A week after the NCAA Track and Field Championships put a bow on the collegiate season, it was the high schoolers’ turn to close out their careers and showcase the sport’s bright future. New Balance Nationals Outdoors (NBNO) at Franklin Field in Philadelphia and Nike Outdoor Nationals (NON) at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, were held from June 19-22 and featured a healthy dose of future Gators winning titles and dropping fast times.
Sprints
Jayden Horton-Mims added two more national titles to his trophy case in Oregon, winning both the 200 and 400 meters at NON. Mims was the favorite coming in, having won the Nike Indoor (NIN) 400-meter title in both 2024 and 2025 with runner-up 200-meter finishes at each meet to boot.
Weather conditions were far from ideal for the 400-meter final on June 21, with temperatures in the mid-50s and steady rain, but the senior from Philadelphia managed a comfortable win in 45.58 seconds. Olympic gold medalist Quincy Wilson was the only athlete to run faster than Horton-Mims at NBNO, where the conditions were far better. Horton-Mims beat Wilson in their lone head-to-head battle this season, running 45.24 to Wilson’s 45.46 at the East Coast International Showcase on May 3.
With personal bests of 45.24 for 400 meters and 20.36 for 200 meters, also run on May 3, Horton-Mims can make an instant impact for the Gators. His times would have ranked 17th in the 400 and 26th in the 200 in the NCAA this season, respectively, and only one Florida athlete, freshman Jaden Wiley in the 200, ran faster than either of his marks.
In Philadelphia, Ja’Neil Harris produced an impressive double in the 100 and 200 meters, finishing runner-up in both events. Harris is a product of T.W. Andrews High School in High Point, North Carolina, the same high school as recent Florida graduate Jenoah McKiver. He’s one of the most talented sprinters in the nation, having placed fourth in the 60 meters at New Balance Nationals Indoors (NBNI) while also running under 47 seconds for the 400 meters outdoors.
Finishing just behind Harris in both events was Jake Odey-Jordan, a superstar junior who is a part of Florida’s Class of 2026. Odey-Jordan, who came over from the United Kingdom for high school, also anchored a strong Archbishop Carroll 4x200-meter relay squad that took the win in a meet record of 1:23.64.
Jesse Myers, a senior from State College, Pennsylvania, was also a factor in the 200-meter final, finishing seventh in 21.18.
Sydney Sutton had a busy weekend at NBNO. Individually, she finished runner-up in the 400 meter and 400-meter hurdles, coming through the line in 51.23 and 56.04 seconds, respectively. Her time over the hurdles makes her the eighth-fastest high schooler ever, and she now sits just outside the top ten fastest performers in history in the flat race. Sutton’s performances this weekend would already make her the seventh-fastest Gator ever in the 400 meters and fourth-fastest in the 400-meter hurdles.
Her individual accomplishments were just the tip of the iceberg, though, as Sutton led her Bullis School teammates to national championships in the 4x100-, 4x200- and 4x400-meter relays.
Payton Payne, Sutton’s Bullis teammate, ran for both the 4x100- and 4x200-meter squads and finished third place in the 100-meter final. She ran a personal best of 11.39 seconds in the semifinals.
Back at Hayward, Miami Northwestern senior Tyra Cox delivered strong performances across her two races, finishing runner-up in the 200 meters and winning the 4x400-meter relay. Last month, Cox ran 22.99 for 200 meters and 51.44 for 400 meters to win double FHSAA titles. Both of those times would already rank her inside the top ten performers in program history.
Distance
Claire Stegall closed out a decorated career at Nolensville High School, just 20 miles southeast of Nashville, this weekend at NBNO. She ran a personal best of 4:36.89 to finish fourth in one of the deepest mile fields in high school history before coming back the next day to finish eighth in the 800 meters in a time of 2:05.86.
Stegall won 10 Tennessee state titles both on the track and the cross country course and already had earned three top-four finishes at either NBNO or NBNI prior to these championships. Her personal bests in the 800 meters, 1500 meters and indoor mile are all knocking on the door of the Gators’ top ten lists.
Jumps
Entering this year’s NBNO as the defending champion, Gabby Pierre struggled with her worst performance of the season. She finished 12th, jumping 12.12 meters. However, that might have been because just two days earlier, she competed at the U.S. Under-20 Championships, also hosted at Hayward Field in conjunction with NON. She jumped significantly better prior to her cross-country travel, finishing fifth at 12.51 meters.
Pierre, who hails from Sudbury, Massachusetts, brings strong personal bests in both horizontal jumps to Gainesville, owning best marks of 13.11 in the triple jump and 6.00 meters in the long jump, respectively.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney.
Paul is a junior sports journalism major who is covering the track and field beat in his first semester with the Alligator. In his free time, he enjoys watching commentary Youtube channels and consuming every medium of track and field content imaginable.
