The Class 6A boys 100-meter dash prelims took center stage as the 2023 AHSAA State Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the 98th running of the AHSAA event, opened on Thursday at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex.

Clay-Chalkville junior Jaylen Mbakwe led 13 sprinters with times under 11 seconds. Mbakwe, a University of Alabama football commitment, ran 10.56 seconds and Oxford’s Antonio Hicks ran 10.95 to finish 13th in the prelim heats.

The state’s fastest sprinter all season – and the indoor state champion – Ryan Williams of Saraland, who led the Spartans to the Class 6A state football title last December, pulled up lame at the start and finished in 11.26 seconds. He qualified at last week’s sectional with the fastest time at 10.69 seconds, but his 23rd-beset finish Thursday failed to reach Saturday’s finals.

The 6A 100-meter dash finals appear to be wide open with Mbakwe in the driver’s seat. He earned the top seed with McAdory’s Yumana Lofton in second at 10.72, edging Pelham’s William McGough, Lajavious Calhoun of Benjamin Russell and Chancellor Sparks of Parker – all coming in under 10.80.

In the Class 7A girls 100-meter prelims, Baker sophomore Myla Reed shocked the AHSAA track world during the sectionals by running the fastest high school time in AHSAA history – 11.62 seconds in the Section 1 race, eclipsing the mark of 11.63 set by McGill-Toolen’s Frenchie Holmes in 1986.

Reed reached Saturday’s 7A finals with an 11.81 finish, third in the prelims behind Foley junior Destiny Roper at 11.65 and Hoover senior Gabby Washington’s 11.76. Saraland senior Morgan Davis equaled Roper’s time with the fastest qualifying performance in the Class 6A prelims.

Four other sprinters had equaled or surpassed Holmes’ time since, but all were wind-aided and did not officially break the mark, according to NFHS track and field standards. Park Crossing’s Jasmine Riley was timed at 11.42 in 2019 with a 2.3 wind-aided measure. Woodlawn’s Jayla Kirkland clocked 10:46 in 2014, but the wind-aid measure was 3.0.

Current Demopolis senior Shonedra Richardson, who qualified in the 5A competition Thursday with the fastest time in her division at 11.80, had an 11.58 wind-aided time in 2022, and Makenzie Harris of Austin equaled Holmes’ mark with an 11.63 wind-aided time, also in 2022.

Thursday’s best girls 4A qualifier was St. Michael senior Tia Acker. She earned the top seed for Saturday’s finals with an 11.86 finish.

Haleyville led the team scoring in the boys meet in Class 4A after Day 1 with 23 points, followed by Brooks with 16. Bayside Academy led the 4A girls with 21.5 points. Montgomery Academy’s girls totaled 19 points, followed by B.T. Washington at 18 and Brooks with 17.

In Class 5A, Scottsboro’s girls accumulated 30 points to take the first-day lead. Northeast Alabama rival Arab had 22.5 points and Lawrence County has 16. Scottsboro’s boys took a big lead with 40 points. Springville is second with 23 after the first day and Arab has 20.

St. Paul’s emerged with 24 points to lead the 6A boys team race. Spanish Fort was second with 15. Mountain Brook holds a 28-17 lead over Northridge in the 6A girls team standings with Homewood third with 14.

Defending boys 7A state champion Hoover holds a commanding lead after Day 1 with 40.5 points. Vestavia Hills is second with 19 and McGill-Toolen Catholic is third with 13. Auburn leads the 7A girls competition with 21 points, followed by Chelsea (16) and Hewitt-Trussville (13).

Among the other highlights:

– Janie Ford of St. Paul’s won the 6A girls triple jump with a leap of 40 feet, 11 ¼ Inches.

– Satsuma long jumper Presleigh Montalvo won the 4A event with at 18 feet, 4 inches.

– Chelsea’s Cady McPhail had the best time of all girls competitors in the 1,600-meter race, winning in 4:52.14. It was a sprint to the finish, however, with Auburn’s Abby Merner on her heels with a 4:54.71 time and Huntsville’s Ava McIntosh was three seconds behind for third place with a 4:55.01.

– Mountain Brook’s Reagan Riley captured the 6A 1,600 meters with the second best girls time of the day at 4:53.28.

– Brooks junior Tyler Haskovec won the 4A discus championship with a toss of 156-02 – beating the field by 17 feet.

– Spanish Fort’s Hunter Hall and Cullman’s Patrick Adcock tied with long throws of 153-04 in the 6A discus competition, but Hall took first place with a second-best throw of 150 feet. He also had fewer fouls.

– Sylacauga’s Bryant Waters won the javelin throw with a toss of 174 feet, 8 inches in Class 5A. In Class 7A, Vestavia Hills’ Alex Leath and Auburn’s Maxwell Hardin matched step-for-step in the 1,600 meters with Leath winning by 11/100th of a second. He clocked a 4:07.33 while Hardin finished at 4:07.44. Both broke the state record of 4:08.40 set by Scottsboro’s Cooper Atkins in 2021. Finishing third and fourth just four seconds behind were Huntsville’s Jackson Harris and Vestavia’s Henry Strand with times of 4:11.74 and 4:11.89, respectively.

Action in Gulf Shores begins Friday at 8 a.m. for Classes 4A, 5A, 6A and 7A at Gulf Shores, and state meet for Classes 1A, 2A and 3A begins in Cullman, also at 8 a.m. The championships are being live-streamed over the NFHS Network’s subscriber-based platform at both sites.

Click here to check out Thursday’s individual results, provided by Express Timing.