If you haven’t seen 11-year-old twin brothers Ayden and Mason Whitehead in action on the track, you should do so soon, because in a year or two, no one will be able to catch them.
The sprinting siblings capped a second consecutive spectacular summer for the Wilson Wide Awake Elite Track Team with top-four finishes at the AAU Junior Olympic National Championships the last week of July on the campus of North Carolina A&T State University.
Mason finished fourth in the 11-year-old boys’ 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash, while Ayden finished second in the 400-meter dash and tenth in the 100-meter dash.
“I think I did very well at my first national championship and at the (Junior) Olympics,” Ayden said.
Mason was disappointed to miss out on the bronze medal in the 200-meter race on Friday, August 2, after suffering a torn thigh muscle at the end of the race.
“Yes, unfortunately. I could have reached third place, but the guy was much faster than me,” he said.
The next day, however, he came back and finished fourth in the 100-meter race.
“I managed it because my mom massaged my leg and I also had to put a massage gun on it to make it feel better,” he explained. “It wasn’t quite 100 percent, but it felt a little better.”
Joining the twins in Greensboro was Aaron Hicks, a member of the Wilson Wide Awake team and no stranger to national championship competition at the tender age of 13. Hicks did not advance past the preliminaries in the 400-meter dash, but finished 10th overall in the 800-meter dash in his sixth summer of competing at national level.
Hicks set a personal best in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:09.38, breaking the best mark of 2:09.62 he set in July with a silver medal at the AAU Junior Olympics Primary Nationals and Club Championships in Jacksonville, Fla. Hicks ran a time of 2:09.69 to place seventh in the prelims in Greensboro.
He did not do so well in the 400-meter race, finishing 33rd with a time of 55.84, which meant he missed the final.
However, Hicks still made it to the podium when he joined the Charlotte Panthers track and field team as an independent guest substitute for their 4×800 relay team, which finished in fifth place.
The three runners had a great summer for Wide Awake Elite Track. Hicks won a bronze medal in the 400-meter dash in Florida after winning the 800 and placing fourth in the 400-meter dash at the Junior Olympics championships in Concord in June.
At the AAU Junior Olympics Primary Nationals and Club Championships in Jacksonville, Florida in July, Mason Whithead won the 100m and Ayden took third. Both finished second to Keyzelle Thomas of Columbia, South Carolina, with Mason taking silver in the 200m and Ayden taking silver in the 400m.
At the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics North Carolina Championships in June, Mason won the 400m while Ayden finished second. Maurice Williams, founder and head coach of Wide Awake Track, said the twins accomplished their feats the old-fashioned way.
“Work – hard work,” Williams said. “These two guys have worked hard every year. They’ve gotten better every year, and this year I switched them to the 400 and that was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Williams said running the 400 helps any sprinter, but for Ayden, it may well be the event where he ultimately decides to focus on this race.
“You have to decide later,” said the experienced coach.
So far, the twins, sons of Ty and Monte Whitehead of Wilson, are still getting used to the idea of becoming track stars. Ayden and Mason just started sixth grade at Sallie B. Howard School – where they are both star students – and both say football is their first love. The twins play for The SPOT’s youth tackle football program.
“They’re good football players now. Trust me, they are!” Williams assured.
They also played soccer at the Wilson Parks and Recreation Department and, like many kids their age, enjoy playing video games with their friends. But did they know they’re fast?
“My dad told me about it, but I didn’t believe it,” said Ayden, who set the standard between the siblings early on.
Mason said he doesn’t consider himself a fast sprinter, having never beaten his brother until this year.
“I didn’t realize I was fast until this season because my brother always beat me before,” Mason said. “So I thought he would always be faster than me. But this season I was faster than him and faster than other people and that got me thinking. I need to get better so I can be first in the country.”
It might not be long before one of the twins can say they finished first in the nation. Although they don’t plan on hanging up their soccer cleats anytime soon, the twins are excited about their prospects in track and field when they enter middle school. And it’s a lot of fun, too.
“Track and field is hard, but like track and field competitions, it can be fun,” Mason said. “But it can also be hard when you’re not having fun, because you have to talk to other people about it when you’re not having fun at all. Because to enjoy a sport at all, you have to enjoy some things.”
TEXAS EXPERIENCE
A quintet of Wide Awake track and field athletes got their first taste of a major national meet in late July when they boarded a plane to Texas to compete in the USATF National Junior Olympics Championships at Bryan College on the campus of Texas A&M University.
Urijah Bridges was the elder statesman of the group, competing in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes for boys ages 15-16. Kayden Faulkner ran the 100, 200 and 400 meters for boys ages 9-10. His time of 15.12 seconds in the 100 meters was a personal best.
Also setting personal bests were Lennox Jones in the boys’ 100m (9-10 years) (15.24) and Jaia Morgan in the girls’ 100m (11-12 years) (14.116). Nahla Smallwood also competed in the girls’ 100m (11-12 years) while she and Morgan both ran the 200m. Jones also ran the boys’ 200m (9-10 years).
BLUNT RESULTS
Prior to national competitions, a group of Wide Awake athletes competed in the Russell E. Blunt East Coast Invitational in Durham in mid-July.
The meet, which traditionally marks the finale of Wide Awake’s regular season, draws elite athletes from across the country to hot Durham County Memorial Stadium.
Paytyn Sommirs, competing in the girls under 8 division, finished fourth in the 200m in 33.98 seconds and fifth in the 100m in 16.67. She led Wide Awake to a 13th place out of 21 teams in the girls under 8 team rankings.
Faulkner finished seventh in the boys’ 9-10 age long jump with a jump of 3.59 meters (approximately 11 feet, 9.25 inches).
In the boys under 8 long jump, Ricky Stanley took ninth place with a distance of 2.63 meters (approximately 8-7.5).
Mila Jones, Nevyn Smallwood, Nahla Smallwood, Leah Branch, Lennox Jones, Jaia Morgan, Urijah Bridges and Aiden Dye also participated for Wide Awake at the Russell E. Blunt East Coast Invitational.
