“HONESTLY, I JUST DIDN’T WANT to get last,” says Tate Taylor of his first Diamond League experience in Eugene on the 4th of July.
“I was telling myself and telling my coach and telling my dad and even telling some of my representatives at Nike, ‘Man, there’s no way they expect me to come here and win, right?’ Because it’s Prefontaine, we got the Olympic champion, multiple Olympic medalists, right? We got world champions in that race. At the time, the most I’d done was a national championship and I got a couple of national [high school] records.”
But as the 18-year-old Taylor settled into his race routine, his outlook changed ever so significantly. “I definitely didn’t think I could win, but I knew for a fact that I just had to stick to my race model and at the end of the day, the moment I stepped on the track, instead of having the mentality like, man, I’m not gonna be able to win it, I was in a mentality like, OK, God just guide me, carry me through the race and let’s just have fun.”
Taylor’s idea of fun was finishing with a big lead over Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, 19.75–19.93. That left the rest of the field even farther back while destroying his own prep record by 0.19. (Continued below)
“I crossed the line, I started yelling and screaming. I was like, dude, I just won! But more importantly, I just started thanking God and asking Him to allow me to understand and bask in the moment of what just happened because that’s not normal for a high school athlete to beat an Olympic champion, let alone win Prefontaine.”
That moment, as much as any other, cemented Taylor’s selection as our 79th High School Athlete of the Year.
One thing that didn’t surprise him about that race was the time. “I knew I had it in me,” he says. He just thought that one or two of his competitors would run faster. “That would have met more of my expectations of what was going to happen.”
All year, Taylor knew that good things were brewing. He had made the tough decision to not represent his high school, Harlan of San Antonio, for whom he had won the Texas 6A sprint titles as a junior in 20.14 and a HSR 9.92.
“The people in my high school and the people I grew up with, they wanted me to run. All the freshmen, sophomores and juniors that I grew up with running on the team, it was definitely a big decision thinking about them, considering it would have been my last year to run with them.
“Ultimately, I prayed about it, and God gave me the word, so I had to do what was best for me in the time being, and I think it worked out pretty well.”
Instead, the 6-3/168 Taylor trained with the Texas Titans club, working with coach Kevin Schexnayder. Training alongside him was British teen Jake Odey-Jordan, who had run for Archbishop Carroll in Washington, DC, the previous year. Odey-Jordan had transferred to a school in San Antonio and like Taylor, opted to run for the club.
“It was ultimately the best decision for both of us, because we had two 9-point athletes going at it almost every day in practice. On top of him being my training partner, we kind of coached each other in a way. We’d break things down for each other. And that brotherly love carried on throughout the season.”
Odey-Jordan ended the season with PRs of 10.01 and 20.33. Now he trains alongside Taylor at Texas Tech. “We hang out pretty much every day here.”
The sense that they were on the right track came during the indoor season. “I was like, ‘It’s gonna be a pretty good season,’ but then outdoor really kicked off and me and Jake had a real good opener and we were looking good in practice.”
That opener was the Tom Jones Memorial, where Taylor ran 20.05 for his first HSR of the year and Odey-Jordan hit a windy 9.94. A few weeks later, the two raced the 100 in Tokyo against Noah Lyles. Behind the Olympic champion’s 9.95, Taylor ran 10.04 and Odey-Jordan 10.09.
“It just kept getting better. It just got me more and more excited as the season went on.”
At the Lone Star GP, Taylor ran another HSR, 19.97, finishing 2nd to Makanakaishe Charamba’s 19.88.
A double win followed at the USATF U20. Taylor clocked 10.15 and 19.94 (HSR #3). The next day, Odey-Jordan ran 10.01 to beat Taylor (10.10) to the line at Nike Nationals. After that, they both focused on the World U20 Championships 7 weeks later.
“I was freaking super excited for Worlds because I really, really wanted to make a USA team,” he says. Earlier in the season he thought he had a chance to be on the squad for the World Relay Championships. He explains, “Through my understanding in the moment, I thought they didn’t choose me.
“So I was like, this is the last time they’re gonna kind of skip over me. I started to work harder. And when I made the U20 team, I was like, OK, we are climbing the ladder, making it up the ranks. And I was just super ecstatic and excited to put on that USA uniform because it means a lot to me.”
First he won gold in the 100 in 9.94, just off his best time. Two days later he demolished the 200 field with his 19.83. But the race he says he is the proudest of came a day later, the 4 x 100.
“Everybody was so excited,” he recounts. “We had a long week. But we all understood that if we executed exactly what we were supposed to, then it was going to be a pretty good day. So we warmed up, felt ready, felt good. The entire way down there to the call room, all the way to the track, we were just having a good time laughing, right?
“Living it up, just basking and having fun in the moment. That’s such an important thing in track & field because the moment is short, so you’ve got to have as much fun as you can. But just understand what you’re supposed to do and execute.”
They did. Gold medal, 38.16 World Junior Record. “When I tell you that when that time popped up and I saw how excited those guys were, I got excited as well. I’m proud of them and I’m proud of myself.”
The long season finally over, Taylor has settled in Lubbock. What sold him on the Red Raider program was what he calls the “family aspect,” describing the moments his coach’s kids yell at him to run faster, or when the sprinters and jumpers come together to cheer on a thrower who is running sprints.
“And we put in a lot of work, man. We work hard. Everybody kind of holds each other accountable as best as we can, just making sure we’re all getting as much work as we can and being the best on the day.”
Taylor could have very easily gone pro instead. He says, “Honestly, I just wanted the structure from the NCAA… the facilities, the training room, the weight room, and people who genuinely have your best interests at heart. At the end of the day, I just didn’t have the desire to go pro.
“Only time will tell,” he says when he’s asked if he’s in for the full four years. “We’ll see.”
One thing he does know for sure: “The 4×4 is inevitable for me in college. My team will get me hype, the crowd’s gonna get me hype and I know it’s going to be a good time with the boys.”
