, then 2nd at Brooks behind Christian Coleman.  All of these contenders have a good shot at repping Team USA in the 4x100.

200m dash

As mentioned above, Friday is the man to beat at 200.  There is no Bromell, but Friday would still be the favorite even if the Baylor frosh was present – it’s arguably Friday’s better event.  His NBNI victory made him #2 all-time prep undercover and his US#1 20.33 outdoors is #7 all-time.  He won the NBNO race with a 20.41 into a headwind and by a huge margin of nearly .60. 

The half lap is also Kendal Williams’ better event, it seems, and he has a great chance to make the team here.  His 20.55 to win Golden South led the nation at the time and is still US#2.  Both he and Bromell were actually DQ’d in the 200 prelims at Juniors last year, when Williams was also a favorite to make Team USA, so that could motivate him.

Ole Miss’s Miller is also in this event, with a 20.76 best.  Also look out for college frosh like Robert Ellis III (American River (Ca.) JC/Antelope, CA, HS) at 20.79 (also in 100); Michael Cheeks, Jr. (Auburn frosh/Mill Creek, GA, HS) at 20.82, and Joshua Washington (Richard Bland/Forest Park, VA, HS) at 20.83; and preps like NBNO 3rd-place finisher Quashawn Cunningham (Mallard Creek, NC senior) at 21.04 (also in 100), NBNO 6th-place finisher Ivy Dobson (Arbor View, NV senior) at 21.01; NBNO 400 champ Josephus Lyles (T.C. Williams, VA soph) and NBNO 400H runner-up Robert Grant (Brophy Prep, AZ senior).

400m dash

Florida State frosh Michael Cherry was the big man in the prep 400 last year while at Oscar Smith HS in VA.  He won the NBNI 400 (and was 2nd in the 200) during an epic undercover campaign that included an HSR at 300 and a US#1 at 500.  Outdoors, he hit a US#1 46.02 and won NBNO at 46.06.  His first campaign at FSU has been pretty solid, too, with two sub-46s and a best of 45.37.  As the only sub-46 entry, if he’s healthy and ready at the line, he’s the solid favorite.

The other top contenders over a full lap are also collegians.  Lamar Bruton was NBNO runner-up behind Cherry last year (while at Howard Tech, DE) with a 46.21 best, then was 3rd at Juniors and made the Pan-Am team on the 4x4.  He’s hit 46.02 at Ohio State in 2014.  Also at 46.02 is Eastern Michigan’s Tyler Brown, who’s made a big improvement from his prep best of 47.08 at Findlay, OH HS.  Then there’s Penn State’s Byron Robinson, now a 46.12 performer after running 47.29 last year for Western Branch, VA.  He also was 3rd at the NBNO 400H last year at 51.01 and is currently getting back into it after missing a few months in the spring. 

The top prep is NBNO 400 champ Josephus Lyles (T.C. Williams, VA soph), also in the 200.  Lyles crushed his PR with his 46.23 in Greensboro and while topping these collegians will be a challenge, there’s also that chance of making the team in the 4x4.  Zyaire Clemes, who did not run for his school this spring (Trenton Central, NJ), but was 2nd at NBNO after a 3rd last year, should also be a contender.  He is set to join Cherry at FSU and had the US#1 at 300 this winter.  Also watch for Taylor McLaughlin, the Union Catholic, NJ senior who anchored his school’s winning 4x400 and Swedish medley teams to victory at NBNO.  From among all of these contenders will come most or all of the Team USA 4x400.

800m run

As was the case in the 400, collegians are likely to battle for the top two spots.  Dylan Capwell was a 1:50.86 runner at Hopatcong, NJ in 2013 and now has hit 1:47.68 for Monmouth U (5th at NCAA East Prelim).  And prep fans nationally will remember Tre’Tez Kinnaird.  He smoked a 1:50.56 as a soph at Louisville Butler in 2011, winning the World Youth Trials and then making the semis in Lille.  He hit 1:49.31 as a junior, and was 3rd at NBNI as a senior in 2013, but there were off races and parts of seasons lost to injury and/or illness along with way.  Now he has run 1:47.99 at U. of Indiana. 

The top four prep contenders happen to also be the 2-3-4-5 finishers from the NBNO 800, which should make for fascinating racing.  Joe White (DePaul, NJ senior), Myles Marshall (Kingwood, TX junior), Growing Runners TC’s Derek Holdsworth (Lafayette, VA senior) and Garrett O’Toole (Middlesex, MA senior) ran PRs of 1:48.75, 1:49.24, 1:49.36 and 1:49.68 in Greensboro, respectively.  And each should have a healthy dose of motivation.  White was 2nd at both NBNO and the preceding NJ MOC, then a disappointing 9th in the Brooks PR 800.  Marshall, the Texas 5A champ, had won the Youth Olympic Trials and had not tasted defeat until NBNO and his 2nd at Brooks.  Holdworth was the unbeaten NBN champ indoors, so even with a PR getting 4th at NBNO had to sting a little.  He won Brooks, however, and now will want to confirm he’s on top among his peers.  And O’Toole is the wild card.  The US#1 miler at 4:01.89, he was just 8th in the adidas Dream mile, then came back the next day at NBNO with his 800 PR, but was only 5th.

And yet, the contenders list doesn’t end there.  Three more collegians in the field have broken 1:50, and at 1:50.27 is Virginia frosh Nathan Kiley, who won the NBNI 800 in 2013 from a slower section.  Then among preps, you have Great Southwest champ Charles Jones, Jr. of St. Louis Express TC (Cardinal Ritter, MO senior) at 1:50.19 this year and still holding a 1:49.78 PR from 2012; Kenneth Hagen (Blacksburg, VA senior), who split 1:48.38 in the NBNO 4x8, was 2nd at NBNI, and is long overdue for his first sub-1:50 open; and Robert Ford (San Antonio Johnson, TX senior), who was 3rd at NBNI and Brooks, and also repped Team USA at World Youths last year.  It’s an embarrassment of talent!

1,500m run

For prep distance fans across the land, this will be one of the most eagerly anticipated races.  Can the amazing Grant Fisher (Grand Blanc, MI junior), having not lost in XC, indoor or outdoor track since last summer, keep the magic going against a field full of fast collegians – and some quality prep rivals as well?  Fisher broke into the limelight last summer when he won his World Youth 1,500 semifinal, then was 7th in the final behind teammate Blake Haney.  That’s the last time he lost, as he steamrolled through XC (Foot Locker champ), indoors (NBNI mile champ) and outdoors (adidas mile and Brooks PR 2M champ).  His combination of racing savvy and kicking ability, especially for a HS junior, is without peer.

Three more of the year’s most exciting underclassmen prep distance performers will be in this event, too.  Home-state star Matthew Maton (Summit, OR) is another super talented junior, like Fisher.  He was runner-up to Fisher at adidas with 4:03.23, won the Brooks PR mile and is US#2 behind O’Toole at 1,500.  Yet another junior, Luke Gavigan (Tappan Zee, NY), had a bad day at NBNO, but was the Penn Relays and Millrose mile champ earlier this year and had a 4:07 1,600 best outdoors.  And then there’s Austin Tamagno, the Brea Olinda, CA soph who ran 4:09 1,600 as a frosh in 2013 and has progressed this spring to a 4:06.67 mile (2nd at Brooks).

But this field has a half-dozen collegians with entry marks between 3:43 and 3:46.  One of them is Virginia frosh Henry Wynne, who’s stellar 2013 as a Staples, CT senior included an NBN indoor/outdoor sweep in the mile.  He’s run 3:46.48.  Another, Patrick Joseph, was a 4:07 miler at Loudon County, VA last year and has improved to 3:43.70 this year for 1,500 at Virginia Tech.  Clayton Murphy was just a 4:11 1,600 runner at New Madison, OH last year and is now a 3:44.53 performer.   It will be fascinating to see how this mix plays out.

5,000m run

There are a quartet of strong prep contenders in this event, with two of them having particular experience over this distance on the track.  Elijah Armstrong (Pocatello, ID junior) won the 2013 NBNO 5,000 and, while facing faster fields in the next three NBN indoor and outdoor 5ks, has had a silver and two bronzes while lowering his PR under 14:30.  Sydney Gidabuday (El Modena, CA senior), 3rd in his state meet 1,600, early in the season twice ran 14:26 for 5k’s on the track.  Alaskan star Levi Thomet (Kodiak junior) had a 9:00 3,200 PR, then came to Greensboro and took 7th in the 5k at 14:40.  And while Albert Meier (Boone, IA senior) has never run a track 5,000, he was the Drake Relays 3,200 champ at 8:58.46.

If the top collegians are fit, though, they’ll be tough to beat – especially a trio from the PAC-12.  Stanford frosh redshirt Jack Keelan ran 13:55.59 this spring after a senior year at Chicago St. Ignatius that included 4th in the NBNO 5k and 2nd in the mile, and an 8:50 3,200.  Colby Gilbert is a U. of Washington frosh with a 14:07.13 best after running 8:58 for 3,200 in HS at Vancouver Skyview, WA.  And another Stanford frosh, Sam Wharton at 14:11.53, is remembered as a prep at Tippacanoe, OH for his NXN victory in 2012 – as well as taking 5th in the 2013 NBNO 5k.

10,000m run

It’s always fascinating to watch preps dive into the 10,000 for the first time – the few who try it at USATF Juniors.  Sometimes, the result is eye-popping, like four years ago when Parker Stinson of Cedar Park HS in Texas tackled the distance, won Juniors, then shocked with a 29:32.23 6th-place finish at Worlds that made him #6 prep all-time.  Only Galen Rupp had run faster since 1976 at that point.

This year’s candidates to possibly break out similarly are Conner Mantz (Sky View, UT junior) and the above-mentioned Gidabuday – entered in both the 5k and 10k.  Mantz loves the long distances and had a big breakout win at the NBNI 5k with a 14:24.33.  He had been 7th at Foot Locker last fall, then this spring he has bests of 8:52.90 for 3,200 at Arcadia (6th) and 8:56.62 for 2M at Brooks (4th).  A sub-30:00 is certainly possible for either of them.

Three collegiate freshman entries have broken 30:00: Penn’s Brendan Shearn at 29:49.04, Oklahoma State’s Noah Gade at 29:51.13 and Texas A&M’s Austin Wells at 29:52.14.  Shearn was 18th and 14th in NBN in/out 5ks (and 21st at Foot Locker) as a senior in 2013 at North Schuylkill, PA, while Gade as a senior at Stillwater, OK was 36th at Foot Locker and 18th in the NBNO 5k.  Wells was a 9:07 3,200 and 14:55 5k runner at San Antonio Clark HS in 2013.

110m hurdles (39”)

This race will be very hotly anticipated for prep hurdle fans as it again brings together the two boys who have broken 13.50 this year (this time in championship action): The Durham Striders’ Isaiah Moore and Hall of Fame Hurdling’s Theophile (Misana) Viltz III.  At Long Beach Milikan this spring, Viltz won Arcadia in April at 13.93, then kept driving his PR down to 13.71 (Mt. SAC), 13.68w (SS Finals) and finally 13.47(+1.5w) at state.  That was US#1 for a week until Moore – the Hugh Cummings, NC senior who made the World Youth final last year – blasted his 13.40 winner at NBNO. 

Viltz then was the top entry at Brooks and was joined by late-entry Moore.  Their battle there saw Viltz get DQ’d for pushing down a hurdle while Moore prevailed in 13.52.  So this is a rematch of the highest order.  They won’t be the only prep stars competing, though.  Former US#1 Kendal Sheffield, the Fort Bend Marshall, TX senior who won his 5A state meet at 13.63 and hasn’t competed since (at least partly due to football obligations), returns to action to challenge those who surpassed him on the list.  He led prelims at last year’s World Youth Trials, but didn’t run the final.  There’s also Viltz’s rival, Marquis Morris (De La Salle, CA senior), who was 2nd to him at Arcadia and state (13.68 PR), won Golden West, and had been 3rd at the WY Trials last year.  And don’t forget Youth Olympic Trials champ Amere Lattin of CL Athletics Stars, who missed winning at Great Southwest by less than .01.

Can’t forget the collegians, though, even though they have been racing over 42” hurdles all year.  Spencer Dunkerly-Offor of Texas is the top entry there at 13.83; he was a 13.94w runner at St. Stephen’s Episcopal, TX as a senior in 2013.  Nicholas Anderson was a 14.11 prep at Wekiva, FL and now has run 13.91.  Several others are in the very low 14s and all could be big factors.

400m hurdles

This event brings together a great array of prep talent, some of which has been tested only at 300H and not yet the longer distance.  You definitely have to start with Kenneth Selmon of Gazelle TC (Pace Academy, GA senior) and Robert Grant (Brophy Prep, AZ senior).  They were 1-2 in the NBNO 400H at 50.48 and 51.16.  While it was Grant’s first foray over the distance, Selmon was well-versed in it as he repped Team USA last year at World Youths and took 4th (lower hurdle height, though). 

Grant, of course, has also been US#1 at 300H nearly all year with his 36.24 best.  Three other sub-37 runners will attempt the longer race, including Utah champ Cam Dopp (Woods Cross senior) with a 36.30 PR, multis star John Lint (Columbus Acad, OH senior) with a 36.32 PR, and Illinois champ Conor Dunham (Chicago St. Ignatius senior) at 36.90 – and actually, Dunham has raced 400H, but just not at a high level yet. 

All that said, though, the favorite is going to be a collegian: Timothy Holmes had a stellar senior year in 2013 at St. Petersburg Lakewood, FL, taking 2nd behind Marlon Humphrey at NBNO (also 3rd 110H) and 3rd here at Juniors over 400H, as well as winning the Great Southwest 300H.  Now at Baylor in 2014 he has ducked under 50 at 49.90 and was 4th at NCAAs.  Four others have run between 50.71 and 51.14, including last year’s runnerup here Khallifah Rosser (Chaffey College CC) and Pitt frosh Desmond Palmer – who ran 36.31 and 51.59 while at Pickerington North, OH in 2013.  Again, it will be fascinating to see this prep and collegiate talent sort itself out.

3k steeplechase

As soon as new 2k ST HSR-setter Bailey Roth announced he was going to try for a second straight Team USA vest – this time for the World Juniors – the questions began.   How fast could he run with an extra kilometer over barriers added, and, would it be enough against the collegiate talent entered?  Well, things have changed with the scratch of 8:52 performer Nicholas Tuck of Penn and it’s easier to envision the Coronado, CO senior winning here if he again brings the magic – that “magic” that was present as the novice steepler in 2013 won NBNO and then produced three more sub-5:50 2kST efforts in winning the WY Trials and making the WY Champs final

Indeed, Roth was one of the stunning prep distance runners of the end of the 2012-13 school year.  But injury and/or illness issues marked a senior year of inconsistency in XC and track in Colorado.  Healthy training over recent weeks, however, brought him back to form in Greensboro, where he took down a 23-year-old national standard with his 5:41.67.  Fans naturally wonder now if he can not only make the squad to return here in three weeks, but also beat the 8:50.1 HSR by Jeff Hess that dates all the way back to 1979.

Of course there are plenty of other contenders to consider – four other collegians who have run 9:15 or better and two preps with 9:11 bests.  Bryce Miller of U. of Missouri-Kansas City leads the former group, well below the national class radar as an Ashland, WI prep but who has dramatically taken to the steeple in college and run 9:01.37 (5th at Drake).  Alec Peinkofer was 3rd in the NY Feds XC meet while a Baldwinsville, NY senior and also never had tried the steeple.  But at SUNY-Buffalo, he’s become a 9:03.45 runner.  On the other hand, Chris Mulverhill – a frosh for the hometown Ducks from Cedar Hill, TX – steepled extensively as a prep, running 6:01.52 for the 2k event and is now a 9:10 man over 3k.  Meanwhile, the other preps to watch are both New Yorkers.  Tyler Ranke (Hilton senior) and John McCarthy (Corning senior) were 1-2 at the state meet with a US#1-3 times of 9:11.24 and 9:12.10 for 3kST.  They then finished 2nd and 3rd to Roth at the NBNO 2kST at 5:51 and 5:55.

10,000m racewalk

All six finishers from last year’s USATF Junior meet in this event have returned, so the key players will be plenty familiar to fans who come out to Hayward Friday morning to watch.  Local star Nathaniel Roberts of Bowerman AC and Alexander Peters of the Elgin Sharks produced a memorable finish, with Roberts kicking home to win by less than two seconds in 52:06.97 – in less than ideal conditions in Des Moines.  Peters’ twin brother Anthony was a minute back in 3rd, while Geraldo Flores (Unattached), Andy Vasquez (Cornhusker Flyers) and Spencer Dunn (Unattached) took the next three spots.

Things have changed.  Anthony has been the faster Peters twin this year, improving to 45:54.0 as they finish up their senior year at Barlett, IL, while Alex hasn’t broken 50.  Roberts (Salem, OR senior) is entered at 47:43.0 and Cameron Haught – a frosh talent at Yellow Springs, OH – has walked 48:36.0.  Dunn has not broken 50, but he was the NBNO champ over a mile three weeks ago.

Photos (from top right; all by Walter Pinion except where indicated):
* Trentavis Friday winning the NBNO 200
* The 2-3-4 finishers in the NBNO 800, Joe White, Myles Marshall and Derek Holdsworth
* Conner Mantz winning NBNI 5k (photo from NBNationals.com)
* Isaiah Moore winning NBNO 110H
* Bailey Roth winning NBNO 2kST

(previews for women's track, men's and women's field events coming)

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