EUGENE — With Team USATF berths on the line for the World Athletics U20 Championships to be held at Hayward Field later this summer, the USATF U20 Championships Thursday and Friday at the University of Oregon's storied stadium will showcase the top age 19 and under track and field athletes from around the nation.
Olympic 4x400 gold medalist Quincy Wilson, who at the Paris Games in 2024 became the youngest American man ever to earn gold in track and field, leads the field in the men's 400. Wilson has a season best of 45.37i that won the NBIN indoor meet in March, and he clocked 44.10 last year to sit at No. 3 on the all-time U.S. U20 performer list.
The men's sprints will be hotly contested with the likes of Texans Tate Taylor and Dillon Mitchell. Taylor ran the fastest 100 time ever by an American U20 athlete, a 9.92 last year to win the Texas high school state meet. He also clocked a blazing 19.97 in the 200 at the USATF Lone Star Grand Prix earlier this month to place second, bettering the national prep record held by Noah Lyles.
Mitchell, 16, won this year's Texas state 100 title in a windy 9.92 and has a legal 10.10 from the Texas Relays. One other speedy Texan to keep an eye on is Blake Hamilton, a 20.27 performer who had a wind-aided 19.86 to take the state title.
Sprint prowess isn't limited to the men's competition, though, as twin sisters Mariah and Mia Maxwell will present double trouble for their challengers in the women's 100 and 200. Mia won the high school dash at the USATF Lone Star Grand Prix and has a PB of 11.04 from winning last year's Texas high school title, while Mariah tops the 200 rankings with a 22.44 at the Florida Tom Jones Memorial meet. Mia won the USATF U20 200 last year and earned silver in the 100, while Mariah took silver in the 200 and bronze in the 100.
New Jersey's Natalie Dumas is a multi-talented athlete who leads the women's 400 entries at 51.14 and the 400 hurdles at 55.69. She also clocked 2:00.11 in the 800 last year. Fellow New Jersey prep star Blair Bartlett won the Nike Indoor Nationals 5000 crown with a swift 15:28.07 and added a Penn Relays high school 3000 gold in 9:04.92
Bartlett will be up against Florida State's Rylee Blade in both races. Blade bettered the women's U20 American record in the 10,000 at last weekend's NCAA Championships, and she will drop down in distance here as the meet records in both events look to be in grave danger.
Oregon's Bodey Lutes moved into the men's all-time U.S. U20 top 10 in the 800 with his 1:45.62 in May, and he will go head-to-head with Stefon Dodoo of Texas A&M, a 1:46.17 performer who was sixth in the SEC Championships. Seeking a distance double in the 1500 & 3000, Washington's Owen Powell brings in a PB of 3:36.45 from 2025, a time that placed him at No. 3 on the all-time U.S. U20 performer list. He will be challenged by Michigan's Henry Dixon, who ran 3:38.70 in March at Raleigh. In the 5000, Oregon's Juan Gonzalez is the fastest entrant with an indoor 13:45.55, set in February at Boston.
One of the marquee events will certainly be the men's 110 hurdles, where Georgia's Le'Ezra Brown and Texas State's Ja'Shaun Lloyd will bank on collegiate experience as they take on high school sensations Andrew Jones, Ryan Hainje, and Josh Hamblin. Brown is No. 4 on the all-time world U20 performer list over the 42-inch hurdles at 13.22, with Lloyd at No. 6 from his 13.28 PB.
Since the race will be contested over the 39-inch barriers, three inches shorter that the college highs Brown and Lloyd have been used to, the two collegians will need to make minor technical adjustments. Jones blitzed to Texas state gold and tops the prep list at 13.14, while Hainje won the Indiana state title in 13.16. Hamblin was the Utah prep champion and has a PB of 13.24.
Pole vaulters Jaxon Jerabek and Hannah Grace lead all entrants here. Jerabek raised his PB to 5.56/18-2.75 in May and Grace cleared a PB of 4.54 to place sixth at the NCAA Championships. Other jumping event standouts include Kennesaw State's Gage Voyles, who tops the men's high jump entrants with a PB of 2.27.