Last week the people spoke and Josh Duval is now VA's biggest freshman star. He made the list thanks to his 51.41 state leading 400 time for freshmen. He then went on to pick up a staggering 10,084 votes in just four days! That tally beat out Star Price (8,900), Abby Tershak (4,166), and Hannah Waller (4,130) for the title.
Check out Josh's Athlete Profile
Maybe it was the added confidence or maybe it was just his huge amount of talent but shortly after the poll closed Josh lowered his now VA #2 time even more. This Saturday, at the Lee-Davis Invitational (which you can watch above), he lowered his time to 50.83. Jay Pendarvis (Annandale) though took over the frosh leading spot with his 50.55 performance.
To put those performances in a historical frame, the greatest all-time VA freshman time we were able to find was Josephus Lyles' 47.72 back in 2013.
Though Josh is far away from that time now, it is clear that he is actually not that far from reaching a milestone like that in the near future. Just like Josephus, Josh enters high school track with a long history of competitive running and a very solid base. The trick now is just learning to compete against the big dogs.
It is clear that Josh has the speed and endurance for a sub 50 performance but the difficult part is putting it together into one race. Expect some big things from him though because even mid-way thru this season it is clear he has a lot of time to drop time.
Josh may have won the poll based on popularity but don't get it twisted, he made that list based on his skill and that is why he is our biggest freshman star right now.
