State 110-meter hurdles champ Clay looks for more

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Trevon ClayTrevon Clay already has his sights set on bigger things for next year’s track season with Como Park.

Why not? He already has one state title.

Photo left: Trevon Clay took home a state title in the 110-meter hurdles, and third in the 300 hurdles, at the Class AA state track meet this year. (Photo by Matthew Davis)

Clay won the 110-meter hurdles at last month’s Class AA state track at Hamline University. He clocked 14.45 seconds in the finals and dropped five hundredths of a second from his preliminary time of 14.50. He won the event by 0.06 seconds.

“It was very, very exciting especially running against these guys,” Clay said.

Moreover, Clay won the event in a senior-heavy field – seven seniors and two juniors for the finals. The only junior beside Clay, Jacob Johnson of Owatonna, finished fourth at 14.82.

“I was pretty nervous at first,” Clay said about the 110. “Then, it went away. I got very excited because I’m in the state finals with all these good hurdlers.”

In the 300 hurdles, Clay could see many of the same quality hurdlers again next year. Clay took third in the event, which had only five seniors among the nine entrants.

Juniors include second-place Clayton Johnson from Hastings, who had a 38.17 prelim time and a 38.20 in the finals. Clay stuck close to Johnson in the prelims at 38.21, but the Cougars hurdler’s time dropped to 38.58 in the finals.

“I’m pretty tired,” Clay said after the event. “I left it all out on the track.”

Overall, Clay made big strides after not making out of prelims in either hurdles event the year before. He wants to keep doing more in his senior season ahead.

“I got a lot better this year,” Clay said. “A lot of hard work; a lot of dedication to get where I am today.”

The Como junior became the third hurdler from the school to win a state title and the first since 1994.

“It means a lot just to be the only one from my school, and I got here to the state finals,” Clay said.

Clay also hopes to get more teammates to state next year. With Clay alone, the Cougars finished in a three-way tie for 13th among the 59 teams represented by scoring 20 points.

As a team, the Cougars took fourth in the St. Paul City Conference this past spring with Clay winning titles in the 110 and 300 hurdles along with the long jump.

Como finished seventh in the Section 4AA meet in late May, but sophomore Innocent Myrwwaash showed some state meet potential in addition to Clay’s strong showing.

Myrwwaash just missed state in the 1600 at 4:24.8 for third place, less than four seconds back of second. He also took fourth in the 3200 and missed state by less than eleven seconds.

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