ARLINGTON, TX — Ever since she quit gymnastics to begin a burgeoning track and field career that has quickly made her one of the nation’s best, Coppell sophomore Skyler Schuller has always tried to compete in as many events as possible.
In middle school, she won AAU Junior Olympic titles in the five-event pentathlon. In high school, the Coppell wunderkind has twice traveled to non-UIL meets in Florida and won the heptathlon, a two-day, event in which athletes compete in the 100 hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meters, long jump, javelin and 800.
“When I first started, my three best events were the hurdles, long jump and high jump. I just kind of took a liking to so many events,” Schuller said.
There is no heptathlon at UIL meets — although it’s an event that Schuller may try in college — but the multi-event training paid big dividends Saturday at the Class 6A Region I meet after Friday’s inclement weather led to a hectic schedule for Schuller at UT-Arlington’s Maverick Stadium. The sophomore, who is already receiving recruiting interest from the likes of Arkansas and Texas, won the pole vault and high jump to automatically qualify for the UIL state meet that will be May 6-8 at the University of Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
Schuller also finished third in the 100 hurdles (14.58) and the 300 hurdles (45.11), scoring 32 points by herself. That helped Coppell tie Flower Mound for the girls team title, as each team finished with 72 points.
Flower Mound was in third and Coppell was in fourth entering the final event, the 4×400 relay. But Coppell’s team of Emma Sherrer, Olivia Marez, Morgan Colon and Waverly Hassman won in 3:48.69, and Flower Mound took second in 3:51.83, allowing both teams to surpass Denton Guyer (63 points) and Plano East (60 points) in the team standings.
Schuller started her meet Friday morning by winning the pole vault with a mark of 12 feet, 6 inches despite difficult winds that had her fearing that she might no-height in an event in which she ranks No. 2 in the state and No. 17 in the nation with a season-best mark of 13-6. The running preliminaries were postponed Friday, so Schuller had to get up early Saturday to run in the prelims of the 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles, then come back in the afternoon to compete in the high jump, then run in the finals of the two hurdles races in the evening.
“A very long day, extremely hard,” Schuller said. “The 300 hurdles is a very tiring race. It builds up a lot of lactic acid, so I had to try to recover as best I could. Most of my high school meets I always do five events, so I’m hoping that gives me a bit of an edge over the other hurdlers, who do two races every meet.”
Schuller entered the high jump tied for No. 3 in the state and tied for No. 11 in the nation with a mark of 5-8, according to MileSplit.com, and she cleared 5-5 Saturday to clinch the regional title. Rather than keep going, and trying to improve her national ranking, Schuller decided to stop so she could conserve her energy for the running finals.
“I was not that nervous about prelims being today until I found out I would have to high jump afterward. Then I was very nervous,” Schuller said. “Through the whole [high jump] competition I was nervous, because you miss one height or one attempt and it’s the difference between second and third, and you’re not going to state.”
The top two finishers in each event at regionals automatically qualified for state, along with one wild card (the third-place regional finisher with the best time or mark out of all four regions).
Cal football signee leads FM Marcus to team title: Flower Mound Marcus four-star recruit J. Michael Sturdivant is headed to the University of California to play football. The star wide receiver may not be done with his track career after the state meet in two weeks.
“It’s looking like I have an opportunity [to run in college], so we’ll see how things play out,” Sturdivant said.
It was easy to see why Saturday, as Sturdivant won four regional titles despite a grueling day that saw him run three preliminary races, compete in the long jump, then run in three finals at night. He also led the Marcus boys to the team title, as they finished with 91 points and beat runner-up North Crowley by 43 points.
Sturdivant ran a wind-aided time of 20.99 seconds in the 200-meter preliminaries Saturday morning, a time that is tied for fourth-best in the nation among all fully automatic times, according to MileSplit.com. The 6-3, 185-pound senior won the long jump with a leap of 23-2.75, which wasn’t far off his season-best of 23-4.75 that ranked 15th in the state going into Saturday, according to Texas MileSplit.
Then Sturdivant anchored Marcus’ winning 4×100 relay, teaming with Ryan Dyess Coyle, Benton Weber and Christian Floyd to run 41.51. At state, Marcus will face teams that have run under 41 seconds, but Sturdivant said, “I feel like we’re going to shock the world.”
Next up Saturday was the 100 meters, which Sturdivant won in a wind-aided 10.49. Then he won the 200 final in 21.05.
Sturdivant is ranked by 247Sports as the 24th-best wide receiver in the nation in the Class of 2021. He said he was encouraged to compete in the sport by his mother, who was a track Hall of Famer at Bradley.
Guyer star sets meet records: North Carolina signee Brynn Brown of Denton Guyer broke the 6A Region I meet record in the girls 1,600, running 4:46.85. She won a race in which the top three finishers ran faster than the previous meet record of 4:50.08 by Flower Mound Marcus’ Quinn Owen in 2017.
But Brown, who ranks fourth in the nation with a time of 4:43.96, was expecting more.
“I’m a little disappointed,” she said. “I’m definitely eyeing that 4:40 barrier this year. I had two races in my legs, so I knew I was going to be a bit tired. But I got through to state, so I’m looking forward to what I can do there only running two races.”
As a senior, Brown ran the 800 full-time for the first time to help improve her speed and to get her out of her comfort zone, she said. She ranks 12th in the nation in the 800 with a time of 2:09.60 and finished fourth at regionals, failing to advance in that event.
Brown has not lost a 3,200-meter race in UIL competition since she was a freshman in 2018. That didn’t change Friday morning, as she became just the third high school girl in the United States to run under 10 minutes this season.
Brown won the regional title in the 3,200 and advanced to the UIL state meet by running a meet-record time of 9:59.17. She finished 25 seconds ahead of runner-up Aubrey O’Connell of Prosper, the 2019 6A state champion in cross country.
The only times that are better in state history belong to Brown.
She ran 9:51.00 in a true two-mile race indoors at the VA Showcase in Virginia this year — the third-fastest time in national history, according to Track & Field News. Brown also ran 9:57.54 in the two-mile race outdoors at the Brooks PR Invitational in 2019, and she ran 9:58.58 in the 3,200 outdoors at the Coppell Relays in 2020.
Two miles is 18.69 meters longer than the standard 3,200-meter race that is run at the high school level in Texas. The Texas Track & Field Coaches Association converted Brown’s 9:51.00 to a 9:47.57 that it lists as the state record for the 3,200.
Brown won 6A state titles in the 1,600 and 3,200 two years ago, the last time the state meet was held because the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the 2020 postseason. As a sophomore in 2019, Brown broke the UIL state-meet record for all classifications by winning the 3,200 in 10:09.91.
Brown said her goals for this year’s state meet are to break her own record in the 3,200 and to break the 1,600 state-meet record of 4:40.97 by Houston Lamar’s Julia Heymach in 2015.
Elite 800 fields: The 6A Region I girls 800 featured four of the top 12 runners in the nation. Freshman Nicole Humphries of Flower Mound emerged as the winner in a blazing race in which the top finishers ran under 2:10.
Humphries used a big kick in the final 100 meters to win with a personal-best time of 2:08.30, which would put her fourth in the nation, according to MileSplit. Aubrey O’Connell of Prosper, who had not lost an 800 race all season, took second in 2:08.74 — just off her season best of 2:08.52 that had ranked No. 4 nationally — holding on to automatically qualify for state by beating Coppell’s Waverly Hassman (2:09.50) and Denton Guyer’s Brynn Brown (2:09.99).
“Running up there with a lot of big names is definitely intimidating, but it’s really encouraging having people run up there with you to push you,” she said.
Mississippi signee Isaac Barrera of Hebron won the boys 800 in 1:53.24, narrowly beating Marcus’ Greyson Gravitt (1:53.74) and Flower Mound’s Joseph Kelsey (1:54.27). All three are from District 6-6A — Gravitt was the district champion — and Gravitt and Barrera entered the meet ranked No. 8 and No. 9 in the nation, respectively.
Big day for Plano East sprinters: The Plano East girls started the running finals by winning the 4×100 relay, as the team of Kaylee Moody, Ibukun Alausa, Kaley Qualls and Tiriah Kelley ran 47.27. Three events later, Kelley won the 100 meters in a wind-aided 11.75, which would rank 20th in the state.
The toughest part was having to run the prelims earlier in the day.
“You have to mentally prepare yourself for two track meets in one day,” Kelley said. “It’s challenging, but it’s a lot of good work.”
Kelley also won her final race, the 200, running 24.00, which would rank 14th in the state. Moody, Janiya Richardson, Qualls and Alausa won the 4×200 relay by running 1:40.72.
Haltom standout has come a long way: The first time that Haltom’s Alfredo Reina Corona ran the 3,200 in a high school race, his time was 11:12.30 as a freshman in 2018, according to results on MileSplit. Three years later, he has improved by more than two minutes.
The Haltom senior won the 6A Region I boys 3,200 in 9:08.01 — the third-best time in the state in 2021, according to Texas MileSplit. Corona’s previous best this season was 9:23.38 at the area-round meet last week, and his best time last year was 9:58.40.
He also won the 1,600 in 4:16.61. The top five finishers ran under 4:20.
