National Scholastic Athletics Foundation

Event-by-event previews for the men's field events at the 2014 USATF Juniors in Eugene (men's track HERE, men's field 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 and 200m dashes

It’s kind of hard to believe that with all of the major sprint showdowns and major post-season meets this year, we still haven’t seen the top two 100-meter girls, Ariana Washington and Kaylin Whitney, face off yet.  This weekend, that will change, and it should be a great showdown with plenty of other athletes in the mix, too.  For awhile, fans wondered if Washington (Long Beach Poly, CA senior) would rise to that level this year.  After her silver (100) and bronze (200) performances at World Youths last summer, she came into 2014 with injury issues and her times were generally .20 to .30 off what she had hit before.  But by the state meet, she got it down to a wind-legal PR of 11.22 to put herself back in the drivers’ seat.  If there’s any questions mark, it’s how she’ll be after a month away from racing.

Meanwhile, the soph prodigy Whitney (East Ridge, FL) has been a force all year, winning 4A state, hitting a PR 11.27 with her adidas Dream 100 victory and also winning at Brooks.  But her slate in Florida has not been without a few losses, thanks to another prime contender who will be here, Teahna Daniels.  The junior 1A state champ from First Academy of Orlando beat Whitney at Golden South and the Florida Relays, and came within .04 at adidas with her PR 11.31.  There are at least three other major threats in the field: Ky Westbrook (Chandler, AZ senior), who was the World Youth champ over Washington last year at 11.33 but has not been below 11.40 this year; Arkansas frosh Regine Williams with an entry time of 11.29; and LSU frosh Jada Martin with an 11.35 mark.

The 200 will also feature prep standouts Washington – US#1 at 22.96 – and Whitney, but with Whitney’s wind-legal best more than a half-second slower than Washington’s, it would seem that matchup isn’t the story.  But then you remember that barely wind-aided 22.80(+2.1w) that the Floridian ran at that Star Athletics sprint meet last month and say, oh yeah … Now it’s true that the tendency is to think of Washington a little more as a long sprinter and Whitney a little more as a dasher, but the reality is that Washington is probably just as good at 100 and that Whitney simply hasn’t competed as much at 200. 

The supporting cast, so to speak, for the 200 is similar to the 100.  Arkansas’ Williams at 23.06 and LSU’s Martin at 23.19 are key contenders.  Daniels is in the field, too, with a 23.68 best.  The other athlete to watch most closely, though, is U. of Iowa’s Brittany Brown.  She was the state runner-up to Washington in 2013 while at Claremont HS, so it will be a renewal of an old rivalry for them.  Brown was a 23.68w/23.78 runner last year, but has improved to 22.95 to earn the top entry mark.

400m dash

For all of Kendall Baisden’s consistent, persistent years of excellence – which yielded 400 times of 54.72 and 53.05 as a 7th and 8th-grader, followed by four straight years in high school with 52-second-plus seasonal bests, and including THREE Team USA berths already achieved through 2013 – she’s never quite been “the best.”  Well, actually, there was the year she did win the USATF Junior 400, with her stunning 52.59 as a freshman, but in 2010 she was too young to make the squad for the Moncton World Juniors.  Since then, she has qualified for the 2011 World Youths, 2012 World Juniors, and 2013 Pan Am Juniors – but there was always a Robin Reynolds or Courtney Okolo ahead of her.

In 2014, there is no one.  Part of the crazy fast and deep Longhorn 400 troops, Baisden ripped a 50.46 PR at the Big 12s behind Okolo (now out of the Jr. ranks) – with the altitude of Lubbock, TX adding a friendly assist.  She leads the World Jr list by .60 over fellow college frosh Shamier Little.  But with Little focusing on the 400H (where she is also dominant), Baisden’s margin over anyone else is 1.22 seconds.  The best non-American sprinter is at 52.28, a time Baisden has beaten five times this year.  She appears truly the best.

That said, what a tough event the 400 is this year for Juniors and certainly one that few current U.S. preps dare to attempt.  Olivia Baker, alone, is representing HS athletes, the Columbia, NJ senior having earned a bronze at the 2013 World Youths.  That’s just one of an avalanche of honors (including the 2014 NBNI and 2013 NBNO 400s) she has won individually and with relays in her prep career.  But with a 2014 best of 53.26 and career PR of 52.71, she will still be hard-pressed to earn even a relay spot.  That’s because the entries also include U. of Miami (Fla.) frosh Shakima Wimbley at 51.68, Tennessee frosh Felecia Majors at 52.65, Ohio State frosh Aaliyah Barnes at 52.70 and South Carolina frosh Precious Holmes at 52.89.  Holmes, by the way – in one of the bright spots of an injury-plagued senior year at Hillhouse, CT – beat Baker in a thrilling 2013 NBNI 400.

800m run

On paper, former NBN in/out double champ Sabrina Southerland is the top seed in the 800, while Olivia Baker is the 5th seed.  But the physical condition and mental readiness of these two and other key players might be a completely different story.  Southerland, whose 2:03.59 at NBNI in 2013 is #2 all-time indoors and who also anchored winning relays at NBNI while at Benjamin Cardozo, NY, hit 2:04.21 as Georgetown frosh – the top 2014 mark among entries – but struggled somewhat at the end of the year.  Whether she can return to form is up in the air.

Meanwhile, the prep to beat is 2012/2014 NBNO 800 champ Raevyn Rogers (Kinkaid School, TX senior) – or at least so it seemed three weeks ago.  Then at the Brooks race, the 2013 World Youth bronze medalist (2:03.22) was just 5th at 2:06.67.  Among those beating her was Rose Christian (Central Kitsap, WA senior), a rising star with a 2:05.84 best.  Preps Sarah Walker (Germantown Friends, PA soph) and Mikaela Smith (Clovis North, CA junior and Youth Olympic Trials champ) have also broken 2:07.  And then there’s collegian Shea Martinez (BYU) with a 2:05.98 entry mark – she anchored the winning 4x8 at 2013 NBNI while with Davis, UT.

Then there’s Baker.  When the chips are down, she has shown the electric ability to produce unreal performances – like in the Penn 4x8 this year as she took Columbia, NJ to a come-from-behind win with her 2:02 split.  But she didn’t rise to the occasion in the same way against Rogers at NBNO.  Her best in an open race is still 2:06, so it will be fascinating to see how she does here and handles the potential 400/800 double.

1,500m run

In this event here, fans wanted – badly – to finally get a matchup between middle-distance running’s “big three” of the past two years: Mary Cain, Alexa Efraimson and Elise Cranny.  They’ll have to settle for two out of three, though, as Cain has unexpectedly opted for the 3,000.  Still, Efraimson and Cranny haven’t raced each other since on the track since the 2013 Portland Track Festival 1,500 more than a year ago (Cranny won) and haven’t raced at all since the 2013 NXN Final last December (Efraimson won).

Both Efraimson and Cranny have compiled stunning 2014 slates despite not meeting up.  The former, a Camas, WA junior, reached new heights indoors with a 9:00.16 3k on the oversized U-W oval and then a 4:32.15 mile at Millrose.  Outdoors, she broke 10:00 in the Arcadia 3,200, surpassed the national 1,600/mile mark and, in her best effort of the year, took 10th in the adidas Grand Prix 1,500 against the pros with a 4:07.05.  That was followed last week by a moderate setback, missing the USATF Senior 1,500 final after a 4:12.89 prelim. 

Cranny (Niwot, CO senior), meanwhile, won the NBNI 800 back in March (as well as the USATF Jr. XC race) and has had outdoor bests of 2:04.81 for 800, 4:10.95 for 1,500 (US#1 until Efraimson’s 4:07) and 10:17.48 for 3,200.  She raced the Prefontaine 1,500 against the pros and hit 4:13.38.  Needless to say, anyone in the Junior 1,500 field beating one of these two would be a monumental upset. 

3,000m run

As folks pondered what Mary Cain would do relative to the World Juniors in 2014, the thinking was that it would be one of two options.  Cain would go for the WJ team in the 1,500 and try and improve on her 6th-place finish from the 2012 World Juniors … or she would forego the meet and just stick to the Senior meet or another plan built around pro-level competition.  No one really imagined the Bronxville, NY grad would opt for the 3,000 at Juniors, an event she hasn’t contested since winter of 2013, but … there you have it.  Of course, in that winter of 2013, she had two epic performances beyond a mile, with a 9:02.10 at U-W for 3k and a 9:38.68 2-mile at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.  Although she will hardly have to run all out to win and make the team here, it will be interesting indeed to see what kind of time she can put up at Worlds.

Who else will join Cain on Team USA?  The best bet is Stephanie Jenks, another prodigal talent who as a Linn-Mar, IA soph this year has a best of 9:24.67 for 3k.  She has also run 4:42 for the mile (2nd at adidas) and 10:06 for the deuce (3rd at Brooks).

5,000m run

You can’t blame the entrants in the women’s 5,000 meters if they feel like the “third wheel” among the distance events here at the WJ Trials.  With the star power of current all-time greats Mary Cain, Alexa Efraimson and Elise Cranny in the 1,500 and 3,000, the fan interest level in the 5k is a bit muted.  But that’s hardly to say there’s not some great talent in the 12-1/2 lap race.

The above-mentioned Jenks, with a 16:37.50 from her runner-up NBNI race, is entered in this as well as the 3k.  Audrey Belf, a Birmingham Seaholm, MI junior, has been as fast as 10:10 for 2 miles (2nd at NBNI) and her debut on the track at this distance could yield a low 16.  She was five seconds behind Jenks at Brooks.  From the collegiate ranks, Maggie Schmaedick, repping the home team Ducks, has a 16:18.24 best.

110m hurdles

The idea of Dior Hall being an underdog in any Youth-, prep- or even Junior-level race in the U.S. would have seemed unfathomable in the last few years.  But such has been the improvement of Kendell Williams as a U. of Georgia frosh that even though Hall has finally beaten her 2011 breakthrough at Great Southwest, she’s looking up to a 12.99 from a peer.  Both, of course, have stellar resumes, too exhaustive to list in full detail here.  Hall (Denver Science and Tech/George Washington, CO senior) first really showed her super talent with that legendary 13.18 as a frosh at Great Southwest, then finally surpassed that with a 13.09 at state in May.  She hasn’t gotten her long-sought-after 12.95 HSR yet, but she did nail it indoors when she rocked a national record 8.11 60H at NBNI.  Another big career highlight was the fastest-ever prep mark over the 30” 100H in taking World Youth silver last summer.  She also made Team USA for World Juniors in 2012, but fell in the final.

Of course, many of Williams’ superlatives have come in the heptathlon – too much to detail here.  But don’t forget that she was World Youth runner-up behind Trinity Wilson in 2011 and that the 100H was the event she really improved dramatically in as a senior at Kell, GA, hitting a US#1 13.23 (though she didn’t face Hall outdoors).  Williams claimed almost too many NBN titles to count, including the 2013 100H crown but also the 100H AND the 400H as a freshman in 2010!  So maybe the 12.99 isn’t so much a surprise as something that’s been a long time coming.

Four others in the field have entered under 13.70, including Chantel Ray (Hampton, VA senior) and Tiana Bonds (Centennial, NV senior).  Bonds was a very close 2nd behind Hall at GSW.

400m hurdles

Shamier Little doesn’t seem like the vengeful type, or one consumed by redemption.  But if she’s been driven by those type of emotions at all in 2014, she’s certainly let her feet do the talking.  In 2012, as a junior at Chicago’s Lindblom Prep, Little won the Junior 400H with a mighty 57.44 and was ranked 3rd in the world going into Barcelona.  But a heartbreaking fall ended her medal chances.  Then in 2013, Little ran the flat 400 at Juniors and seemed a little like someone ready to wrap up her prep career and move on.  Well, as a Texas A&M frosh, she has become a devastating hurdling force, powering through the low 57s, the 56s and finally a jaw-dropping 55.07 to become the NCAA champ.  No Junior globally is within 1.7 seconds of her and she has the world’s top six performances.

But it’s not just Little; the talent of the entries in this event is so great, that it could take 58-something just to make the final and 41-second prep 300H performers might get shut out.  They include the amazing US#1 and NBNO 400H champ Sydney McLaughlin (Union Catholic, NJ frosh), whose 56.89 is faster than all but two juniors in the world, but she is too young to make the team.  Harvard frosh Jade Miller has a 57.22 best; she made the Pan Am Junior team last year when she was the top prep out of Great Oak, CA.  Four others have run under 59 – mostly collegians but also including NBNO runner-up Emma Gallagher (Garden City, NY junior) at 58.87.

But then there’s all the 300H talent that is moving up in distance.  The two girls tied at US#140.90 – Great Southwest champ Tiana Bonds (Centennial, NV senior) and amazing Piedmont Hills, CA frosh Reonna Collier – are both entered.  In fact, any other year without the likes of Sydney McLaughlin, Collier would be the long hurdler the nation would be raving about.  Four others have run between 41.18 and 41.50.  Watching this event unfold from prelims to the final dash to the line in the final will be something to behold.

3k steeplechase

Five college frosh have entry times between 10:23 and 10:35, which could make it a more competitive race that usual in this event.  The top seed is Purdue frosh Hope Schmelzle and there are no prep entries.

10,000m racewalk

Katie Michta walked just 58:15.29 in this race last year for 6th place, trying to come back from a heel injury and then appendicitis.  This year a healthy Michta, with a US#2 52:10.0 best and ranking 1st or 2nd among preps at two other distances, will be tough to beat.  But there’s still Brenda McCollum (Fall River, KS senior), who was 2nd last year and has a 51:55.0 best this year.  Actually, McCollum, Michta, Katharine Newhoff (East Islip, NY junior) at 52:38.0 and Monika Farmer (Connetquot, NY junior) at 53:14.0 all got their bests at a March 30 race and finished in that order.  They are arguably the top contenders in that order.  Holly Lindoe, a Sachem East, NY alum now at Franklin Pierce, qualified in the race with a 15:54.91 3,000 and should be in the mix as well.

Photos (from top right)
* Ariana Washington at last year's World Youth (photo by Joy Kamani)
* Kendall Baisden at 2013 Pan Am Juniors (photo by Joy Kamani)
* Mary Cain at the 2013 World Champs (seniors) (photo by John Nepolitan)
* Shamier Little at the 2012 World Juniors (photo by Joy Kamani)
* Katie Michta at the 2013 USATF JOs (photo by Steve Underwood, courtesy of DyeStat.com)