ANOTHER POTENTIAL NCAA champion hurdler has been climbing the ranks at Kentucky. “Hurdle U” has been the collegiate home of the likes of Keni Harrison, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Masai Russell, among others.
In March 2025, Illinois native Emmi Scales was starting her soph spring in Lexington, with her high school 13.51 best but yet to run a collegiate 100 hurdles race. A foot injury — a stress fracture in her navicular bone that required surgery — had ended her frosh outdoor season in ‘24 almost before it began.
It’s hard to believe that just 15 months later, she entered the NCAA East Regional last weekend in Lexington with an NCAA-leading 12.64 PR. The junior backed it up, running 12.69 in both rounds, leading all qualifiers to Eugene.
Did Scales feel any pressure, being the No. 1 seed on her home track?
“I think I had a target on my back most of indoor, so I’d kind of gotten used to the feeling,” she says. “But I’m trying not to pay too much attention to the pressure because I think it’s a bit unnecessary, and I think it takes away from just a really healthy and positive mindset… The goal was to advance, and that’s what I was able to do.”
Scales first discovered her natural speed at “7 or 8” while tagging along with her big brother to his youth football practice. “One day my dad was just like, ‘Hey, they’re about to do their sprints. Do you wanna hop in and race them?’ I was like, ‘Yeah!’ And I beat all of them.
“The boys hated it when I went to race with them at the end of practice,” she added with a grin, noting they were all a bit older. “My dad was like, ‘OK, let’s put her in track.’”
Sprinting led to hurdling and a few years later, she joined the Flippen Flyers TC. But after her soph year at St. Viator (Arlington Heights), she joined TNT T&F Academy. She ran 14.61 that summer. She gives a lot of credit to her TNT coach Brandon Stryganek and Flyers coach Josh Bostic for her development on and off the track. “They helped me keep my faith strong and grow in that aspect as well, which was really important and very helpful.”
Scales got down to 14.01 the next spring in ‘22 (winning her first state title), then 13.51 that July. “That gave me a lot more confidence going into the recruiting process.”
Scales had her eye on Kentucky and Coach Lonnie Greene since the end of middle school, then later as she followed Russell and other athletes on social media. “I was like, ‘I want to go where she’s at. That looks great.’ Kentucky was the first school that I started with for recruiting and then the rest was history.”
Scales started well her frosh year indoors — but then came the injury. “I was definitely discouraged, but I realized that most athletes have had at least one significant injury in their careers, and it was all part of the plan. So I just trusted the healing process, just learning to listen to my body better and taking my time to get back.”
That happened slowly at first, during her soph indoor campaign, with times just off where they’d been 12 months earlier. But outdoors, Scales exploded off the block to two massive PRs: 13.23 at Texas Relays and 13.06 at the Click Shootout in Arizona.
“I was happy to see improvement, especially after injury that can shake up your confidence a bit,” she says, “but I still wasn’t satisfied with what I was seeing. I wanted more.”
She was 4th at SECs (13.00) and the East Regional (12.93), then a non-advancing 13.01 in the ’25 NCAA semis.
The “more” that she wanted began to manifest this past winter, as she pushed under 8 seconds (7.83) in the 60H and took 4th at nationals. This spring, Scales opened with 12.75, then 12.68 for 3rd at home behind training partner Russell. Her 12.64 to win SECs followed and set her up for the road to Eugene.
It would be easy for a young collegian, training alongside Olympic gold medalists and World Record holders, to experience pressure, impatience or make unrealistic comparisons.
But Scales can’t say enough about Russell and Devynne Charlton. “They are so much help off the track, just as much as they are on. Especially with the mental stuff, handling the pressure and noise when it gets too loud, they have been through that. Just being able to confide in and receive advice from them has been really helpful.
“We have such a nice friendship, and I try and be a student of the sport, so whenever I watch them, I learn a lot. That’s the best part. But they’re so fun to work with and make my days brighter.”
She also wants to thank Greene and her club coaches, for “how mentally tough I am right now. I think that’s because they never let me think that I’m not good enough.”
Having seen defending NCAA champ Aaliyah McCormack’s 12.44 in the West Regional “definitely gives me a lot of motivation,” Scales says. “But my main focus is just being the best version of myself and bringing that version of myself to nationals.”
It helps that Scales knows Russell had been a great, but not all-time great prep hurdler — like herself — and didn’t really break through until the year before Paris, her college senior year in ’23, when she suddenly improved from 12.71 to 12.36.
“I think that’s inspiring, and maybe brings a sense of comfort. Like, everything doesn’t need to happen right now,” she says. “Delay doesn’t mean denial. With God’s plan, I believe whatever I’m meant to have will come at the perfect time. If it’s not this year, it might be next year.
“When the right time happens, when the right time comes, I’ll achieve my goals.”
