1. Virginia
The best state meet of the weekend has so many narrative threads and so much historic potential that you need to go through MileStat's enormous preview. Here's a bite-sized look at the weekend from a national perspective.
Boys
Grant Holloway might be the best athlete in the country; if he scores fifty points at this weekend's Virginia state championship, he definitely is. Holloway is entered in the brutal quintuple of the long jump, high jump, 55 hurdles, 55, and 500. Here are his chances in each event:
Long jump: His 25-11.5 jump last month is #3 all-time, the best in twenty-seven years, and would be #6 in the NCAA right now. Count it.
High jump: He's VA #1 by an inch and US #4, and he might only have to take one jump. Count it.
55 hurdles: He's US #1 and the top seed by over a tenth of a second. That's a whopping margin in a race this short.
55: This where it starts to get sticky. Yes, Holloway is US #1, but Josephus Lyles is #3 and Noah is #4 in the country. The Lyleses are attempting a slightly less ambitious/insane weekend--both are in the 55 and 300, Josephus is in the 500, and Noah is running the relays--and their fresh legs could give them an edge over Holloway here. The 55 is probably the race of the weekend, as it's the only event where both Lyleses and Holloway are all entered.
500: Holloway's well outside of his comfort zone here, but he's clearly been prepping himself for longer races for a while. He ran an outdoor 800 last year--in 2:05--and he ran a 1000 in January. He's ranked VA #1/US #2 in the event, but Josephus Lyles and Titus Jeffries are entered too, and have significantly faster career bests in the event. Holloway's PB is 64.41 from December; Jeffries and J. Lyles have both gone in the 63s. (Lyles and Jeffries ran to a dead heat in the 500 last week) If Holloway wins this race, it will be the most impressive part of a staggering quintuple.
A Holloway-centric preview is unfair to the Lyles brothers, who might be the two best sprinters in the country. One of them will almost certainly win the 300, in which they're both entered; Noah ranks US #1 and Josephus #2.
In the distance races, US #1 1K runner Sean McGorty will attempt the 1600/1K double. He'll be tested by Foot Locker qualifiers Jonathan Lomogda in the 1600 and Waleed Suliman in both events.
Girls
Three US #1 athletes are entered in the meet.
1. Titiana Marsh is the national leader in the triple jump and US #4 in the long jump, and as Nolan Jez explains in his titanic preview, she's on the cusp of history. Marsh's season bests are three-quarters of an inch short of the long jump state record, four inches from the triple jump sophomore national record, and four and three-quarters inches shy of the long jump sophomore national record. Those marks are 20-1.75, 42-0.25, and 20-5.75, respectively.
2. Mile national leader (and US #9 all-time in the event) Kate Murphy is entered in the 1600 and 3200. Can she break 4:40 in the 1600? What's she capable of in the 3200? She hasn't run a race longer than a mile since running a 10:38 3200 a week after NXN.
3. 500m national leader Brandee' Johnson is entered in the 55, 500, and 55 hurdles (in which she's US #2). We featured her win last Saturday over Tonea Marshall as one of the upsets of the week, but if she beats VA #1/US #12 Lauryn Ghee in the 55 this week, it'd be hard to call that an upset.