LA CROSSE — No one saw it coming.
Jakai Ayed lined up Saturday afternoon and waited for the gun to start his Division 1 110-meter hurdle final from Lane 8. The Holmen High School junior was the sixth seed and ran his prelim more than 1 second slower than a record-breaking and returning state champion on Friday.
To many in the crowd, the race was a chance to see just how fast Wisconsin Lutheran junior Niyer Clayborn could run after he blazed the track for a time of 13.8 seconds on Friday. He previously ran a 13.4.
But there was Ayed, out there in Lane 8, ready to do everything he could to change the narrative for this event at the WIAA state track and field meet.
And when Ayed crossed the finish line in 14.22 seconds, he successfully flipped the script and could call himself a state champion.
“I didn’t ever want to say it was going to happen,” Holmen hurdles coach Hanna Niccum said. “But I was always hoping he was going to win. Right? That’s every coach’s dream when you make finals.
“Anything can happen, and I think you saw that today.”
Ayed took advantage of a Clayborn fall — Ayed also fell on this track as a freshman — and beat second-place Wisconsin Lutheran sophomore Cedric Bolden by .02 seconds to give the Vikings a boy champion for the first time since its 400 relay won in 2016.
Ayed is the first individual champion for Holmen’s boys team since Chuck Mahlum won the Class B 300 hurdles in 1988.
“I worked so hard for this,” Ayed said. “I knew I could do it. I just knew I had to excel and do great in the final.”
His lane position may have led Ayed to briefly question his chances as he tried to build on a fifth-place finish from his sophomore season, but he said that changed quickly.
A strong finish led Ayed to extend his arms out to his sides with a wide smile as he looked toward the scoreboard for the final results. It felt good, but he needed the confirmation.
“I thought (Bolden) had me at the end a little bit,” said Ayed, who was unaware of Clayborn’s fall when it happened. “But looking next to me, I knew I had it.”
