Presenting the 2020 NSAF-NBNI Girls All-American Team
by NSAF Staff
It was heartbreaking for the NSAF – and everyone who was participating in and looking forward to three days of incredible competition – when the New Balance Nationals Indoor had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. There’s many things about NBNI weekend that we missed being able to enjoy, including seeing six great All-Americans taking the podium after each Championship event, and honoring them with All-American certificates and T-shirts.
So even though the meet couldn’t be held, the NSAF wants to recognize the best of the best for the hard work each put in to get to The Armory. Therefore we’ve selected a 2020 NSAF/NBNI All-American team, with six choices for each individual Championship event – based on season accomplishments in terms of both marks and honors won. The selected athletes are listed in alphabetical order below.
Those considered for this All-American team are athletes who qualified for and entered those respective events in the Championship division at NBNI. Final choices are based on top performances during the season for those Championship events, as well as performances at distances eligible to be converted to qualify, such as the 55m, 300m, 500m and 600m dashes, the 1000m, 3000m, 3200m runs, the 55m hurdles, and the 1500m race walk. We also may have used altitude conversions for 800m-2 Miles.
We will be sending All-American certificates and T-shirts to each of the athletes named below, with plans for those to be sent out in the days ahead. Each All-American should have received an email and will be asked for their T-shirt size. Any athlete on the lists below who did not receive their email can email us at [email protected].
For several different reasons, we have not chosen All-Americans for the relays, but we want to recognize the nation’s top 5 performers entered for NBNI in the 4x200m, 4x400m, 4x800m, sprint medley and distance medley relays. We’ve listed only actual times run this indoor season and only those that would qualify for NBNI based on the NSAF eligibility rules and were entered in those respective events. You’ll see these listed at the end of this story.
Because some relay teams' entered times at the New Balance Nationals Indoor meet were projections, it would not be fair to list them as All-Americans. That means that those teams in those events did not necessarily run the times entered, but were estimates. Therefore, the teams listed below are listed as a courtesy, not as All-Americans.
We hope that this recognition and these certificates and T-shirts will help honor your efforts to qualify for and compete in NBNI this winter, and help you stay motivated for when competition resumes. As of the end of March, we are still hoping to be able to host New Balance Nationals Outdoor June 18-21, or possibly sometime in July pending our recovery from the impact of COVID-19. Congratulations to these All-Americans ... and we encourage everyone to stay safe and healthy.
GIRLS SPRINTS/HURDLES
60m dash
Serena Clark – Lakota East, OH, 2020
Michaela Francois – Weiss, TX, 2021
Sydney Holiday – Broomfield, CO, 2020
Shawnti Jackson – Wakefield, NC, 2023
Laila Owens – Fort Bend Bush, TX, 2020
Autumn Wilson – St. Dominic Savio Catholic, TX, 2022
200m dash
Talitha Diggs – Saucon Valley, PA, 2020
Shawnti Jackson – Wakefield, NC, 2023
Mia O’Neil – Landstown HS, VA, 2021
Laila Owens – Fort Bend Bush, TX, 2020
Leah Phillips – Bullis School, MD, 2020
Autumn Wilson – St. Dominic Savio Catholic, TX, 2022
400m dash
Aaliyah Butler – Piper, FL, 2022
Margaret Conteh – Girard College, PA, 2021
Kayla Davis – William A. Hough, NC, 2022
Shaniya Hall – Bullis School, MD, 2020
Jasmine Muhammad-Graham – Medgar Evers, NY, 2020
Isabella Whittaker – Mount De Sales, MD, 2020
60m hurdles
Zariyah Black – Eastern Guilford, NC, 2021
Jasmine Jones – Greater Atlanta Christian, GA, 2020