RUDYARD WEST (455) BATTLES TAIRON PONDS IN THE 100 m AT THE 2023 AAU QUALIFIER
One of the best young sprinters in the nation continues to get better.
Monroe's Rudyard West Jr., who won the AAU Club Championships in the 100m last year in the 12-year-old division with a time of 12.01, showed on Tuesday at the same meet that he is ready to defend his title...and possibly add his name to the record books.
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West cruised to a time of 11.44 in Tuesday's preliminary round of the meet which is being held in Jacksonville, Florida. That time is just over a tenth of a second off the meet's record of 11.32 set by Ishmael Rolle in 2021.
Last year at the AAU Club Championships, West saw some familiar faces on the podium as Trojan Elite's Tairon Ponds finished second with a time of 12.21.
West is no stranger to flirting with a meet record at a national championship. Two years ago, at the AAU National Junior Olympics, West ran a 12.18 into a headwind which registered at -0.9 to win the 100m in the 11-year-old division. The meet record was 12.04 set by Walter Williams in 2004.
There will be two more chances for West to break the meet record. The first will be on Friday 10:45am during the semifinals. The finals are scheduled for 9:30am.
West will be a seventh grader this year at Martin Luther King Junior High in Monroe.
