Ranked No. 1 in the country, Gilbert's Vance Nilsson taking it all in stride
He’s as calm and collected as they come.
When talking to Gilbert High’s Vance Nilsson, you’d have no idea that the person you’re speaking to is also the fastest high school hurdler in the country.
At the moment, the senior is ranked first in the United States for the 300-meter hurdles with his time of 36.43 seconds. In the 110-meter hurdles, Nilsson is 10th in the nation at 13.78. Nilsson is on the cusp of making state history as he closes in on two state records.
And he’s taking it all in stride.
“I haven’t always been good at track,” Nilsson said. “I had to work and train to get better at it. Just because I got good doesn’t mean really anything should change, like the way I treat people. I just try to be myself.”
Nilsson’s track journey began in the seventh grade at Greenfield Middle School. He was a sprinter at first before a growth spurt during COVID-19 put him at 6-2. Gilbert’s sprints and hurdles coach, Diana Waite, placed him in the hurdles during his freshman season.
It wasn’t until his junior year that he began to see his times drop.
Nilsson, who also was playing wide receiver, quit football and decided to hit the weight room like he hadn’t before. He credits that as a big reason for his improvement.
Gilbert’s head track and field coach Mark Sullivan and Waite have played key roles in Nilsson's development, as has, James Smith, who is the head coach and founder of the club track team AZ Flames. Smith’s son, also named James, is No. 4 all-time in state history for the 300-meter hurdles, just .03 seconds ahead of Nilsson.
Nilsson ended his junior high school season as the Open Division state champion in the 300-meter hurdles and was the runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles to ALA Queen Creek’s Kawai King. It was with the club team AZ Flames when Nilsson won the 400-meter hurdles at the Junior Olympics in Oregon this past summer, giving Nilsson much-needed exposure on the recruiting trail.
The stage was set for a potentially historic senior year. But that also led to some added pressure — coming into the season as the top athlete in the state and one of the top in the country.
Nilsson said he was too wrapped up in everything off-the-track to start the season, feeling the pressure to make a point to those watching him and it affected him in the season-opening meet. After talking with coaches and his parents, he knew he had to adjust his mental frame and go back to his roots in the sport.
“I’m doing this for fun. The reason I started track was to have fun. The races are supposed to be fun. I had to change my mindset,” he said.
In his second race of the outdoor season, Nilsson showed that adjustment was working when he broke two meet records at the Devon Allen Invitational held at Brophy Preparatory in Phoenix. Nilsson ran 13.87 in the 100-meter hurdles and 36.87 in the 300-meter hurdles in less-than-ideal weather conditions, taking down one of the records held by Devon Allen himself – who was also at the meet in person.
Allen holds the state record in the 110-meter hurdles, which he set in 2013 at 13.50. Allen then went on to compete at Oregon, where he was an NCAA champion before making two Olympic teams and winning three U.S. national titles. At the moment, Allen is recovering from knee surgery in hopes of making his third Olympic team.
Now, Nilsson is inching closer to taking down Allen’s record. Two different athletes, Tolleson’s Trey Johnson (13.65) and Chandler’s T.J. Green (13.77), both got close to the record in 2017, but were unable to run faster.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Nilsson is getting closer to the record as well – also held by a Brophy Prep athlete. Robert Grant ran 36.24 in 2014. Mesa Westwood’s James Smith, who just turned professional after running at Texas A&M, and Mesa Red Mountain’s Yan Vazquez, now competing at UCLA, both ran 36.40 during their high school careers to get close to the state record.
“Honestly, 13.50 isn’t as much as in my mind just because it seems a little bit less feasible. I’m not sure why. Maybe it will happen,” Nilsson said. “But I was literally just thinking about it at practice – I had some really good reps, and I was like, man that (300-meter) record is going down. I don’t want to be cocky or anything. I’m pretty certain, if everything goes well within the next couple weeks, that 300 record should be mine.”
He will have a great shot at breaking at least one of those records at the Arcadia Invitational in Southern California in the first week of April, which is one of the most prestigious high school meets in the nation. He should finally be in a race with competitors at the same level as him. It could be eerily reminiscent of last year’s meet, where Gilbert Williams Field’s Saira Prince broke both state records in the span of one hour.
At the moment, Nilsson is still unsigned for college. It may have worked out in his favor that he hadn't committed to a college yet due to his national standing. Nilsson said he is in the final stages of coming to a decision and will be making his announcement soon, sometime after the Arcadia Invitational.
Devin Green, who took over as head coach from Sullivan this season, has been involved with the sport for a while now. He was previously the coach at Gilbert Higley for 10 years. He’s seen his fair share of elite athletes up close as Olympians and World Champions. Green sees similarities.
“His ceiling, we have no idea where that is right now,” Green said. “We may not know what it is for a couple of years. His goals are to go on to college, be a national champion, run in the Olympics. And I think all of that is possible because he’s really young into running when you think about it.
"He didn’t really start taking it seriously until the end of his sophomore year. He’s going to be fresher than a lot of these kids. He’s got a great frame, can still put on a lot of muscle and has a lot of room to develop and get faster. He’s so incredibly talented.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Ranked No. 1 in the country, Vance Nilsson is taking it all in stride
