As a new feature on MileSplit Bahamas, we are honoring the top junior athletes each week by naming a male and female athlete of the week award. This award will go to athletes who were star performers in the week prior. An athlete may only win the award once per season.
This week's award goes to two athletes who excelled at the BAISS: Shaunae Miller and Xavier Coakley, both of St. Augustine's College.
---
Xavier Coakley
Competing in the intermediate division, Xavier Coakley won the 110 Hurdles with a new personal best of 14.37. That time came within .12 of the CARIFTA standard and was eight tenths of a second better than his nearest competitor, D'Mitry Charlton. While Charlton did grab the victory from Coakley in the 400 Hurdles, Coakley's second place 56.64 was well under the CARIFTA standard.
The 16-year-old showed his flexibility by also finishing third in the 800 meters (2:13.52), second in the long jump (6.26 meters/20-6.5), and second in the 4x400 (3:35.14).
For his hurdling prowess in both distances, we are proud to name Xavier Coakley our athlete of the week!
Shaunae Miller
Shaunae continued to shine this week by winning every event she entered. The University of Georgia signee started off with 11.48 in the 100 into a fairly substantial headwind of -1.4, which followed an 11.57 in the prelims. She then one-upped that by putting up a world class caliber 22.70 in the 200. She even decided to become the nation's top shot putter so far this year by tossing the 8# ball 13.33 meters (43-9).
As if all that weren't enough, she contributed to both the BAISS champion 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams by anchoring them to a 47.55 and a 3:50.39... both BAISS meet records.
So let's recap the week she had... five events over three days (8 total races plus the shot)... all ended in championships... all (individual performances) were CARIFTA qualifiers... and all five events were meet records. The 200 made the Olympic "A" Standard. And she didn't even compete in her signature 400 meter race. Not a bad meet!!