AUSTIN, Texas — Houston Strake Jesuit sprinter Matthew Boling was the star of the University Interscholastic League Track and Field Championships on Saturday and he did not disappoint.
The Georgia-bound senior, who made waves nationally with a wind-aided 9.98-second run in the 100-meter dash at the Region IV-6A meet two weeks ago, topped a stacked field with a national-record time of 10.13 seconds.
The mark is the new UIL State Meet Record and ties the overall Texas 100-meter record, set by Derrick Florence of Galveston Ball in 1986.
The crowd rose to its feet in anticipation.
“Whenever I look up and see the crowd get up and start videoing, it gets me hyped,” Boling said. “That’s what I love about the 100. Everyone comes to watch it and it’s really fun.”
Boling’s star power was visible by the amount of camera phones that recorded the record run and the flow of fans that exited midway through the meet at the completion of his run.
“The buildup and anticipation was a lot of adrenaline, but a lot of fun,” he said.
The time was wind legal and followed Boling’s gold in the Class 6A long jump.
On his first jump of the day, Boling jumped 25 feet, 1½ inches to take the lead.
On his second jump, Boling pushed the mark to beat out to 25-4½ and then passed on his third jump of preliminaries.
None of the other competitors threatened and Boling was able to conserve energy for the record push later Saturday evening.
Boling was also a member of Strake Jesuit’s 400-meter relay, which was disqualified for an exchange-zone violation.
Mainly known as a quarter-miler and mile relay runner before this season, Boling still had the 1,600-meter relay in which to compete Saturday night.
“I really wanted to do well at state. Unfortunately, we didn’t do what we wanted to do on the 4×1, but we just have to keep focus on the 4×4 and try to score a lot of points (in the team race,)” Boling said.
The Corpus Christi Caller Times is part of the USA TODAY Network.
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