{"id":242136,"date":"2026-04-09T15:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/242136\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:15:09","slug":"four-texas-underclassmen-making-their-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/242136\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Texas Underclassmen Making Their Mark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\">PHOTO CREDIT: RPERNETTER<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\">Four Texas Underclassmen Are Already Moving Up the State Lists<\/p>\n<p>Taylor, Newman, Howard, and Gardner are all pushing into the top of their class statewide<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/red_line.png\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/red_line.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"justify\">Four Texas underclassmen leaped up the state leaderboards after big performances last week. Isaiah Taylor ran 10.47 at the Texas Relays &#8211; wind-aided, but his legal 10.92 earlier this season shows he does have the speed. Ryan Newman jumped 23-8 to push into the top 20 among sophomores in the long jump. Ma&#8217;leyah Howard cleared 5-4 after opening the season at 4-6. Gabby Gardner has PRd in five events this season including a 14.89 in the hurdles at the Texas Relays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"justify\">Taylor ran 10.47 (+2.1) in the 100m at the Texas Relays, a mark that ties him 64th in the state overall and puts him in the top-10 among Texas sophomores in the event. He has also run 10.92 legal in the 100m and 22.04 in the 200m this season, and a few weeks ago he jumped a PR of 6-4 in the high jump. The top of the sophomore 100m leaderboard is occupied by Dillon Mitchell, who has run 9.88 (+5.8) and 10.10 (+1.8) this season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"justify\">Newman jumped 23-8 at the Jaguar Relays on Apr. 2, moving him into the top 20 among Texas sophomores in the long jump. His season has been one of steady improvement &#8211; he opened at 22-4.25, then went through a range of 21-3, 21-6.25, 22-1.75, 21-7, and 22-10.5 before leaping 23-8 last week. He has shown he can jump consistently in the 22-foot range on any given day, and the 23-8 suggests there is more ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"justify\">Howard cleared 5-4 at the Steve Telaneus Invitational on Apr. 2, a mark that ties her for eighth among Texas freshmen in the high jump. She opened her season at 4-6 on Feb. 21 and has been adding height at nearly every meet since. She&#8217;s already &#8220;jumped&#8221; up 10 inches of improvement, and she is still early in the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\" style=\"text-align: justify;\" align=\"justify\">Gardner ran 14.89 in the 100m hurdles at the Texas Relays, and now sits in the top-10 among Texas freshmen in the event. She opened her season at 15.71 on Feb. 12, ran through the mid-to-high 15s for a few meets, then dropped to 14.89. She has also posted PRs of 52.12 in the 300m hurdles, 4-8 in the high jump, 16-11 in the long jump, and 36-4.5 in the triple jump this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/red_line.png\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/red_line.png\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOTO CREDIT: RPERNETTER Four Texas Underclassmen Are Already Moving Up the State Lists Taylor, Newman, Howard, and Gardner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[92705,223,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-242136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-future-stars-four-texas-underclassmen-making-their-mark","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}