Daniel James is still learning the sport. You can tell just watching him go over the hurdles that he's still working on his technique. The McEachern hurdler is only a sophomore, so he's allowed some ups and downs in the sport. And he clearly is better than most. He currently ranks 4th in the state among sophomores in the 110m hurdles and 11th in the 300m hurdles. But he's also a pretty solid traditional sprinter/jumper as he ranks 16th among sophomores in the long jump and 37th in the 100m. It may be a little early for him to score at state this year, but maybe not. He's still new enough that he should improve as we approach April and May.
Last year he started out just as a sprinter doing the Long Jump and 100 in February. Solid performances of 19-10 and 11.67 started off his high school campaign, something any coach would be excited about. He likely ran some relay meets after that as he doesn't have any more performances until late March. But what's really cool to see is that he was also willing to try the 400 and the 800 as a freshman. It wasn't until April that we saw what he could do in the hurdles. He competed at the county meet in both and eventually made it all the way to the sectional meet where he finished in 12th place in the 110 and 14th place in 300 hurdles. Pretty solid for a freshman who ended the year with PR's of 43.28 and 16.48.
Now this year he's picking up right where he left off. He started off the year with a long jump PR of 20-9.5 and then picked up a new PR in the 300m hurdles where he ran 42.41. He continued with his 100m PR of 11.27 and finally really broke through in the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.82 which was god enough to win the 5th heat out of 6 at the Roswell Relays on Saturday. He also ranks 10th overall in that event in class 7A, which is a dangerous place for him to as he improves as the only sophomore in the top 10 of those rankings. Keep an eye on him as he continues to improve and don't be surprised to see him on the podium in May, especially with the 7A state meet scheduled to take place on his home track. Familiarity can definitely help. And watch out for him in future years, if he keeps working he's on his way to being one of the best in the state. Just watch his race from Roswell where he got better with each and every hurdle he cleared.
