Through two days at the West Texas AAU National Qualifier Meet, athletes from all around the local area are blazing a path for themselves to nationals with their performances.
Thursday kicked things off with the preliminaries for the 100-meter dash but also featured distance races and field events.
Tyler Madison of Arlington posted the fastest time of the competition so far with a 11.29 seconds, winning the 15-16 division prelims by just under four-tenths of a second.
Harvey Scott IV and Terris Banks finished second and third respectively in that division, and will look to find that time back in Saturday’s finals.
On the girls side, Norah Nwonumah of Arlington set the fastest time with an 12.28, winning the 15-16 division prelims by over seven-tenths of a second.
In the 17-18 division, Anna Hudson of Miami edged out Midland’s Brielle Bracken to take the win in the prelim by just eight-hundreths of a second in the closest race of the meet so far.
Friday’s competition consisted of a variety of field events, as well as a few competitors braving the pentathlon and heptathlon.
Among the most dominant athletes was Midland’s Kyen Purser, who won 15-16-year-old division of both the discus throw and the shot put.
His discus throw of 42.52 meters on Thursday was the best in any age division, not just his own.
The same was true for Friday’s 14.85-meter shot put throw, which the incoming Midland Greenwood sophomore was particularly pleased with after Friday’s competition.
The boys 8-and-under long jump saw Princeton Henry of Abilene take the win with a jump of 3.43-meters, while Odessa’s Jalyn Bishop finished just behind with a jump of 3.41.
Abilene’s Cash Henry, who also won his division in the 100-meter dash prelims on Thursday, won the 10-year-old division of the long jump with a leap of 4.51m.
With his ticket punched to nationals for the long jump, Henry will look to secure his spot in the 100-meters in Saturday’s final.
Odessa’s Caleb Cruz was the only competitor to brave the pentathlon on Friday, which has an athlete compete in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump and 1500-meter race consecutively.
Cruz also competed in the individual long jump event, finishing second to Brayden Henry of Abilene, who had a leap of 5.96-meters.
With the first two days of the West Texas AAU National Qualifier Meet finished, Saturday looks set for a thrilling finale.
The final day will feature the finals of the 100m dash, both the 400-meters and 1600-meter relays, and all of the hurdles competitions.
The action will kick off at 7:30 a.m. inside Ratliff Stadium.
Follow Nicholas Pursley on Twitter @nicholaspursley.
