Get to Know Matthew Boling: The High School Senior Who Cracked 10 Seconds in 100 Meter Dash
Matthew Boling is a high school senior who ran a wind-aided 100-meter dash in 9.98 seconds. Boling attends Strake Jesuit College Prep (Houston) and can now boast the fastest open high school 100-meter time under all conditions.
At this year's Texas state meet, Boling ran a wind-legal personal best and tied the Texas high school record at 10.13 in the 100 meter race. He also ran a national best 44.74 in the 4x400-meter relay to help his team overcome a three second deficit and win.
His wind-legal personal best in the 200 meters is 20.58.
Next fall, Boling will run for the University of Georgia's track team. Boling also competed in the long jump at this weekend's Region 3-6A Track Championship and won with a leap of 25 feet, 2 inches. Boling was also a member of the boy's 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relay.
"It definitely felt good," Boling told the Houston Chronicleafter the race. "My block start was pretty good and right out of the gate I knew it was going to be fast, so I decided to turn it up a little bit and ran my best. I was really happy with the time."
According to the regional meet's results, the wind reading during his race was marked at 4.2 m/s, which means it is not eligible for a national record. Wind readings must be 2.0 m/s or lower in order to be record eligible. The current U.S. high school record is 10.00 (1.6 m/s wind) by Trentavis Friday from July 2014. Friday went on to attend Florida State for one year before turning professional. His personal best in the 100 meters remains 10.00.
NBC Sports analyst and Olympic medalist Ato Boldon chimed in about Boling's performance on Twitter by saying, "As a sub-ten guy, I’ll say this: sometimes you have to run a time wind-aided first, before you can run it with legal wind."
Olympic medalist and San Francisco 49ers wide reciever Marquise Goodwin shared his praise by commenting on Boling's Instagram video, "You gon go faster."
Some on the internet may be quick to put Boling's time in the same conversation as Usain Bolt or where he would place in the 2016 Olympic final, remember he's a very young athlete. In order to make the U.S. Olympic team, you have to finish third at the U.S. Olympic Trials, which making the final required a wind-legal 10.01 in 2016. Then, Marvin Bracy took third in 9.98 in a race that featured a 1.6 m/s wind reading. In 2018, eight men recording wind-legal sub-10 performances including Christian Coleman's world-leading time of 9.79, which tied him for the seventh-fastest man of all-time. Boling has plenty of time to establish himself as a future Olympic team contender.
