Va.’s fastest sprinter, Noah Lyles, running in Newport News this weekend
Fred Jeter | 6/3/2016, 12:32 p.m.
Track fans have one last chance to see in person the fastest sprinter in Virginia High School League history.
Noah Lyles, a 5-foot-9 senior at Alexandria’s T.C. Williams High School, is the favorite to win 100-meter dash at this weekend’s state Division 6A meet at Todd Stadium in Newport News.
The boys’ 100-meter trials are 3 p.m. Friday, June 3, with the finals at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, June 4.
Lyles ran the fastest 100 meters in Virginia history last week with 10.14 seconds (fully-automatic clocking) at the 6A Northern Regional at Robinson High School in Fairfax. The previous record of 10.31 was set in 2013 by Mustaqeem Williams of Forest Park High School in Woodbridge. Williams now runs for the University of Tennessee.
Lyles also has the fastest 200-meter time — 20.18 seconds — in state annals, recorded last year as a junior.
Both Lyles and his brother, Josephus, also a T.C. Williams High senior, have signed scholarship offers to compete for the University of Florida. Before enrolling at Gainesville, however, they will compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore., July 1 through 10.
Speed is a family trademark. Josephus Lyles has the second fastest 400-meter record in state history and the fourth fastest 200-meter record, behind only his brother; Williams, 20.64; and LaShawn Merritt, 20.69, of Portsmouth’s Woodrow Wilson High School.
Josephus, who did not run in the regionals because of an injury, has bests of 45.46 seconds for the 400 and 20.73 seconds for the 200.
The fastest 400 meters in Virginia history — a blistering 45.24 — was set in 2004 by Merritt, who went on to win two gold medals (400 meters and 1,600-meter relay) at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
In 1972, Ronnie Ray of Newport News’ Ferguson High School set what was then a national record of 45.74 in the 400.
The Lyles brothers are the sons of Keisha Lane and Kevin Lyles, who qualified for the 1996 Olympics in the 400 meters.
Both Noah and Josephus Lyles have global reputations, having competed in Cuba, the Ukraine, China, Canada and Colombia.