Three Canadian athletes will compete this Friday in the Texas UIL State Track & Field Meet in Austin.

Salym Cook and Rhet Pennington are each making their return trips to 
Mike A. Myers Stadium this weekend—Cook, to compete in the final track meet of her high school career. Joining them will be first-time state qualifier Bill Koetting.

All three qualified for state with medal-winning performances at the Regional meet two weekends ago.

Cook nabbed medals in two events: the 100- and 300-meter hurdles. In the latter race, Cook rocketed up two spots. After placing fourth in the preliminary race, Cook (46.45) edged Abby Zamzow of Bowie by 0.11 seconds to win the silver medal and a guaranteed trip to the capitol. Mackenzie Bryan of Tuscola Jim Ned won the gold with a time of 46.09 seconds.

The Lady Cat also snagged a bronze medal in the 100-meter dash and ended up as the wildcard for Austin with a time of 14.9 seconds to edge out the bronze medalists in regions II, III, and IV. Kaydin Pursley of Merkel was the region champion with a time of 14.54 seconds.

Pennington qualified for state last season in the discus with two monster personal records. He repeated that performance Saturday morning with a throw of 164-11 to reserve his seat on the ATX bus. Even more impressive, that was after he had already qualified for the state meet with a silver-medal, shot-put throw of 49-06. Daniel Mosely of Bowie was the shot put champion with a throw of 49-10. Konner Wood was the discus champion with a throw of 185-08.

Though Koetting only qualified in a single event, it was a doozy. The junior was crowned the Region I Champion high jumper, edging district rival Abraham Bonilla of Spearman with a final jump of 6-05 Saturday.

Field events will begin at 8 am Friday morning. Track events start at 5:30 pm Friday. For more details, go to the UIL website.

You can watch a live broadcast of the UIL State Championships here.

On a side note, those in attendance on Saturday may have a chance to watch senior Matthew Boling, of Strake Jesuit in Houston, set a national record in the 100-meter dash. Boling made news after breaking the high school record in the event with a stunning 9.98-second finish at the Class 6A Region III track and field meet last weekend.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Boling’s time won’t warrant a national record due to an assist from a 4.2-mph wind, but his time is the fastest “all conditions” record in high school history.

The kicker? Boling’s time is only 0.40 seconds off Usain Bolt’s world record of 9.58.

According to news.com.au, Boling is the first U.S. teenager since Trayvon Bromell to run the 100 in under 10 seconds. Bromell was clocked at 9.99 in 2013. His time was also wind-assisted.