By Roscoe Nance
North Carolina A&T State senior sprinter Kayla White has overtaken the field after coming late to track & field, not having taken up the sport until she was in high school.
White shot to the front of the pack when she ran the 200 meters in 22.82 seconds, the best indoor time in the world this year, at the prestigious Tyson Invitational hosted by the University of Arkansas in February. She followed that up by finishing first in that event at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a time of 22.62, another world best, and second in the 60-meter hurdles.
She was named the NCAA Women’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year.
White started the outdoor season in blazing style, as she turned in a wind-aided 11.04 100-meter dash time, which is also a world best, at the Florida Relays last month.
“The sky is the limit for her,” North Carolina A&T State Track & Field Director Duane Ross said.
Neither Ross nor White anticipated she would have the type of success she has enjoyed when the Aggies began training last fall. That changed during an indoor practice session when White was working on block starts.
“We were taking it one practice, one meet at a time,” Ross said. “There was moment when I looked at my clock, and as I’m looking, I said, ‘she’s running fast.’”
At that point, Ross changed White’s schedule so that she opened running the 60 meters and didn’t compete in the hurdles until later. She opened the indoor season by running 7.25 in the 60 meters at the Virginia Tech Invitational.
“We went from there,” Ross said.
White’s time at the Virginia Tech Invitational was among the top 10 in the world all season long. Ross remains convinced she would have won that event at the NCAA Championships had she competed in it. She opted to withdraw because there wasn’t enough recovery time between events and she competed in the 60-meter hurdles instead. She finished second, two-tenths of second behind the first-place finisher.
White went to the NCAA Championships brimming with confidence that she could win the 200. That confidence was born in her first race of the season; she didn’t win, but she was pleased with how she ran.
“I felt really good,” she said. “I felt I had some more in me, that I could run fast. Once I got to Arkansas, I was like, ‘There is nobody else in college running as fast as me in this event.’ Once I got to nationals, I knew I had to stay focused, stay in my lane, block everybody out and run my race. I knew I had a good chance to win that race.”
Despite her confidence, White said winning the 200 meters was a surreal experience.
“I can’t even describe it now,” she said. “I was overcome with emotion. It’s one thing to get to nationals, but to win a championship individually and place in the top 10 in a team sport (the Aggies tied for seventh)… I was so happy.”
White’s passion was for dancing during her early high school days and she didn’t pay much attention to track & field. She went out for the team at the urging of the track coach at Miami South Ridge High, who saw her in the hallway at school, noticed her long legs and immediately thought she would be a good track athlete.
Even though Florida is a track & field hotbed – in addition to football – White didn’t get serious about the sport until her senior year. That was when she decided she wanted to attend college and realized that track could be her ticket to continuing her education.
“I didn’t understand the sport,” she said. “I didn’t know how much competition was in it until my senior year. I was running against people who had been running since they were five.”
Essentially running on raw skill, White did well enough to attract the attention of coaches at Alabama State, and she signed with Hornets. However, she was left in the lurch when the coach at Alabama State had some issues and left the school, and no other schools had recruited her because of her lack of experience.
“I really had nowhere to go,” she said.
About that time, Ross got call from one of his Florida contacts who recommended that he take a look at White.
“I had never met her,” Ross said. “I convinced her to come to A&T based on (phone) conversations. I could tell there was something special about her. She came and here we are. I get tons of calls like that. Usually they don’t work out. This situation was right on time. I was a looking to build a program on the women’s side. I saw a video of her. She wasn’t that fast, but I saw a lot of potential. I said I was going to take a chance on this one. And she took a chance on us. We took a chance on each other and here we are.”
White signed with Aggies about 10 days before school started and struggled initially. She wasn’t accustomed to lifting weights and she didn’t want to run the hurdles. But over time, she adapted and blossomed.
“Just to see the progress she has made makes you feel good,” Ross said. “She liked running, but she didn’t understand how good she could be. Once she realized, ‘Hey, I can be good at this,’ she started turning the corner. Everything was kind of new to her. Each year, she got better and better. We saw the potential in her immediately. Just to see her practice makes you feel good. To see an athlete buying into what you’re telling them makes you feel good. It feels good to see that progression and the results. That’s one of the things that make the team better. They say, ‘If I come out to practice and do what I’m told and work hard, I can do that too.’ It wasn’t an easy road for her. I’m proud of her.”
White has eased back into action following her scintillating indoor season. She ran the 200 meters for the first time this season when the Aggies competed in the Duke Invitational in late April.
“She needed a break, obviously, to let her body heal,” Ross said, “but not just the body – her mind as well.”
In addition, White isn’t competing in the hurdles in the outdoor season. With the World Championships coming up later this year and the Olympics in 2020, she opted out of that event to focus on the 100 meters and 200 meters.
“It’s a matter of me pacing myself and trusting my training,” she said. “It has given me a longer time to recover. The next race will be my best race every time. I definitely have more (to give). I’ve had a great recovery. I’m definitely ready to run faster.”
White said life for her on the track has changed since she posted the world best times.
“All eyes are on me now,” she said. “Everybody is always watching out for me. It’s different.”
She says the caliber of teammates she has helps prepare for the challenges that she faces from opponents looking to take down the No. 1 sprinter in the world.
“(Coach) brings in faster freshman and transfers each year,” she said. “Once you have that competition in practice, it’s imitated at meets. You’re prepared the moment you step on the track at practice. Your teammates push you to run faster.”
White’s ultimate goal is to get under 11 seconds for the 100 meters and 22 seconds for 200 and qualify for the 2020 U. S. Olympic team.
“I’m close,” White said of lowering her times. “I get stronger every single year. You know you’re stronger when you’re running faster. I feel like I’m in good spot right now.”