Teen Sprinter Smashes High School Record For 100-Meter Dash—Just .40 Seconds Behind Usain Bolt's World Record
High School student Mather Boling just broke the US high school record for the hundred meter dash.
On Saturday he ran the 100-meter in an impressive (wind-assisted) 9.98 seconds at the Class 6A Region III track and field meet at Challenger Columbia Stadium in Webster, Texas.
While his sub-10 second time was assisted by a tailwind this time, hell have a chance to repeat the performance in about a week at the Texas State Championships in League City.
That tailwind prevents his time from officially beating the national record, but it is the fastest recorded time in "all conditions."
Boling is a student of Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School in Houston, Texas.
You can see his impressive come-from-behind win below:
The fastest 100m dash in high school HISTORY: 9.98 seconds 😳💨 (via @Texan_Live) https://t.co/w4QBjojOt5— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) 1556590070.0
Boling also performed well in the long jump earlier in the meet, jumping 25 feet and 2 inches for first place.
His relay team, consisting of himself, Job Trahan, Malik Campbell, and Denzel Blackwell, also took first.
He told The Houston Chronicle:
"It definitely felt good. My block start was pretty good and right out of the gate I knew it was going to be fast, so I decided to turn it up a little bit and ran my best. I was really happy with the time."
Twitter was thoroughly impressed by Boling's achievement.
Matthew Boling would have gotten 7 place in the 2016 mens 100m dash, bro is still in highschool 🤦🏾♂️😬 https://t.co/EBfxG0eBrw— Treyvon Perry (@Treyvon Perry) 1556575734.0
@Treydtx1 That’s not accounting for wind, but yeah, it was quite a dash.— John Rap 💬 (@John Rap 💬) 1556644337.0
Dude doesn’t even start that great and still crushes https://t.co/C5d5OckByh— Levi (@Levi) 1556592227.0
@thatboydantee @L_N_Morris Preach lol dudes knee drive is on another level compared to everyone else and he’s the o… https://t.co/vqwn9XsBmr— Zack Gonzalez (@Zack Gonzalez) 1556636289.0
@L_N_Morris I was horrible getting out of the block which is why I ran long distance! And, I threw discus! Go figur… https://t.co/OoA8CToqsV— D 🌊🌊🌊🎻🎼 (@D 🌊🌊🌊🎻🎼) 1556648032.0
Coach Chad Collier praised all of his athletes' performances at the meet:
"Boys did a great job today and anytime they come out. It's not about themselves, they compete for each other, they compete for the community, special things can happen."
This was a seriously impressive showing from Boling, and he has great potential to improve.
It will be great to see how he grows as an athlete over the next few years.