When Brice Abawi went out for track a year ago, Rancho Bernardo coach Roger Endreson noticed him.
“He was a typical freshman but when I challenged him during some hill workouts, I noticed he stayed up with veteran sprinters,” said Endreson. “He took everything seriously and was fiercely determined.
“You asked him to do something, he wouldn’t question you why, he’d do it.”
Since Abawi had never run track, Endreson wasn’t sure how he’d do, so best times of 11.27 and 23.12 seconds in the 100 and 200 didn’t turn a lot of heads.
Speed forward to this spring where he suddenly has attracted a lot of attention after running a 10.74 in the 100 with a helpful 2.3-meter-per-second breeze and a 21.86 in the 200 — both in the Frosh-Soph Championships at Del Norte.
The 10.74 under any conditions is the fastest 100 time ever by a Bronco sophomore and his 21.86 200 is behind only Deun White’s 21.17 in 2001.
Abawi backed those up, winning the Palomar League 100 in 10.92 and finishing second in the 200 in 22.22.
“He’s more explosive (out of the starting blocks) than Deun, but Deun was smoother,” Endreson said. “But Brice has serious goals — he wants to break 10 seconds in the 100 before he graduates.”
Whoa.
While a sub-10-second time is almost taken for granted by the sprinters who will compete in the Paris Olympic Games this summer, it’s uncharted territory for high school athletes. The national record is 10.00 by Trentavis Friday of North Carolina in 2014.
So, maybe the coach misunderstood his sprinter? Nope.
“If you’re going to go, go big,” was how Abawi responded to the goal. “I want to establish a base of 10.8 this year, 10.4 or 10.5 next year and then break 10 seconds before I graduate from high school.
“What I love about track is you can set your goals, do the work and then see the results. You get a certain base where you’re comfortable and when everything is right, a breakthrough time is possible.”
Nothing wrong with lofty goals, and Endreson quickly learned Abawi would do whatever it took to achieve those goals.
“He studies the events, he knows about track and don’t forget, he’s only been running competitively for two years,” Endreson said. “He’s a dog in a very positive way.
“For example, I asked him to run the 400 against Del Norte because we needed him there to win the meet. He looked at me and I could see he was ready to go. He’d only run the 400 once before and on relays but he went 50.63 and he won (by more than two seconds).”
The Broncos won the boys meet, 76-60, as Abawi also captured the 200 in 22.02, his personal best before the Frosh-Soph meet, and anchored the victorious 4×100 relay team, which clocked a 42.58 — again a seasonal best to that point.
Abawi and another sensational sophomore, Mt. Miguel’s Brandon Arrington, figure to push each other over the next three years. Arrington swept the sophomore 100 in 10.51 and the 200 in 20.88.
“He’s good and that’s good,” said Awabi, 15, who is 5-foot-11 and 155 pounds. “I think my strength is my top-end speed and we should have good competitions.”
Endreson was impressed.
“They were neck and neck early,” he said. “Not only that, Brice has senior Terrick Fisher and another sophomore, Silas Christensen, to push him in practice every day.”
Abawi says he reads and watches videos of the best sprinters in the world and is confident he has a lot of improvement in him over the next couple of years. Right now, he’s laser-focused on the Division I championships back at Del Norte this weekend, then the Section championships at Mt. Carmel before looking to compete in the state championships May 24-25 in Clovis.
“During the off-season, I’m going to work really hard,” said Awabi, who its he’s considered playing football. “But my future is in track.”
