New Balance Nationals Outdoor

Welcome to the 2012 New Balance Nationals Outdoor

Another great event took place in June, 2011 at North Carolina A+T U in Greensboro, NC. Once again New Balance was our title sponsor and their presence was felt in many ways, especially with their interaction of the athletes.

Our challenge for 2012 is the conflict with the USATF Junior Championships, a qualifier for the 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships. We will do our best to adjust our schedule so that athletes may have the opportunity to double. That is, allow competition for any one individual at both meets. Once both tentative schedules are available we will publish ours. We hope to have that done by November, 2011.

Keep in mind that many events at the Junior championships are dominated by college freshman. And, though we would never discourage anyone from trying to qualify to represent the U.S., it is probably a good idea for each athlete to take a look at their realistic chances of making the team. The 2012 New Balance Outdoor Nationals again promises to be the highlight of the national high school track and field season.

New Events for 2012

New Championship Events

Swedish Relay (100-200-300-400) - this is the same event as contested a the IAAF World Youth Championships.
Octathlon (boys only - 8th through 11th graders) - a World Youth Development event.

New Emerging Elite Events

Emerging Elite 400m Hurdles
Emerging Elite Hammer

New Freshman Events

Freshman Two Mile
Freshman Long Jump

Olympic Development Events

The weekend of the New Balance Nationals Outdoor is the final weekend to qualify for the Olympic Trials. As such, the meet has incorporated several events so that elite athletes may have the opportunity to do so. They will all take place on Saturday, June 16, 2012, and are as follows:

400m Hurdles, Men and Women
800m, Men
1500m, Women
High Jump, Women
Triple Jump, Men and Women
Pole Vault, Men

Spectacular Performances from 2011

Though we had a rainstorm delay in 2011, and were somewhat hindered by construction of the stadium’s new press box, the meet was once again stellar. Here are some of the outstanding performances:

(USL — US leader; HSR — National HS Record; A-T — all-time)

Boys

200	Sean Mc Lean	Word of God, Raleigh, NC	20.62	USL
800	Austin Mudd	Center Grove, Greenwood, IN	1:48.09	USL
2000m St	Eddie Owens	Packer Collegiate, Brooklyn, NY	5:49.40	USL, #5 A-T
4x800	Poly	Long Beach, CA	7:28.75	HSR
800	Med Smiths Station	Smiths Station, AL	1:29.53	USL, #4 A-T
SMR	Lawrence Central	Indianapolis, IN	3:24.56	USL
DMR	St. Benedict's	Newark, NJ	9:51.97	USL
4x110h	CBA	Lincroft, NJ	59.29	USL
LJ	Joshua Mc Clam	Holly Springs, NC	25-0.5	USL

Girls

400	Kendell Baisen	Detroit Country Day, Bloomfield Hills, MI	52.87	USL
2000m St	Mary Kate Anselmini	Ward Melville, Setauket, NY	6:34.69	USL
2 Mile	Aisling Cuffe	Cornwall	9:54.22	HSR
5000	Wesley Frazier	Ravenscroft, Raleigh, NC	16:24.83	USL
400h	Leah Nugent	Abington, PA	57.72	USL
4x800	Bronxville	Bronxville, NY	8:49.85	USL, #4 A-T
800	Med Withrow	Cincinnati, OH	1:42.69	USL
DMR	Harvard-Westlake	North Hollywood, CA	11:23.23	HSR
SP	Tori Bliss	Portage, IN	50-9.5	USL
Hept	Kendall Williams	Kell, Marietta, GA	5169	soph class rec

See all results

Emerging Elite vs Championship

The Championship races are for those who have made the qualifying standards for those events. The Emerging Elite is for those who have not quite made those standards. The Emerging Elite Division is open to any high school athlete who has made the Emerging Elite standards, whether they be Freshman, Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors.

The idea is that, eventually, an Emerging Elite athlete will join the elite ranks, but has not yet attained that status. We have had this division in place for several years now in the outdoor version of this meet. A prime example is that of Kyle Merber. He won the Emerging Elite mile as a junior in 2007 in 4:15.95 (The championship mile was won in 4:03.33). The next year he was New York State 1600m Champion. And, this year, his Sophomore year at Columbia U, he ran 3:58.62 for a mile! Similarly, Megan Goethals was the Emerging Elite mile champion in 2008 in 4:59.26. In 2009, she became the Foot Locker National Champion in cross-country.