What if Erriyon Knighton ran college Track and Field?
Erriyon Knighton is a World Championship medalist, and an Olympian in the 200 meter dash. That makes him one of the fastest men in the world. But that’s not even telling half the story. He turned professional at the age of 16 years old, and he will barely turn 20 years old just in time for the next Olympic games! That means he didn’t just skip college, he didn’t even finish his high school career before taking his shot at the pros. The fact that he has broken World Junior records in his signature event should not come as a surprise. However, when you turn pro the stakes change along with it. In the world of professional sprinting, there are no All Americans. Either you make Team USA and win, or you fail to win. And there are a whole lot of failures out there in professional track.
The truth is that Erriyon Knighton is perhaps the greatest young sprinter we have ever seen on the track since lightning struck the track almost two decades ago. It is also true that some of the fastest sprinters in the world are running right now at the NCAA level. Erriyon doesn’t have to deal with them, because he’s skipped out on college entirely. But what would have happened if he actually ran track in college, or for that matter the last 2 years of high school? He would be entering his sophomore season right about now. So here is a breakdown of what we could of witnessed during Erriyon Knighton’s freshman year of college competing in the NCAA. A season that would have been wilder than you could ever imagine, and likely would have changed the course of his career.
What if Erriyon Knighton never left high school early?
The idea that Erriyon Knighton definitely should have skipped college is actually controversial. Today we live in an NIL era. College athletes are allowed to get paid from sponsorships if they want to, and to be honest, that is all professional track really is. Athletes collect a check from Adidas or any other company to wear their gear while you go out and race. Besides Sydney McLaughlin made the Olympics back when she was a junior in high school, and then came back to run her senior year in high school before becoming the Gatorade National track athlete of the year 2 years in a row, a collegiate record holder and an NCAA champion. After proving herself through all that she went on to dominate as a pro.
Erriyon Knighton skipped his final 2 years of high school, so before he even gets to college, how good would he have been at that level? Running out of Hillsborough high school he likely would have been the fastest boy in Florida and for that matter the entire nation. But not by as much as you may think. In 2021 he would have beaten out Jaylen Slade for the fastest time in Florida running 9.99 wind assisted. But Jaylen ran 10.03 which is dangerously close! They both ran that time in the same exact race. His 200 was consistently fast enough to make him number 1 in the nation. Leading up to the Olympic trials he ran 20.11 wind legal. Jaylen Slade would be right behind him again, running 20.20 seconds, and they both showed up to the Olympic trials that year anyway! But in 2022 he would have a Senior year for the record books running 10.04 in the 100 meter dash, but this time wind legal, and 19.49 in the 200 meter dash. He would be the high school national record holder obviously, and likely completed 2 seasons back to back as the fastest boy in both events. After all that he would have to go down as the national boys track athlete of the year, in both seasons
How good would Erriyon Knighton be in college?
This is where things get interesting, because college track and field is not like high school. There are a whole bunch of fast men at that level. We already know where Erriyon would have gone to college anyway, because he actually trains at the University of Florida with their head coach Mike Holloway right now. Coincidentally he also coaches Grant Holloway! It can therefore be assumed that whatever he’s already doing would be the same performances in college, since he has the same coach. The only problem is, Erriyon Knighton doesn’t run indoor track races, at all. He literally never ran one, so the only way to estimate those performances is with a little bit of math to figure it out.
Freshman year indoor season
During his first indoor season ever, we can assume that his personal best times would have been about 6.58 in the 60 meter dash. That’s just as fast as Godson Oghenbrume ran in that event out of LSU. He was just a little bit faster than Erriyon in the 100 meter dash later that year. His 200 meter dash would also be about .42 seconds slower than his outdoor best with no wind factors, using data from the journal of strength and conditioning. That would land him at 20.14 seconds. He’d get third in the 60 meter dash at the SEC championships indoors behind Favour Ashe of Auburn, and another talented freshman in Jordan Anthony formerly of Kentucky! But he would win the SEC 200, and it wouldn’t be that close, to help Florida go 1, 2, in that event ahead of Matthew Boling. Florida got second at that meet in reality, and the extra points from Erriyon would make the meet a lot closer but they would still lose in the end to Arkansas.
But at the NCAA championships indoors, he’d likely have a chance to sneak into the final of the 60 meter dash as well. If he pulled it off, he could get no higher than fifth which is still All American status. His 200 meter race would be a lot closer than the SEC meet, with a good chance that Erriyon would get edged out by Matthew Boling of Georgia. He would lose at the line by just 2 hundredths of a second. Those points would have pushed them ahead of Georgia from third to second in the meet, but they would still lose to Arkansas once again. This means that leading into the outdoor season Erriyon would be a reigning NCAA champion in the 200 meter dash, and tied for second on the all-time list behind Elijah Hall of Houston.
Freshman year outdoor season
It’s no surprise that his Outdoor season would be one of the best in the nation. Erriyon would run as fast as 9.98 with wind slightly above the allowable limit. He would actually win the Florida Relays 100 meter dash, because he did it already in reality. But he would shock the world winning the SEC championship by 2 hundredths of a second over Godson Oghenbrume of LSU. Obviously he would win the 200 meter dash, so Florida would go 1-2 in that event once again. He would likely take over for Ryan Willie on the 4x100m and help them edge out LSU there as well. So Florida would have jumped all the way from sixth place in the conference meet, all the way to second, still losing to Arkansas once again.
However, the NCAA outdoor championship is the biggest meet of the year, and Erriyon would need to pull out all the stops in order to get the job done. It would go down to the thousandths in the 100 meter prelims for him to even make the final of the 100 meter dash, between him and Udodi Onwuzurike of Stanford. Assuming he got the spot over him, he would have likely finished no higher than seventh place in the final race. But he would have won the 200 meter dash by a little more than a tenth of a second. He would hold off the same man who tied with him in the 100 meter prelims Udodi Onwuzurike to win the NCAA outdoor championship in the 200! He would likely have taken out the collegiate record at some point in the season while he was at it. Once again it would come down to Florida and LSU to determine the 4x100m NCAA champion. Considering Florida lost by 2 tenths of a second in reality with a 400 runner as their leadoff, Florida should win the title there with Erriyon on their team. As a result what was a near victory over Arkansas at the NCAA meet anyway, would no longer be a close call. The Gators would be the NCAA champions by more than ten points, and a freshman sprinter from Tampa, Florida would have made all the difference.
The Bottom Line
Erriyon Knighton skipped college and things appear to be working out just fine. He’s an Olympian and a World Championship medalist, but he could have still done all of that competing in a college uniform. He might not have had a lot of competition in the NCAA that could beat him. But he would be chasing the record books, indoors and outdoors, which is a lot harder than anybody really gives it credit for. He turned pro at 16 years old and never looked back, and I don’t blame him. But if he had simply allowed his professional coach, to first become his college coach, he could have made a run to be the greatest collegiate athlete of all time!
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