Nation’s fastest high schooler: Bracy

Posted Feb 2, 2012 by Bill Ward

Updated Feb 3, 2012 at 12:32 AM

With the indoor track season already underway and the outdoor season set to begin in just 10 days for Class 1A and 2A schools and the larger divisions starting Feb. 20, it’s time to ask, who’s the fastest?

Well, when it comes to local sprinters, the guys to beat are Alonso’s Brandon Holloway and Hillsborough’s Anthony Brown. Both are state medalists, with Holloway owning 100/200 PRs of clocking 10.54/21.28 and Brown clocking 10.58/21.60.

That’s fast, but Orlando Boone senior and Florida State signee Marvin Bracy threw down the challenge to all comers at last week’s indoor meet in Gainesville when he smashed the national record for 55 meters with his time of 6.08. Watch this video of his race and see his reaction time to the gun, his drive phase, finish and margin of victory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv51o6DJmuQ

And these are not slugs he is racing. He isn’t even technically perfect yet, but he is already posting times close to current University of Florida star Jeff Demps and eclipsing prep records held by Olympian Justin Gatlin (2004 gold medalist, Athens).

If the 5-foot-9, 170-pound Bracy can stay healthy, he could wind up in this summer’s Olympic track trials in Eugene, Ore. Bracy is already the winner of a USA Track and Field Junior Championships title after winning the 100 last summer in the second-fastest time in Florida high school history, 10.05. Only Demps, co-holder of the junior world record (10.01), has run faster. Demps did that the summer after graduating high school at the 2008 Olympic trials.

So how fast is 55 meters indoors compared to the 100 outdoors? Well, there’s so many factors that make the two races totally different—like wind and endurance over the final 40 meters of a 100—that it’s almost useless to make comparisons. But according to the splits from the past world records, it would take a 60 meter split of approximately 6.47 to 6.53 to run the entire 100 meters distance under 10 flat. Bracy’s 55 meter time equates to about a 6.62 for the 60, so he’s probably close to running 10.10.

One thing is for sure: Bracy is the fastest prep sprinter in Florida right now. And probably in the nation, too.

Photo: Orlando Boone’s Marvin Bracy wears one of the two gold medals he won at last year’s Class 4A state track championships. Photo by Bill Ward.