Hurdler supreme: Son of Mansfield native brings star power, state titles to 90th Mehock Relays

MANSFIELD – It's highly doubtful that Jayden Douglas would take offense if you called him a momma's boy.

He wasn't opposed to his mom, Christine Bonner Douglas, joining the staff on his Columbus Beechcroft track team last year as an assistant coach and hurdles coach.

If anything, Ohio's best high school hurdler – competing Saturday in the 90th Mehock Relays – endorsed it and embraced it.

"I’ve been his coach since he started training at 5 years old, through AAU and everything, basically," said Christine, a 1998 Mansfield Senior graduate. "When this position came open he said, mom, take it. I said, no, you should be tired of running for your mom. You wouldn't be embarrassed? No, please take it.

"If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have taken this job."

Mom and son make quite a team. Jayden is the defending Division I outdoor state champion in the 300 meter hurdles, winning in a time of 36.72. Last month he repeated as the 60 meter hurdles indoor state champ in 7.76, beating Malachi Snow, the 2022 outdoor champ in the DI 110 high hurdles from Cincinnati Northwest.

He's the first male athlete at Beechcroft to win a state title and he's the Columbus City Schools record-holder in the 300s.

Christine (Bonner is her maiden name) was a fine athlete in her own right. As a Madison sophomore she was part of a state-qualifying 4x100 relay team with Roni Jones, Brooke Predmore and Melissa Baer. She finished up with the Tygers, her sprint relay team just missing out on a state berth.

She's excited about coming home this weekend and reuniting with long-time friends like Tygers head coach Tyree Shine, her sprint coach at Senior High, and Madison legend Jeff Jenkins, who offered Jayden some instruction early on in his development as a hurdler.

The Relays will be a homecoming for Jenkins, too. The two-time state hurdles champ and two-time junior college national champion is an assistant coach at Cleveland Central Catholic, which is entered in the Mehock.

"When I first started training hurdles I was like, man, I’ve got to get some feedback from someone, so I reached out to Jeff," Christine said. "I would go to Cleveland a lot and talk to him about hurdles."

Although he is making his Relays debut, Jayden is no stranger to Mehock Field. He attended the meet in 2015 when his brother Frank Douglas, a star hurdler for Madison, won the 300s, stunning Warren JFK's Chad Zallow, the No. 1 hurdler in the nation.

Zallow, who, ironically, was coached by Jenkins, went on to sweep the hurdles at the state meet that spring and win a Nike national championship.

"Jayden has wanted to run in the Mehock because he was there when his brother ran in it," Christine said, "so he knows a lot of the ambience of the meet. Every year he's like ‘Are they going to let us run the Mehock?’ And I’m like, no."

That's what makes this weekend so special for both of them. This trip to the Relays has been a long time coming. Christine wanted Beechcroft to come under the previous coaching regime but it fell on deaf ears. Last year, Tremayne Peppers took over and she finally got her wish this spring.

"Since Jayden's freshman year I tried to talk the last head coach into doing the Mehock, but they always said, oh, we already have a meet on the schedule and it's closer," Christine said. "When I came on board last year I said, hey, I really want to do this meet. It would make my day if we could do this meet. My dad (William ‘Scooter’ Bonner) ran in it. My mom (Joyce Carr) ran in it. I ran in it. Jayden's brother ran in it."

And now it's finally happening for Jayden, who, rightfully, is getting star billing. He's entered in the 110s and 300s and 4x400 relay.

"I was really hoping last year would be the year," Christine said, "but this being his senior year, when I got the OK, everyone was so excited for this weekend. With Tyree retiring (at the end of this season), it's just going to be a special day being there."

With Jayden as the foundational piece, Beechcroft is building something nice. Peppers won three state titles as coach at Pickerington Central. He and Christine coached AAU together, so they are a natural fit for the program.

"I told him let's come in together, let's turn this program around, let's make some changes," she said. "The year before we took over there were eight boys on the team. Last year they had 20 and this year 34."

Jayden's stiffest competition at Mehock, at least in the 110s, will probably come from defending champ Joshua Hurt, a senior at East Kentwood, a Michigan school that swept the boys and girls team crowns in last year's meet.

Hurt has finished fourth in the 110s each of the last two years at the Michigan state meet, running a 15.06 as a sophomore and 14.77 last year. By comparison, Jayden ran a 14.22 for fifth place in last year's state meet in Columbus.

"When Jayden said he wanted to start running at age 5, I was like, oh, no," Christine said. "I tried to talk him out of it. I was just worried because we’re just that crazy track family.

"I’ve got a photo album that I started for him and it walks through our family ties through track in Mansfield. My dad's pictures are in there and my mom's. I just didn't want Jayden to feel pressure. I didn't want him to feel like had to fill anyone's shoes. Just have fun."

Judging from his state titles and the national letter of intent he signed to continue his career at Texas Christian University, Jayden is having loads of fun.

It's especially been fun to share his success with family members, like his mom and Frank, a record-setter for Madison who went on to compete for Eastern Michigan.

"He was a big, big, big influence because at first I was just a 400 and a 1-2 (100 and 200) guy," Jayden said. "But with him doing hurdles, it fell on me and I started liking it, so it just came to be that I was doing hurdles."

Asked what kind of advice Frank has given him, Jayden responded with some playful smack talk..

"Right now, I’ve passed him (with better times)," Jayden said, "so there's not much he can say."

Zing.

They’ve never raced each other, even just for fun.

"I’d beat him for sure, now," Jayden said, teasingly. "I’ve got him."

Another zing.

In all seriousness, if you start with Frank, their family tree reads like a Who's Who in Mansfield track royalty. There's also Christine's parents, both of whom are in the Mansfield Senior Hall of Fame; her aunt, Kim Carr, a star sprinter for Malabar High School (before it merged with Mansfield Senior) and distant relatives like Mansfield City Schools Hall of Famers Del-Ray Feagin and Daneiaka Howard and Madison hurdler Issac Brooks, who competed against Jayden in last year's state meet in both of their specialties.

Jayden's 12-year-old sister, Brittany, is a two-time Junior Olympics national champion in the hurdles and is already a 17-foot long jumper.

"We’re just a big track family, that's what we do, and now my little one is coming up," Christine said. "Everyone's like, what are you doing with these kids?"

On the AAU summer circuit, Shine saw Jayden at a young age and encouraged him to run the 400 meters. He has always believed that the metric quartermile is the best foundation for a track athlete. Everything builds off of that race, which requires speed and stamina.

Jayden needed little convincing.

"I’ve always run the 400," he said. "I’ve loved … LOVED … running the 400 since I was little. It just comes easy. It helps my hurdles, it helps the 200, it helps a lot of races by doing the 400."

Two weeks after last year's state meet in June, Jayden ran the 400 in 47.7. That would have put him right there for a DI state title, which was won in 47.67.

In this year's indoor state meet, he ran a 48.51, good for runner-up honors.

"That's his race," Christine said. "He lives and dies by the 400. It's hard for him to run it because it's so close (on the meet schedule) to the 300s. He loves it for summer track and he has the ability to run it indoors because there's no long (hurdles) race after that. Any race where he can run the 400, he's in it, even if it's the 4x4."

Jayden's ability in the 400 should make him a natural 400 meter hurdler in college and a strong candidate in the 4x4 as well. But he's also put in a lot of work in the shorter hurdles, evidenced by his two state indoor titles in the 60s and the medal he won at state last spring in the 110s.

"(TCU) recruited him as a 400 hurdler, but we’ve put a lot of work into his short hurdles, so now it's a toss-up of whether he's going to be a short hurdler or a long hurdler," Christine said. "And he knows he’ll probably cameo in the 4x4 quite a bit."

Khadevis Robinson, TCU's second-year head coach, picked Jayden and his mom up at the airport on his recruiting visit. That made a big impression. Robinson previously spent five years as an assistant track coach and head cross country coach at Ohio State. So they’ll always have that Columbus connection.

TCU is on a pretty good high right now, coming off its first College Football Playoff appearance. Jayden earned All-Ohio honorable mention as a receiver last season and his 99-yard punt return stands as the longest in Beechcroft history. So might he be tempted to give a second sport a shot at the next level?

"I might have to see what they offer," Jayden said jokingly. "Might as well."