Hit, Bust, or Push?
10. Will Any Relay Records Get Broken?
I'm calling this one a hit for sure. And it was clearly too low on my list and I expect it to get bumped up in my final ranking. We saw state records fall in the girls 4x1, girls 4x2, boys 4x2, and boys 4x16 with close calls in the girls 4x4, boys 4x1, and boys 4x8. The only real knock against me here is that I didn't foresee just how good Druid Hills would be, but we can chalk that up to relays being more unpredictable than individual events. I was mostly relying on how deep the sprints were this year and that certainly turned out to be true.
9. Who Will Win 6A girls distance?
I'm going to go ahead and call this one a push. I don't think anybody is arguing with me that 3 of the best girl distance runners in the state were in 6A last year. But I certainly didn't predict Claire Petersen from Blessed Trinity to be the superstar of the group winning 3 state titles and going #4 all time in the 1600. I do get credit for mentioning her at least as a threat, but I'm lying to you if I say I expected her to be that incredible this year. Kudos to her for winning against some tough competition. Also shout out to Josie Hutchinson from Pope for being runner up at state in both races and running a 4:50 full mile at the City games, clearly showing her incredible talent too.
8. Which Girls Jump Record Is Most Likely to Go down?
I think I'm going with push again on this one. You could argue that it was a hit as Marley Derringer from Bremen was 1/4 of an inch away from the state record in the high jump, but I also didn't list her in my original article as she made a huge jump (haha, get it?) in that event this year. We also saw Ava Kitchings go 7th all time in the Long Jump, Danah Nembhard go 9th all time in the Triple Jump, and Madison Townsend go 5th all time in the pole vault. All three got a preseason mention. And if any of those girls had been a little closer to the record (or broken it), I would call this a hit. But I think I gotta stick with Push here. Fortunately 3/4 of the girls return next year, so this storyline will probably be bigger then.
7. Will Frederick or Davis be Queen of the Sprints?
I think I should get credit here and call this one a hit as both girls won individual state titles. I think the answer to the question is Sanaa Frederick gets the title of queen having won the 100 and 200 in the fastest times at state in any classification. But Ryan Davis was no slouch either. Sure, Sole Frederick and Somto Igwilo threw their names in the hat here and could be argued as one of the best, but I think Sanaa stands ever so slightly above the rest. Olivia Harris deserves some recognition for her ridiculously impressive freshman 400m season, but in general the 100m is the glamour event not only in the sprints, but in all of track and field.
6. What Will Nicolas Crosswhite do this year?
I think I have no choice but to label this one as my first bust in terms of prediction. But before you go and slander one of the best athletes in the state, remember that I am by no means calling Nicolas Crosswhite himself a bust. He is after all going to the University of Florida because he's a superstar in the HJ, LJ, TJ, and 110 hurdles. He's amazing. But my prediction turned out to be a bust because I just kind of saw him as the dominant figure in 3/4 of his events and borderline untouchable. And that was me not giving enough credit to guys like Luke Stradley from Etowah who went #3 all time in the long jump this year and Malachi Yehudah from Langston Hughes who went #9 all time in the high jump this year. Stradley was able to take two of the state titles in the jumps while Crosswhite was only able to win in the triple jump while taking 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd I his other three events. I think he was just spread too thin when the competition was too tough.
This is either a hit or a push and I'm leaning towards a hit since he did break his own state record. The problem is that he got beat in the process. Ervin Pearson ran possibly the most epic race in state history to not only beat Sidi Njie in the 400m at state, but also steal the state record from him. Sidi went on to win Gatorade athlete of the year and won the U20 400m title, so his body of work for the whole season certainly lived up to the hype. So despite the one race that got away, as important as it was, I'm still gonna call this one a hit.
4. Will Tommy Latham Break the 4:00 Mile?
This one is definitely a hit considering the ATC set up a race specifically designed to help Latham achieve this task as we all knew how close he came in his solo 4:01 at state, which was probably the best race I've ever seen him run. Ultimately Latham came up just short of the 4:00 barrier this year, but still broke 3 state records in the process. And he's only a junior. It's gonna be hard to not label this one as the top storyline for next year's track season.
3. Will we see a sub 40 in the girls 300m hurdles?
Hit. Hands down without a doubt, this was a hit - and there's nothing in life I enjoy more than being right. If there is ever a time for me to toot my own horn in my predictions, this is it. This prediction was BOLD. Sub 40 is insane. Jasmine Robinson became only the 3rd girl EVER to dip under 40 seconds for the 300m hurdles. And she's only a sophomore. And she's not even guaranteed to be the best 300m hurdler in the state next year. This event is wild in Georgia right now. And as unthinkable as her performance at state was, she still accomplished something that seemed like a major stretch to predict before the season. This is the top story of the year, I think.
2. How fast can Conner and Awoleye run?
I think it's fair to call this one a hit. The big storyline here is that two of the best 800m runners in state history were going to compete at the 6A state meet this year. And then they both ran their PR's at state. Oluwatosin Awoleye is #2 all time and Kenyah Conner is #6 all time. Ladies, take a bow. That was something special to watch.
1. Will Georgia see it's first ever sub 10?
No way to look at this one other than a bust. Nothing against Maurice Gleaton who still owns the state record and had an incredible season winning 3 state titles and 2 national titles. But unfortunately his main rival opted for spring football instead of track. So this rivalry that I was hoping to see never came close to developing. And I can't blame anybody for choosing football over track. I bet the money is great. It always makes me laugh when I see trolls on letsrun complain about paying a couple hundred bucks a year to watch track and field when they're willing to shell out thousands of dollars to watch their favorite college football team. What are you gonna do?
So for those who haven't been keeping score, that's 6 hits, 2 pushes, and 2 busts. I think that's decent enough in terms of trying to predict the major stories from an entire season with thousands of athletes and 18 different events. But now, on to the misses.