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We Gotta Talk About this 16 Year Old Runner Who Won Three National Titles in Philly and Broke a Bunch of Records
Published:
Crossing Broad is a sports blog for the people, and the people have been emailing us about this South Jersey high school track star named Natalie Dumas, who had a ridiculous weekend at the New Balance Nationals at Franklin Field in Philadelphia:
Translated for the non-runners, Dumas won three national titles, sweeping the 400 meters, 400 meter hurdles, and the 800 meters as well, setting meet records for all three. In addition, the flat 400 and the 800 meters were both New Jersey state records and all three times were good enough for top-eight marks across United States high school history. There isn’t a cross-sport comparison for this, it’s just total domination across the board from a 16-year-old from Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees.
Here’s more from Jim Lambert at NJ Mile Split:
In the span of less than 24 hours, Dumas broke state records held by two of the greatest athletes in U.S. history, NJ legends Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Ajee’ Wilson.
When Dumas burned her 51.14 to win the 400, she broke the NJ record of 51.87 that she shared with McLaughlin-Levrone, who ran that time as a junior at Union Catholic at the 2016 Meet of Champions. McLaughlin-Levrone is a 4-time Olympic gold medalist and the current World Record holder in the 400 hurdles.”
Dumas is more or less on a trajectory that should see her running in the Olympics. Not to jinx it, because she’s only 16, but she’s doing right now what Olympians did when they were in high school. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won two gold medals in Tokyo in 2020 and two gold medals in Paris in 2024, both in the 400 meter hurdles and 4×400 meter relay. Ajee’ Wilson is a Temple alum and 800 meter runner who has 1st place finishes at the world indoors, world relays, and NACAC Championships. She also has two bronze medals from the 2017 and 2019 worlds.
Wrote one of our readers: “She (Dumas) had the greatest performance in high school history in almost any sport, and did it in Philly, and is from South Jersey.”
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com