Teams coordinated by Fred Baer, founder, Track and Field Writers of America. Girls selections by Mike Kennedy, high school editor of Track and Field News.
Criteria included ranking on USA TODAY and Track and Field News national lists and the number of top performances, along with head-to-head competition during the regular season and in major postseason meets.
Anna Cockrell (Photo: Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports)
MORE:
Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year: Sydney McLaughlin, Union Catholic
Girls Track & Field Coach of the Year: Brian Fitzgerald, Rio Mesa
Long Sprints and Middle Distance
Here are the athletes selected in Hurdles (110, 300, 400). Returning ALL-USA selections are denoted with asterisks (*).
HSR indicates all-time U.S. high school record mark.
WJR indicates World Junior (under age 20) record.
w = wind-aided (more than 2.0 meters a second), over the limit for record purposes.
i = performed indoors.
Hurdles (110, 300, 400)
First Team:
*Anna Cockrell
School: Providence Day (Charlotte, N.C.)
Year: Senior
Times and events: 13.17, 100H; 40.42, 300H; 55.89, 400H.
Alexis Duncan
School: DeSoto, Texas
Year: Senior
Times and events: 13.04, 100H; 41.20, 300H.
*Tia Jones
School: Walton (Marietta, Ga.)
Year: Freshman
Times and events: HSR, WJR, 12.84, 100H.
*Sydney McLaughlin
School: Union Catholic (Scotch Plains, N.J.)
Year: Junior
Times and events: HSR, WJR 54.15, 400H; 51.84i, 400.
TRACKINGS: The USA’s strongest women’s event on the world’s stage is the 100 hurdles. Freshman Jones ran 12.84 to smash the high school 100 hurdles record in the semifinals at the USATF Junior Championships but then finished second in the finals to Duncan’s 13.04 (No. 6 all-time) – with both making the U.S. team for the IAAF World Junior Championships.
McLaughlin, in addition to her 400 hurdle records described above, had the fastest 400 meter time this year, 51.84, run indoors.
Cockrell was the best combo hurdler, with bests of 13.17 (100 hurdles) that ranks equal-tenth on the all-time high school list and 55.89 (400 hurdles) to rank No. 4 all-time in finishing second to McLaughlin at the Junior Nationals. Cockrell also chased McLaughlin through to the Olympics Trials semfinals.
–In any other year Chanel Brissett, who ran 12.95 at the Olympic Trials to rank co-No. 3 all-time in the 100 hurdles, would have been a first team All-USA selection. She had to settle for the second team, however, in this, her junior season at Cheltenham (Wyncote, Pa.).
Second Team:
Chanel Brissett
School: Cheltenham (Wyncote, Pa.)
Year: Junior
Times and events: 12.95, 100H.
Brandee’ Johnson
School: Nansemond River (Suffolk, Va.)
Year: Senior
Times and events: 13.08, 100H; 56.15, 400H.