Waldron Brings Her Father’s Legacy, Epic Comeback Season Into Brooks 100-Meter Hurdles Showdown

Story and Photos by Steve Underwood for DyeStat

When Nonah Waldron during her recent record-setting Michigan Division 1 300-meter hurdle triumph rocketed over the fifth hurdle – the juncture where in the 2022 finals on the very same track she tore her labrum and fell – she felt the visceral reaction of someone on her way to an historic breakthrough and the urgency to get to the finish.

“I was just like happy that I got over it … and then I was like 'GO!'" she said after the race. “I just told myself ‘Go now!’ – like, “Don’t wait, just go,’ and I did. I just went!”  The result was an all-time Michigan best and US#2 40.37 victory that finished off a day where Waldron also won the 100 hurdles and helped her Oak Park team to runner-up finishes in the 4x100 and 4x200 relays and a dominating team victory – the seventh in nine years for the program under coach Brandon Jiles.

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At the Brooks PR Invitational Wednesday in Renton, Wash., chances are Waldron will be urging herself on in the same manner, because in the 13-plus seconds of the shorter event there isn’t time to do much else than just “GO!” – all out – as she faces one of the best fields in the country for 2023. And, for once, Waldron has no other races to worry about – no 300 hurdles, no relays, not even any prelims. It’s just one race, one sustained burst of all-out effort.

And, as always, she will be uplifted by the support of her teammates (even if they aren’t on the line with her this time), coaches and family – including her late father, Troy, who passed away in July, 2021 after battling lupus.

Waldron’s father and mother each have inspired her in different ways along her track journey.

“Me and my dad were close, we had a really strong relationship,” she said. “And we bonded with track. It was OUR thing. My mom is the reason that I run track, because she ran track and wanted me to do track, but my dad was the one at every practice with me.”

The Southern Cal recruit is no stranger to high-level championships, whether it’s national high school meets or the summertime Junior Olympics.

However, she says, “This is my first Brooks, so I’m really excited. When I first got the news that I was invited, I was sooo happy and honored … I’m most looking forward to meeting everyone and just getting the experience.”

Obviously, 2023 has been a breakthrough season for the senior – as well as a wildly successful comeback from that injury last June. 

With the support of family, her coaches and national class teammates Morgan Roundtree and Carrie VanNoy, there has been no lack of encouragement and motivation.

Once Waldron returned to top form in the early spring, she and Roundtree started an assault on the state record books in the 300 hurdles. Roundtree, who held the record at 42.17 from last year, became the first Michigan hurdler under 42 with her 41.64 on May 6.

Then Waldron lowered that to 41.17 on May 11 – setting up the final breakthrough at state.

The story of the 100 hurdles is different. Waldron brought a 13.56 PR with her into this spring from back in ’21. She didn’t top that in ’22, before she got hurt, but nipped it by .02 earlier this spring, then clocked another 13.56 at state.  

With the great field lined up at Brooks, another breakthrough could be at hand, perhaps similar to that monster 300 hurdles final at state.

“I’m really looking forward to the competition and obviously I hope that I PR, run a great race and am able to win,” she said.

But the numbers that light up the scoreboard aren't what's foremost on Waldron’s mind.

“I don’t really chase times because I live in Michigan," she said. "I never get the ideal hurdling conditions… every race I’ve had this season was into a headwind or on a cold day. So I just think about the wins and let the times come with that. I know I’m a lot faster than I was sophomore year, so breaking 13.5 this summer is expected.”

It is also expected that it will take better than 13.5 to win at Brooks. Waldron is one of eight elite hurdlers from seven states in the race, including top seeded Aleesa Samuel, a super sophomore from Somerset Academy (Pembroke, Fla.), who has run a US#3 13.26. The Florida 3A state champ, she was runner-up at Brooks as a freshman in 2022.  

The rest of the field, including defending Nike Outdoor Nationals champ Akala Garrett (Albemarle, N.C.), have all run between 13.4 and 13.6 this spring.

Waldron won’t be intimidated. She was a Nike Outdoor National champ in 2021 and has run against this level of competition, indoors and out, throughout her career.

And the Brooks PR Invite won’t be the last chance Waldron has to run fast times in the 100 or 400 hurdles.  She’s entered in both events at Nike Outdoor Nationals, which begins in Eugene the day after Brooks.

Then in July she plans to return to Hayward Field for the USATF U20 Championships.

“I didn’t get to run U20s last year because of my injury, so I’m really excited for it this year,” she said.

But on Wednesday, the future Trojan will be zeroed in on the 10 hurdles in front of her at Renton Memorial Stadium, and trying to beat the seven athletes joining her on the starting line.  

Waldron says thinking about her father’s legacy pushes her “to do things I shouldn’t be able to do,” a feeling that first manifested itself during the AAU Junior Olympics two weeks after his passing where she was able to run a state record 58.10 in the 400-meter hurdles. “That day just showed me I have to use my dad’s memory to push me to do better.

“He was a personal trainer, so he would be the one to wake me up at 5 in the morning and be like, ‘Hey let’s work out.’ And I’d do it every time... and we would just bond and have conversations, and travel together and go to NCAAs together and just take trips together that were all around track.”

Waldron said her father was like the “team dad” for her and her Oak Park and Motor City Track Club teammates – doing whatever anyone needed, whenever they needed it – and that his passing had a powerful impact on the entire program.

“So continuing to go on without my dad is really, really hard. And he was so invested in this. So I know that me doing this well today (at state), he would have been so happy to be here. And I know I couldn’t have run that time without him. So I know he was here, somehow, someway he was here today. 

“I fell and got injured (last year), but I’m back up now,” she added. “I did it with God, prayer, praying every day and trusting the process.  And with amazing coaches like Coach Brandon, every day at practice with me, reminding me what my purpose is and my goals are, and keeping me on track … and, of course, my mom."

It may still be four days before Father's Day, but Waldron knows her father is always watching.

“Before my dad passed, he told me to work hard, always keep going, never give up and that’s what I do," she said. "I’ve been through so much, but he always told me to keep going and put in the extra work. Before every race I talk to him and talk to God, and remind myself to do it for Dad.”