A State Meet for the Ages

Anderson's 110 Hurdles mark and Davis' long jump are both official US #1 marks this season, and the other two from the previous slide (Guidry in the 100 and Davis in the 100 Hurdles) are all-conditions national leaders. Those weren't the only top-ranked performances, though, not by a long shot! And, as you might expect, two of those US Top 5 marks were by the stars we've already mentioned: Anderson ran 36.02 US #3 CA #1 in the 300 Hurdles, while Davis finally caught a big triple jump with her 43' 4" US #3 CA #1 (only 1 inch short of the national lead!).

The brilliance extended well beyond those two elite athletes, though. In the discus throw alone there were two new nationally ranked performances: Pamela Amaechi struck first with her 177' 0" US #3 CA #2 throw, and then Ashley Anumba answered with a 177' 8" US #2 CA #1. One other elite field event performance may have gone under the radar due to the Davis fireworks: Nicole Warwick's wind-legal 20' 2.75" long jump is US #5 this season.

Shae Anderson extended the remarkable run of top hurdle performances at this meet, bringing her PR down to 40.31 and her ranking up to US #3. In the same race, Shante Robinson entered the US top 5 by clocking a huge PR of 40.84, almost a second better than her previous all-time best. Zach Shinnick capped his dramatic comeback season with a 46.12 in the 400, which earned him a US #6 ranking so far this season. He left the door open for a potential attempt at sub-46 this summer, but didn't seem 100% committed to the idea, so we'll see where that goes as the rest of the outdoor season unfolds.

The distance runners also got in on the action, especially on the girls' side. Junior Maddy Denner capped her incredible spring season with a dominating 4:44.89 win in the 1600, which brought her all the way up to US #5 at that distance (not including converted miles). Denner also finished 2nd in the 3200 after a patient race, moving up late to run 10:19.18 - outstanding double from a girl who had PR's of 5:01 and 12:09 last year! In the 800, Alyssa Brewer defended her state title and improved to 2:07.02 US #4 in the process.

Things did not go well for Carson on Day 2, mostly due to an apparent injury to Kaelin Roberts. But on Friday, the Colts did set the top 4x100 mark in the state this season at 45.84.