Making the most out of his trip, T.C. Williams' junior Noah Lyles blazed the track down in Havana, Cuba (Caribbean Scholastic Invitational) in state record fashion. His time was a big improvement, but not a shocking performance of 20.48 which is good enough to break the previous state record of 20.64 set by Mustaqeem Williams back in 2013. His time also jumped over LaShawn Merritt's 20.69 which was formerly the second best all-time.
This 200 down in Cuba was likely only the fifth time Noah has really "thrown it into gear" this outdoor season. Though we would like to think we saw him running fast at states, after his indoor 200s we now know better then that. Indoors to win the national title he ran a ridiculous 20.83 indoors which was #2 all-time in the nation and also a junior national record. The other four times he has run at full speed this season were his runs at The Penn Relays where he ran 2nd leg on the 4x1s and split 45.6 and 45.4 in the 4x400s, both in the same day.
Noah wasn't done though with just one great performance, he also ran 10.38 in the 100 down in Cuba to move from 11th to 4th all-time in the state and 2nd all-time for juniors in Virginia. The state record in this event is 10.31 set by Mustaqeem Williams back in 2013 with a 10.36 and 10.37 sandwiched between the record and Lyles.
Noah is far from done this season though. He will lace up his spikes again this weekend down in Greensboro, NC to take on Ryan Clark and others in the 100, 200, and 4x100. This marks the first time in a while that the Lyles brothers are planning on running at nationals in a relay.
Noah Lyles also teamed up with Grant Holloway, Ryan Clark, and his young brother Josephus to run a 40.03 4x100 down in Cuba as well.
