This year we are highlighting the top NBNO commitments each week leading up to the championships on June 19-21.  

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By Steve Underwood of the NSAF

Myles Marshall – Will summer be huge again?
In 2014, Myles Marshall had a terrific time leading Humble Kingwood to the 5A Texas state championship, but the fun was only just beginning.  NBNO was a transitional point for the son of 1980s half-mile stars John Marshall and Debbie Grant.  He didn’t win the 800 in Greensboro, but broke 1:50 for the first time with a 3rd-place 1:49.24.  A few weeks later in Eugene, he blasted a US#2 1:48.43 that earned him a spot on the U.S. World Junior team.  Then finally in August – long after most American preps have put the outdoor season to bed – he rolled to a Youth Olympic 800 title in Nanjing, China.

Marshall will again be on the line in Greensboro and the question is, can he call up the post-season magic again?  Kingwood didn’t win a state title this year, and Marshall hasn’t even broken 1:51 yet.  But he did take the 800 again that 2nd weekend in May, his 3rd straight in 5A/6A, and lowered his 400 PR significantly to 46.93 in taking 5th.  He continued to be part of one of the nation’s best 4x4s.  In a post-meet interview in Austin, Marshall shrugged off his less-than-stellar 800 times to date and stated simply that he planned to be in top form in June and July, with an NBNO crown to chase and a Pan Am Junior team to make.  Given his history of rising to the occasion, it’d be foolhardy to write him off.

Willie Morrison – NBN sweep is on the table
As 2015 dawned, one thing prep throws fans were looking for was the next big boys’ shot putter.  No one entered the year with creds beyond 65-6 and it’d been a few years since anyone had hit 70.  But Willie Morrison, a Leavensworth, KS senior was up for the chase and the winter shot put scene.  He hit 66-4 in January, then 67-4 in February and held the national lead for nearly the entire winter.  When he got to NBNI, he was faced with the rest of the country’s best, but his 66-5.25 was enough to win by two feet.  Morrison had come in to the season carrying a 64-6.5 best for 2014, without significant creds beyond JO competition.

Morrison has been passed on the national list outdoors by Californian Matt Katnik, a very consistent 70- to 72-footer who has a best of 72-3.  But the Kansan has kept progressing.  He hit 68-9 in April, then US#2 69-4.5 at his state champs.  Now one of Morrison’s goals entering his senior year was to go after the marks set by fellow Kansan Kord Ferguson in 2014, particularly the discus.  He hasn’t gotten that (he has a 193-9 best), but he’s bettered Ferguson’s shot marks.  At Great Southwest last weekend, Morrison beat the Davis twins in the shot with a winning 68-6.5, while also getting 2nd in the discus.  Not a bad tuneup for Greensboro, where he’ll go to become the 3rd straight NBN indoor/outdoor shot put winner.

Norman Grimes: Rising again after appendectomy
Although Norman Grimes had an outstanding 2014 as a Canyon, TX soph – hitting bests of 13.89w and 14.19 for 110H and taking 3rd in the Texas 5A state meet 300H at 36.73 – he didn’t really have a high national profile.  That changed pretty fast in the mid-January Arkansas Invitational as Grimes blasted a very strong 21.46 200, 8.06 60H double –both high on the national list at the time.  He would follow it up with more fast times in Texas and New Mexico, suggest NBNI hurdle and/or long sprint medal stand possibilties.  At NBNI, however, he was just just 6th in the 200 and didn’t make the 60H final.  Two weeks after his experience in New York, however, Grimes had his best performance of the year, winning an epic Texas Relays 300H in 36.10 – a time that still stands as US#1 nearly 2-1/2 months later. 

A strange thing shortly thereafter, however, something that very, very few prep track athletes ever have to go through.  Grimes’ appendix became several inflamed and came reasonably close to rupturing.  He had to miss two weeks of training entirely leading up to his district meet.  He managed to get through and qualify for the 6A state meet in the 300H, where he captured the title – still less than 100 percent – in 36.35.  He missed qualifying in the 110H, where he also PR’d at the Texas Relays with a 3rd-place 13.78.  At Great Southwest three weeks later, however, Grimes got some redemption in the shorter event, triumphing in a PR 13.71.  This week with Team NSAF in Cuba, he’s expected to try 400H for the first time, then hopes to come to Greensboro as a strong contender to win one or both events over the sticks.

Sammy Watson: Young 800 star breaking out
Summer track can be a time for surprising improvement for some prep athletes who may not have emerged on the national radar during the winter or spring high school seasons.  Some pundits stop following these kids in June, but many times – especially with a good club coach, good timing and good competition – they can get huge PRs in USATF or AAU Junior Olympic competition.  Such was the case last summer for Sammy Watson.  As a Rush-Henrietta, NY frosh, she certainly had a fine campaign, running a 2:15.99 800 outdoors after 57.29 (400), 1:36.61 (600) and 2:58.44 (1k) indoors.  But it was at USATF JOs (15-16) that she ripped a 2:06.35 that had folks around the country going, “Huh? Who was that?”  The mark wound up US#10 and fans were excited to see what Watson would do as a soph.

The answer has been: Almost whatever she wants.  Indoors, she had a monster 2:47.27 1k at the Armory Invite that would stand as US#1 the rest of the season.  Then she capped off the winter at NBNI with a 2:06 anchor on a national-record-setting sprint medley relay, then a 2:08.13 triumph in the individual four-lapper.  Outdoors, she hasn’t had that real killer 800 yet, though she has run 2:07.86.  But she’s also hammered her 400 time down, all the way to US#4 53.08 as she completed a Section 5 sweep in the 400/800.  At NBNO, look for her again in the 800 and the SMR … but first, she’ll race in the nation’s final state meet this weekend in New York.

Anna Cockrell – NBNI a stepping stone
The “rounds” in sprints or hurdles are usually a time for the elite athlete to get through with no drama, no maximum efforts and to prepare for the best possible final.  But every now and then you have the case of someone like Anna Cockrell.  Already a strong medal stand prospect in the 60H at NBNI in March, Cockrell used the rounds to twice smash her previous 8.42 PR, hitting 8.35 and 8.32.  And in case anyone wondered if she’d used it all up for the final, she blasted a US#2 8.21 for the runner-up spot and moved into the event’s all-time top 5.

Cockrell, now a Providence Day, NC junior, had pretty good creds coming into 2015 anyway, having run 13.46 (3rd) and 59.69 (4th) for 110H/400H at NBNO the previous June.  But at the Armory experience transformed her.  Still, as was the case indoor, Cockrell has had to work through a bit of a plateau outdoors, staying in the 13.4 range for awhile as she moved through the season won her NCISAA titles in May.  But at a “tuneup” meet last weekend in N.C., she broke through again with a scintillating 13.21 100H that is just .04 off the national lead, and came close to breaking a minute again at 400H.  She’s in Cuba with Team NSAF this weekend and could be the one to take it all after that at NBNO – especially in the shorter race.

Haley Showalter: Hoping for hammer redemption
The NBNO experience did not leave a great taste in Haley Showalter’s mouth in 2014.  Coming in as the national hammer leader at 193-4, she was beaten by rival Sabrina Gaitan and did not fare particularly well in the discus, either.  What would be a late-season struggle with consistency started at Great Southwest, where she hit the above-mentioned US#1 HT, but was just 3rd in the discus where she’d hoped to double.  After NBNO, she won the USA Junior hammer title, but didn’t not make it out of prelims – or even get a mark – at Worlds.

Fast-forward to 2015:  Showalter, now a senior at Valor Christian, CO, seems to have solved her consistency issues.  She defended her weight throw title at Simplot indoors to get things rolling, then got in some solid hammer marks in college/open meets in the spring.  Then in her return trip to GSW, she did get that hammer/discus double she’d sought the year before, throwing a US#1 191-0 and then 150-7 in poor wind conditions.  NBNO will be the litmus test, but anyone watching Showalter recently can see the maturity that often comes with that final prep season and she will be very, very tough to beat in Greensboro.

Make sure to check out NBNationals.com and NationalScholastic.org often for new updates and make sure to tune in to NBNationals.com on June 19-21 to watch all the action LIVE!