Taylor Cox Excels At Nationals And Ups Her Stock
By Tim Casey
This past weekend, the best high school track and field athletes concluded their indoor seasons at Nike Indoor Nationals and New Balance Nationals Indoor in New York and Boston, respectively.
The meets featured plenty of memorable performances and personal-bests.
Below, we look at five girls in the Classes of 2025 and 2026 who excelled and raised their recruiting profiles.
Taylor Cox
Class of 2025
Cox is known as one of the best hurdlers in her class. But at New Balance Nationals Indoor, she took it to another level.
Cox won the 60m hurdles in 8.11, easily setting a personal-best and breaking the meet record of 8.27 that fellow Class of 2025 recruit Aleesa Samuel of Somerset Academy (FL) set last year.
Only four high schoolers have ever ran faster than Cox in the 60mH: former LSU star Tonea Marshall (8.02); Tia Jones (8.05), who last month tied the world record in the event; Grace Stark (8.05), a University of Florida senior who was second in the 60m hurdles at last weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championships; and former Oregon and Duke hurdler Emily Sloan (8.07).
Needless to say, Cox is in elite company and is on the radar of major college programs. Earlier this month, she won the 55mH (7.73) and finished second in the 55m (6.90) at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions.
She was also sixth in the 100m hurdles (13.52) at the USATF U20 Championships last July.
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By Jim Lambert
The NJ record in the high hurdles is something that’s always been in the back of Taylor Cox’s mind.
It’s a target that the junior at Union Catholic put out there for herself to chase in order to keep pushing herself to see how low she could go.
Cox once again put that record in her crosshairs at Sunday’s New Balance Nationals Championships, and this time she blew it apart in electrifying and breathtaking fashion on the biggest stage, stopping the clock at 8.11 to break the NJ record and the meet record in the 60-meter hurdles at The Track at New Balance in Boston.
Cox, fifth in the HH at NBN last year, didn’t just break any NJ record, she took down a record held by arguably the greatest high school female track and field in U.S. history, Sydney McLaughlin!!!! McLaughlin, the world record holder in the 400 hurdles and a two-time gold Olympic gold medalist, set the NJ record of 8.17 when she finished first as a sophomore at Union Catholic at the 2015 New Balance Nationals at the New York Armory.
The stunning victory in the hurdles capped off a sensational weekend for Cox, who also led off UC’s sprint medley relay victory on Friday when the Vikings ran 3:54.62, a NJ record and the fifth fastest time in U.S. high school indoor history.
Along with her NJ and meet record on Sunday, Cox’s 8.11 also places her tied for No. 6 in U.S. high school history and is No. 3 all-time by a junior.
Cox’s national championship puts an exclamation point on the greatest season in NJ indoor history by a female hurdler.
Cox finished the season with a perfect 7-0 record over the barriers, she broke 8.00 in all five of her races at 55 meters, and she ran under 8.30 in her two races at 60 meters.
In addition to her state record breaking 8.11 on Sunday, Cox also broke McLaughlin’s meet record when she won her second straight NJ Meet of Champions title in 7.73, and broke another McLaughlin record by running 7.84 at the State Non-Public A Championships, the fastest time ever run in the six State Group Championships combined.
So what will Cox’s next target be?
How about the national 60-meter hurdle record of 8.02, set by Tonea Marshall of Seguin High in Arlington, Texas at the 2016 New Balance National Championships at the NY Armory?
Could Cox break Marshall’s national record next year?
Time will tell, but I would never bet against her!!!
