Stockton St. Mary's senior Jadyn Marshall swept the hurdles at the Arcadia Invitational last spring, running two of the fastest returning athletes in the U.S. (Raymond Tran photo)
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Jadyn Marshall is looking to break some records this year. But some records mean a little bit more to the senior hurdler on the Stockton St. Mary's (SJ) High School track and field team.
One of those would be 13.31 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles. That's the time Jadyn's older brother Jamar ran in the California Interscholastic Federation championships in 2019. Although aided by a 3.3 meters-per-second wind, it was the fastest all-conditions time ever run at the CIF-State Meet.
"One of his goals is to break his brother's State Meet record," St. Mary's coach Myke Lewis said. "His goal is 13.3. I said, 'Don't you want to go 13.2?' 'No, I just want to go 13.3.'
"I'm going to beat you one day, no you're not, back and forth."
Said Jadyn Marshall, "Of course. It gives me bragging rights. Right now, he has bragging rights that he's the fastest in the family.
"We actually bet I think it was $200. He doesn't even believe that I can run a 13.3 this year. He doesn't think I can do that."
(Jamar followed up his State Meet victory running 13.22 with legal wind at the 2019 USTAF U20 Championships, the fastest ever by a CA high school hurdler, and the No. 3 performance all-time.)
Lewis said Jadyn Marshall is entering the season with a clear head. Marshall signed a letter of intent to play football and run track at UCLA during the early signing period. The three-sport standout finished up his basketball season with the Rams in late February.
"He's free to run," Lewis said. "He's already committed to UCLA. This is an opportunity to have no distractions and just go for it."
Lewis confirmed on Thursday that Marshall would open his senior track season running both hurdles events at Saturday's Sacramento State High School Track Classic at Hornet Stadium on the university's campus.
Marshall started with track, football, and basketball at a very young age. He was 5 when he first got into sports.
"My mom and dad got me into football basketball and track early," Marshall said. "Me and my brother got into all of them. We couldn't choose. I used to get last place a lot."
Unlikely as that might seem, it didn't last too long. By the time he discovered the hurdles when he was 9, he was already used to winning.
Oh, and why did he pick up the hurdles? His then-11-year-old brother started it. Call it the family business.
"We're not the fastest 100 runners, or even 200," Jadyn Marshall said. "But you put a hurdle in front of us, and we can outrun anybody in the country."
Marshall enters the 2022 outdoor season as the No. 1 returner in CA in the 110-meter hurdles with a wind-legal 13.76 (1.2). He's No. 2 in CA for all-conditions marks, No. 3 U.S. returner for wind-legal 110s, and No. 6 U.S. all-conditions.
His 36.77 PR in the 300m hurdles ranks as the CA No. 2 returning time and U.S. No. 5. He is one of only seven returning athletes nationwide to have run the 300m hurdles in under 37 seconds.
"People only see the glory," Marshall said recently. "People see the aspirations. We got to this point in our lives because we started working two times harder than anybody else. We weren't satisfied with being No. 2 or No. 3 in the state. We want to be No. 1 in the state, we want to be No. 1 in the country."
Marshall said he and his brother got their work ethic from their parents. Mom Sheree Parker and dad Jamar Marshall Sr. were always working hard around the house.
"My dad and mom both showed me and my brother what hard work looks like," Jadyn said. "A lot of people have things handed to them but my parents worked so hard. My dad worked three jobs. He'll come home from a graveyard shift, come home, and do Doordash every single day. Then get two hours of sleep and go to work at 8. That's just two hours of sleep every night."
This season will be the first full season since 2019, when then-junior Jamar Marshall Jr. won the CIF-State Meet in that 13.31. Jamar Marshall Jr. is now at Arizona State, where he finished fifth at the NCAA championships in the 110 hurdles.
As a freshman, Jadyn qualified in both hurdles for the State Meet. By the end of that season, he ranked eighth in the state in both hurdles with frosh-season PRs of 14.17 (1.2) and 37.59. But we lost the 2020 season to COVID and 2021 was also impacted by the pandemic, with an adjusted schedule, limited competition opportunities, and the second consecutive cancellation of the State Meet.
But Jadyn was able to take the line in 10 meets, including five invitationals and one unofficial championship meet last spring. The highlight was his performance at the California-only Arcadia Invitational where he took both the 110m and 300m hurdles races, running both of those aforementioned PRs.
During the fall football season, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound four-star-rated wide receiver was a multi-purpose threat for the Rams in the mode of San Francisco 49ers star Deebo Samuel, rushing for 982 yards and 11 touchdowns, and catching 29 passes for 563 yards and another five TDs.
For the basketball team, he averaged 9.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.6 steals in 24 games. And now it's track and field season.
Jadyn Marshall will again run at Arcadia (April 8-9), widely recognized as the best high school track meet in the country. He'll point toward the CIF State Meet (May 28-29). But he's also thinking about heading east to the Texas Relays (last weekend in March).
"Me and my brother have been wanting to go to Texas Relays since I was a freshman," Jadyn Marshall said. "We didn't really have the chance because of COVID. I want to go compete with the top people in the country. I know it's going to bring out the best in me."
Said Lewis, "He has a goal that he wants to win the State Meet and be the national high school champion."
And it all starts Saturday.
