FloTrack's 2017 Male High School Athletes Of The Year
FloTrack's 2017 Male High School Athletes Of The Year
FloTrack names the top five male high school athletes for the year 2017
We're nine days away from New Year's Day 2018, so it's time to bombard you — our loyal visitors — with best-of and end-of-year content.
In today's edition, we're going to name the top five U.S.-based male high school track and field athletes of the year.
5. Jordan Geist
In his senior year at Knoch High, Pennsylvania's Jordan Geist showed he was the most versatile and dominant athlete in what was a very strong class of high school throwers. He won New Balance Nationals titles in the hammer throw and shot put, plus earned runner-up honors in the discus.
Geist's bread-and-butter event, of course, is the shot put — in which he emerged victorious versus college freshman at the USATF Jr. Nationals and won gold at the Pan-American Jr. Championships.
Geist didn't quite break the national high school record in the shot put, but he came pretty darn close. His 76-10.5 indoor best ranks No. 2 all-time behind Ryan Crouser's 77-2.75 record from 2011, and Geist owns five of the top 10 all-time indoor marks while Crouser owns just four. Outdoors, Geist stands as the third-best in history behind Mike Carter, whose national record has stood at 81-3.5 since 1979, and Brent Noon, who threw 76-2 in 1990.
4. Anthony Schwartz
American Heritage High School senior Anthony Schwartz makes this list primarily on the basis of one huge, standout performance. He ran a wind-legal 10.15 (+2.0) 100m to win the Pepsi Florida Relays in March and set a new world youth (U18) record. The mark ties him as the sixth-fastest prep in U.S. history with Henry Neal and makes him the second-fastest ever in the junior class behind only Noah Lyles.
An injury kept him from improving the mark or winning the Florida state title, but he came back in late June to win New Balance Nationals Outdoor and place third at USATF Jr. Nationals behind collegiate athletes Maxwell Willis and Cravont Charleston.
Watch this behind-the-scenes Workout Wednesday with Anthony Schwartz:
3. Reed Brown
After months of speculation around who might be the next high school sub-four minute miler, Southlake Carroll High's Reed Brown became the 10th prep to break the storied barrier with a 3:59.3 effort at the St. Louis Festival of Miles. His time ranks No. 4 all-time, ahead of recent sub-four milers Matthew Maton, Grant Fisher, Michael Slagowski, and Lukas Verzbicas, and behind only Alan Webb, Jim Ryun, and Drew Hunter.
The current University of Oregon freshman also won the Texas 3200m state title over rival Sam Worley and placed second in the Brooks PR 800m; he was the 2016 Foot Locker Nationals champion, but technically we're not counting 2016 accomplishments for this list.
Watch Reed Brown's 3:59.3 mile:
2. Tyrese Cooper
You can't get much better than Tyrese Cooper's 2017 indoor track season. The sophomore from Miami Gardens Xpress TC, who attends Miami Norlands High, shattered the national high school record in the 300m with a 32.87 (the prior record was 33.05) and clocked the second-fastest prep marks of all-time in the 400m (46.01) and 500m (1:01.88). Technically, Cooper's mark is a non-altitude record as Elzie Coleman's 45.92 was recorded at altitude in 2004.
He also became the eighth-fastest prep ever in the indoor 200m with a 21.05 mark. During the outdoor season, he set a sophomore class record in the outdoor 200m in 20.51.
In 12 different 200m finals during the outdoor season, Cooper won 11 titles. His only loss was to Christopher Taylor of Jamaica in the Pan-Am Jr. Championships. He was flawless in the 400m, sweeping both events at the New Balance Nationals Indoor and Outdoor Championships as well as the AAU Junior Olympic Games.
Check out this behind-the-scenes look at Tyrese Cooper during the AAU Junior Olympic Games:
1. Mondo Duplantis
Remember the days when it was a big deal for a high school boy to clear 18 feet in the pole vault? That's no longer, thanks to the epic reign of Armand "Mondo" Duplantis, who shattered the world junior record in the event with a 5.90m/19-4.25 clearance at the Texas Relays.
Before that, though, he recorded the first-ever prep clearance over 19 feet at New Balance Nationals Indoor with a monster 5.82m/19-1 national high school record. The senior at Lafayette High in Louisiana now owns the 10 best jumps in U.S. prep history. This summer, the future LSU Tiger won the European U20 Championship, placed fourth at the Prefontaine Classic — his first Diamond League competition — and made the final at the IAAF World Championships, where he placed ninth.
Watch Mondo Duplantis, Prodigy for an inside look at Duplantis:
