PHOTO | TROY HULL

Harding High sophomore Akala Garrett, with her mom and coach LaSonja Collins, won the USA Track and Field girls’ 400 meter hurdles national championship earlier this month.

Akala Garrett is in a class by herself among hurdlers.

The Harding High sophomore established herself as one of the nation’s best when she won the 400-meter national championship in a national-best 58.05 seconds earlier this month at the USA Track & Field Nationals in Eugene Oregon. In June, she won three state 4A titles (100 hurdles, 300 hurdles and 4x200 relay) in Greensboro and most valuable athlete in the process.

None of it was a surprise.

“I definitely already knew it,” said Garrett, who is the Gatorade North Carolina track and field athlete of the year. “I went in there knowing that I could do it. I just had to go in there, execute and follow through on what I’ve been practicing.”

Running is something Garrett’s always done, and on a level beyond her years. It started early on the junior level and evolved to where she’s regularly beating older competition in high school.

“Since I was 9, I’ve been training with older kids, so I’ve always been around mature people, [and] it brought me to grow up faster,” she said. “Even though I’m still a kid, I take track more seriously because I’ve been training with older kids for a long time.”

That maturity was tested in the state championships. Garrett overcame a poor start in the 100 meters to win in 13.43 seconds – the seventh-best time among U.S. girls.

“Unfortunately, I got a pair of bad blocks, so I got out the blocks like really slow,” she said. “It took me a minute to get in the race, but by the end, I was in the front … and I was so relieved. That was truly a blessing because it was like those blocks, I couldn’t set them to my markings. I had to put them back, so it was like I was starting further back from the line.”

Garrett followed that win with a leg on Harding 4x200 relay squad and topped the day with the 300 hurdles title in 41.32 seconds, the nation’s third-best time.

“I actually got out a little bit too slow, which threw off my time, but it was a winning time, a fast time, but it was like .4 [seconds] or something off my fastest time” in the 300 hurdles, she said. “It was a good day. It was just something that I could have fixed.”

That improvisation is what makes Garrett so good, said LaSonja Collins, Harding’s coach and Garrett’s mom. Adjusting and handling adversity, especially for a high school sophomore, magnifies her focus.

“She’s always been in an atmosphere where she knows how to adjust on the fly,” said Collins, an Independence High graduate who qualified for the 2004 Olympic trials. “We teach in practice anything can happen, and if something goes wrong, your job is to finish and execute what you know you can do, and everything else will take care of itself. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.”

Collins acknowledges Garrett is more versatile and skilled than she was at the same age and sees the potential to do bigger things on grander stages in the future. As a result, Collins encourages her to step forward as a leader and athlete and makes sure she stays on task.

“Mentally, as far as age on the track, she’s not a sophomore, she’s running on the senior level,” said Collins, who was a standout sprinter at Georgia and North Carolina A&T. “She’s really running on a freshman college level, to be honest.”

Said Garrett: “I know the reason why she pushes me so hard is because she sees the potential in me because she’s been watching me like forever. Sometimes I’ll be like, dang, I know I’m good, but I’ve got to tap in and know that I’m not too young [to improve] and that’s what she’s trying to get me out of the mindset of thinking I’m too young to do stuff.”
Garrett has all the tools to succeed, Collins believes.

“I just get excited that because she’s a better athlete than me and even though I was a sprinter [and] I was good at what I did, she does more than what I’ve done,” Collins said. “She’s so versatile. I’m kind of like ‘God, I wish I had some of what she has,’ you know?”

The Olympics, of course, is Garrett’s goal, and making the 2024 Games isn’t outside the realm of possibilities, even as a first-year collegian. It would a giant leap toward fulfilling a dream, and in a small way, repay a debt.

“Honestly, I want to get that experience of college,” Garrett said, “and be able to complete the four years, but if it’s in my gaze to go my freshman year to Olympic trials, I’m going to go, because of the opportunity to add [that experience]. And then once I make the team, go to the Olympics. … I want to give that to my mom, because she gave me so much, and I’ve definitely got to give back to her.”

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