Great Southwest: Arman Hall 400 45.59, 21.06; Teray Smith 20.95

Teray Smith (left) and Arman Hall (right) represent Team Florida at the Great Southwest Classic

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I guess Todd goes on vacation for a week and I am totally out of touch! Before my faithful flrunners.com companion left on his week long Caribbean cruise, he said something about Arman Hall and Teray Smith going go "Golden West" (which is this coming weekend). What I failed to realize, until just now, was that they were not going to Golden West in California next weekend... he meant Great Southwest in New Mexico THIS PAST weekend. (I've confused those two races myself on more than one occassion in the past, so I won't give him too much heck about it!)

And boy did they make an impression out there!!!

Very sorry I missed this until now, guys, and very surprised no one tipped me off earlier!

Teray Smith of American Heritage, along with teammate Khari Hebert, teammed up with Arman Hall of St. Thomas Aquinas to form "Team Florida" out there in the desert. They really represented our state well.

Hall, the defending junior world champion at the 400 meter distance, displayed why he is the king of that event in Florida. He won the race by .61 over second place in a new personal best of 45.59 that is the second fastest in the nation for a high schooler this year (behind Olympic hopeful Aldrich Bailey of Texas). Let's put that time into perspective:

  • #2 All-Time in Florida high school history behind the state record of the great Xavier Carter.
  • US #2 in 2012.
  • It would be 15th in the NCAA right now
  • Well under the Olympic B standard of 45.90
  • Well under the Olympic Trials provisional standard of 46.00
  • Finally gives Arman his goal of 45s

As if it needed any help being impressive, that 400 meter performance came just 25 minutes after Arman contributed to a leg of an "Unattached" 4x100 relay team that ran national record pace smoking fast 39.39. And thennnnn... less than two hours later the St. Thomas Aquinas senior came back to get second place in the Elite 200 Meter Dash with a very quick 21.06 into a slight headwind!!!

Who got first place in that 200 meters? Well glad you asked... because Florida went 1-2 in that race with Teray Smith sporting that "Team Florida" jersey (pictured above) along with him. Teray ran his second fastest time of the season with that 20.95 into a -0.8 headwind. The American Heritage junior ran a 20.88 last week at Golden South, which was the 8th fastest in Floridia high school history.

For his part, American Heritage junior Khair Herbert knocked over half a second off of his personal best that he set just a week ago at Golden South to get an impressive sixth place in that 400 meter race with a time of 47.98.

Congrats to you three and sorry it took us until midweek to report on it!

Great Southwest Classic Results and Coverage...