Kaylin Whitney & Kendal Williams voted as US HS T&F Athletes of the Year

After a total of 493 tweet outs, 2,550 facebook likes/shares, 14,485 votes, and 32,409 page views over the past week, the high school track & field community has spoken. Kaylin Whitney of East Ridge High School and Kendal Williams of Stanton Prep, both sprinters from Florida, have been fan selected as MileSplit's 2014 US High School Track & Field Athletes of the Year.

Both Whitney and Williams won a pair of gold medals at the World Junior Championships last month in Eugene, Oregon with Whitney taking first in the 200 meter dash along with anchoring the US junior women's 4x100 meter relay to victory, while the Florida State University recruit Williams struck gold in the junior men's 100 meter dash finals along with running 3rd leg in the finals for the World champion junior men's 4x100 meter relay for the United States.

Whitney had set the US high school girls national record in the 100 meter dash at the US Junior Nationals on July 5th at Hayward Field with an amazing 11.10 clocking, while later earning a bronze medal in the same event at the World Junior Championships. Her 200 meter dash personal best time of 22.49 from the US Junior Nationals ranks her only second all-time in US high school history behind only 2012 Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix on that list.

Whitney just completed her sophomore year of high school, so her near World class level performances have already made people start to wonder if she will go pro before she graduates, but nonetheless has two more years to develop and take down more records as well as achieve even more.  Whitney received a total of 2,806 votes to garner 40.24% of the total 6,974 votes among the 11 nominees.

Keturah Orji, US #1 ranked in the long and triple jump this past season, tallied the second most votes as the New Jersey star picked up 1,624 votes. Whitney and Orji were the only two vote getters over 1,000 as next in the final poll results were World Juniors 1500 meter 4th place finisher Elise Cranny of Colorado with 498 votes and World Junior silver medalist pole vaulter Desiree Freier of Texas with 487 votes.

Williams, a Florida state champion in the 100 and 200 meter dash, beat many of the top sprinters in the country with a victory in the Dream 100 at the adidas Grand Prix in mid June before earning a spot on the World Junior team in both the 100 and 200 meter dash with runner-up finishes in the finals of both races at the US Junior Nationals.

At the World Junior Championships, Williams pulled off a shocking victory in the finals over fellow countrymen and Florida native in 2014 NCAA champ and World Junior record holder Travyon Bromell of Baylor University in a personal best 10.20 clocking on a cool night in Eugene. His fastest 200 meter times came in the prelims and finals of US Junior Nationals with two wind-aided sub 20.50 performances to go along with his wind-legal best of 20.55 from the Golden South Classic. 

Williams had a late surge in votes over the final days to pass early leader Kord Ferguson from Kansas to finish with his 2,043 winning total of votes (27.2%). Ferguson, arguably the country's most versatile thrower in being one of the top ranked in both the shot put and discus (which he mad the World Junior finals in), ended up in second place with 22.38% of the votes (1,681 total).

The captain of the World Junior men's team and US #1 ranked 400 meter hurdler Kenny Selmon of Georgia also crested over 1,000 votes in third place. Arguably the top performer fo the United States on the men's side at the World Junior Championships in sprinter Trentavis Friday, finished 4th in the fan voting with 880 votes for the World Junior 200 meter dash champ and US high school national record holder in the 100 meter dash (10.00 wind legal at US Juniors).

See the complete poll results here for boys & girls.