FloTrack's 2017 Female High School Athletes Of The Year
FloTrack's 2017 Female High School Athletes Of The Year
Sydney McLaughlin, Sammy Watson, Tara Davis, Brie Oakley and Alyssa Wilson are the top prep female athletes of the year 2017
We're eight days away from New Year's Day 2018, so it's time to bombard you — our loyal visitors — with best-of and end-of-year content. In today's edition, we're going to name the top five U.S.-based female high school track and field athletes of the year.
5. Alyssa Wilson
New Jersey's Alyssa Wilson set the tone for her senior season back in 2016 when she earned bronze in the shot put at the IAAF World U20 Championships. The future UCLA Bruin not only broke Raven Saunders' national high school record in the outdoor shot put, she decimated it — improving Saunders' 56-8.25 record to 58-1.
Wilson now owns six of the top 10 marks in prep history. Her competition record is nearly pristine: New Balance Nationals titles in discus, indoor, and outdoor shot put; Pan-American Jr. title in the shot put; USATF Jr. title in the hammer throw and USATF Jr. runner-up honors in the shot put.
4. Brie Oakley
In just two years of competitive distance running, Colorado's Brie Oakley made a meteoric rise to the top of the all-time national ranks. In March of 2017, the reigning Nike Cross Nationals champion became the first high school girl to break 16 minutes for the indoor 5K with a solo 15:55.75 — 67 seconds ahead of the runner-up. She doubled back at New Balance Nationals Indoor with a 9:56.06 two-mile win, the third-fastest indoor time for a full two mile behind only Mary Cain and Melody Fairchild.
Outdoors, she got two shots at racing her cross-country rival, the now two-time Foot Locker champion Claudia Lane. Lane took the first win at the Arcadia 3200m in meet record time, 9:57.52 to 9:57.59, but Oakley rose to the occasion at the Brooks PR two mile and trounced the sophomore by 10 seconds — 9:51.35 to 10:01.18, a new national high school record for the outdoor two mile. Only Mary Cain ever ran faster — 9:38.68 before turning pro — but that was indoors.
Watch Inside Look: Brie Oakley's Rise To No. 1
3. Tara Davis
California's Tara Davis, now a Georgia Bulldog, is a triple-threat athlete in the long and triple jumps as well as the short hurdles. Her defining moments this year came in the long jump, where she broke a 36-year-old national high school indoor record with a mark of 6.68m/21-11. She posted five of the top 10 all-time indoor marks in the event; outdoors, she improved to 22-1 wind-legal and 22-3.75 wind-aided, which rank her the third- and second-best performer of all time (the latter mark all-conditions No. 2).
Davis improved her 60m hurdle best to 8.14, which ties with recent stand-outs Alexis Duncan and Chanel Brissett as the fourth-best mark of all-time for a high school girl. Outdoors, the 100m hurdles has become one of the most competitive events for high school girls, but Davis finished the year with the fastest time in the U.S. — 12.95 — as she was the only prep to break 13 seconds. At the state meet, she recorded a wind-aided time of 12.83 (+3.7), which is the fastest all-conditions mark ever recorded for a high school girl.
She won the New Balance Nationals Indoor 60m hurdles and long jump, plus finished second in the triple jump. Davis swept the long and triple jumps and 100m hurdles at the California state meet; she won the long jump at USATF Jrs. and Pan-Am Jrs, plus finished fifth at the USATF senior championships. She won the 100m hurdles at USATF Jrs. and took runner-up honors in the event at Pan-Am Jrs.
2. Sammy Watson
New York's Sammy Watson, now at Texas A&M, put together one of the most impressive indoor track middle distance campaigns of all-time by breaking three national high school records in the 600m, 800m, and 1K. Her time of 1:27.13 in the 600m broke the prior record of 1:28.78, held for the past two years by Kamryn McIntosh; her 1K record of 2:40.72 lowered a 12-year-old record of 2:43.40 set by Sarah Bowman (now Brown); and her 800m record of 2:01.78 edged Mary Decker's 2:01.8 which had stood for 43 years since 1974.
She set the 1K record while competing amongst senior level athletes at the USATF Indoor Championships, where she placed fourth overall.
Outdoors, Watson ran five of the top 10 all-time marks in the 800m and lowered her best mark to 2:00.65, the third-fastest mark ever behind only Mary Cain and Kim Gallagher. She placed sixth in the USATF Outdoor Championships final.
Sammy Watson after competing in her first USATF Outdoor Championships final:
1. Sydney McLaughlin
It must be tough to follow a year in which you made the Olympic team, but Sydney McLaughlin isn't most athletes. The New Jersey native and current University of Kentucky freshman broke two national high school records indoors, running 36.82 for 300m and 51.61 for 400m, and two more outdoors, clocking 38.90 for 300m hurdles and 53.82 for 400m hurdles. She was sixth in the 400m hurdles, her signature event, at the USATF Outdoor Championships.
McLaughlin also delivered several stirring relay performances for her Union Catholic team. In the Penn Relays Championship of America 4x400m, she set a record for the fastest high school girls 400m split in event history with a 50.37 anchor leg for a 3:38.92, third-place finish. At New Balance Nationals Outdoor, she split 49.85 — unofficially, the fastest 400m split ever for a high school girl — to take her team from fourth to first in the Swedish Medley Relay. Union Catholic's final time was 2:05.93, a new national record in the event.
To give some perspective on McLaughlin's 400m split times, Sanya Richards-Ross' national high school record is 50.69. The only collegiate woman to break 50 seconds in an open race is Courtney Okolo, who set the NCAA record in 2016 at 49.71.
Watch Sydney McLaughlin: Prodigy
