Gilbert's Vance Nilsson breaks national high school record in 300M hurdles

Gilbert senior Vance Nilsson stands alone in history.

Nilsson ran 34.83 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles to set the national high school record in the event at the AIA State High School Track & Field Championships on Saturday. It’s the first time ever in the United States that a high school athlete has gone under 35 seconds in the 300-meter hurdles.

For a moment, Nilsson — and the whole crowd — had to wait for the official time to pop up. And once it did, the crowd went into a frenzy.

“Relief, joy, happiness,” Nilsson said about the emotions he felt seeing the timing board at Mesa Community College, where the championships were held. “I was just happy I did it. Everybody that has helped me get here, they were all here watching me. So much of my family is here. You do it for yourself, that’s why I started. But you also do it for them.”

The old record was 35.02, set in 2009 by California’s Reggie Wyatt.

Not only is it a special moment for Nilsson himself, but for the sport of track and field in Arizona.

“I think it’s great. I think it’s going to push kids so much,” Nilsson said. “I think it will go down one day. I don’t know if this one will stand as long as Reggie’s did because that’s like 15 years. I think that it’s lucky for me that the record was literally 35-flat that pretty much if you break it, you’re the first person to ever go 34. I feel like it puts you in a whole sort of other league because nobody else has that number, at least not in high school.”

With the national record, the breathtaking spring continues for Nilsson. He almost broke the national record last week when he ran 35.05 for the No. 2 time in high school history. Last month, Nilsson became the first Arizona athlete to run faster than 36 seconds when he broke Phoenix Brophy Prep’s Bobby Grant’s 2014 state record in April. It is the fourth time this season that Nilsson has run 35.67 or faster in the 300-meter hurdles.

Nilsson’s performance on Saturday will go down as one of the greatest performances from an Arizona prep track and field athlete and will be talked about in the track community for years to come.

In the stands was his high school coach, Devin Green, as he watched Nilsson take down the record.

“Three months ago, I don’t think we thought the national record was possible. Maybe we were naive to what it was? But we are just so happy for him,” Green said to The Arizona Republic in a message. “Track is so unique to where everybody is kind of rooting for everyone and to feel everyone in the stadium collectively hold their breath and wait for the time to go on the board and to hear the eruption after he broke that record, it was just so cool.”

It’s not often an Arizona boy’s prep athlete sets a national high school record in track and field.

Phoenix South Mountain’s Dwayne Evans did so when he ran 20.22 in the 200 meters in 1976. Phoenix North’s Dallas Long did so as well in the shot put in 1958 when he threw 69-3 feet.

“It’s huge,” James Smith, who coaches Nilsson at the club level with the Arizona Flames, said. “Our Arizona kids are running better and faster in general. This just puts Arizona officially on the map.”

Nilsson will soon make the switch to the 400-meter hurdles, which is the distance run at the Olympic level. He owns a lifetime best of 52.18 in the event and will try to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials in Oregon in late June. The standard qualifying time is 49.75. He also has his eyes on trying to make the U.S. Under-20 team for the World Athletics Championships in Peru in August.

He’ll be training with James Smith II, who ran the No. 4 time in state history for the 300-meter hurdles while at Mesa Westwood before becoming an All-American at Texas A&M. Yan Vazquez, the Mesa Red Mountain alum who is No. 5 in state history for the 300-meter hurdles and is currently competing at Arizona, may join the training group too once his collegiate season ends. They all run for the same club team, the Arizona Flames.

The group plans to train in the Valley. Nilsson, who is still uncommitted, is close to finalizing his college decision.

Following the conclusion of the meet, once almost all the fans had left the stadium, Nilsson came back onto the track to the site of his historic run.

Those who remained were still asking him for selfies. Even as was leaving the stadium and heading to the parking lot, he was getting stopped as more people offered their congratulations.

“I feel like my life just changed,” said Nilsson.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gilbert's Vance Nilsson breaks HS national record in 300M hurdles