Texas Tech track and field coach Wes Kittley is a Tate Taylor fan, and he’ll continue to be as Taylor competes this week at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Kittley might have one small ask: feel free to win, Tate, just don’t feel obliged to set any more records that trigger viral highlight clips. Save those for the 2027 season at Texas Tech.
“He’s registered (for classes), so hopefully he doesn’t run too fast this next week,” Kittley said in a joking tone.
Taylor, a Tech signee from San Antonio Harlan, holds national high-school records in the 100 meters and the 200. He won both sprints at the Under-20 U.S. championships in mid-June.
Then, on the Fourth of July at the Diamond League’s Prefontaine Classic, he ran 19.75 into negative wind in the 200 to beat reigning Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo. Both meets were at Hayward Field in Eugene, where the World U20 Championships will unfold from Wednesday, Aug. 5, through Sunday, Aug. 9.
For Kittley, its fingers crossed that Taylor’s running in Tech colors next winter at the Sports Performance Center and next spring at the Fuller Track Complex.
“I’m shocked he’s not going to turn pro,” Kittley said, “but he wants to go to college, he’s saying, and he’s determined. He came (to Tech in mid-July), did his registration and got his classes, but if he runs something crazy … I don’t know. He already has — 19.75, my goodness.
“If we get him here and he’s here a year, that’s all I’m counting on, because if he runs as fast as we think he might, then he’s going to turn pro.”
Taylor’s personal bests include 6.64 in the 60 meters, 9.92 in the 100 meters, the 19.75 in the 200 and, on a short track, a 20.46 200 that he ran in March 2025 at The Armory Track & Field Center in New York.
“I really think unless he runs something like 19.4 or 19.5, he will come,” Kittley said, “but I don’t know that he’ll come more than a year. But he has told me, his daddy’s told me — they were here for orientation — ‘Everyone wants us to turn pro. We don’t want to turn pro. We’ve got an NIL deal with Nike. We do not have to turn pro. We want to go to college and be a kid a little bit longer.’
“So they’re giving him a lot of money to not be pro, waiting on him, so I think we’ve got him for a year. I just don’t know past that point.”
Taylor’s one of two sprint prodigies who were part of Tech’s signing class. There’s also British-born Jake Odey-Jordan, who finished high school at Schertz Clemens. His personal bests include 6.64 in the 60 meters, 9.94 (wind assisted) and 10.01 (wind legal) in the 100 meters and 20.33 (wind legal) and 20.66 (short track) in the 200.
Taylor and Odey-Jordan both opted out of their high-school senior seasons.
Getting both to college would boost the Tech men’s chances of winning an NCAA championship for the third time and second in four years. The Red Raiders’ returning cast includes two-time NCAA triple jump champion Jonathan Seremes and Malachi Snow, a five-time first-team all-American in sprints and hurdles.
“I’m really pointing toward this year for the men’s side to be really good,” Kittley said, “because we’ve got Tate — and Jake might not stay either. … I mean, these are two fabulous freshmen. Tate’s better, but Jake is unreal good. We’ve got Malachi back. We’ve got Jonathan Seremes back. We’ve just got to put it together this year, because we’ve got a great group.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech track keeping eye on Tate Taylor, Jake Odey-Jordan at Worlds
Reporting by Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | USA TODAY Network
