Over the last two years, Ashton Torns (Austin Westlake) has a Texas state championship and runner-up finish at the UIL 6A state meet in the long jump and the same goes for Jelani Watkins (Klein Forest) in the 200m.
The two Texas champs have a lot more in common than that. Today, in just their first competition of the season, the two studs ran their way into the national rankings in just the preliminary round and doing so in personal record fashion.
In heat five, Torns blazed a 6.83 PR in his race; then Watkins cruised a 6.88. At the time, those were the US. No.2 and US No. 3 times in the country. Later into the afternoon, a couple of other sprinters around the country would also sprint to fast times.
After competing in the long jump finals, Torns will head into this evening's 60m finals ranked No. 7 and Watkins wil ranked No. 13 nationally and each one of them will have an opportunity to improve on their national ranking.
Watch their preliminary races below.
Ashton Torns' 60m Prelims Heat 5