Zacchaeus Brocks, the Novi Detroit Catholic Central senior and Ohio State signee, has been named the 2025-26 Gatorade National Boys Track & Field Athlete of the Year, capping a season in which he rewrote the American high school record book in the 110m hurdles. Olympic medallist and former Gatorade honouree Jason Richardson surprised Brocks with the award before it was made public.
The honour follows a performance that had already marked Brocks out as one of the standout prep athletes of his generation. Racing at the USATF U20 Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field in June, he clocked 12.975 seconds to win the title, becoming the first American high schooler ever to break 13 seconds in the event and eclipsing Wayne Davis' 13.08 mark, which had stood since 2009.
Brocks confirmed the breakthrough was no fluke when he ran a legal 12.98 at Nike Outdoor Nationals, a performance that stands alone in high school history as the only sub-13 clocking achieved with a legal wind reading. The consistency across two major championship settings did as much to cement his standing as either individual time.
The Gatorade award carries particular weight in American high school athletics, having previously gone on to identify future Olympians and national champions among its recipients. For a hurdler who has already signed with Ohio State, the recognition arrives at a natural inflection point between a record-setting prep career and the step up to Division I competition.
Brocks' rise also lands amid a broader moment of transition in American hurdling, with the event's depth at both the collegiate and professional level continuing to grow. Coaches and observers will be watching closely to see how quickly his prep-record speed translates once he moves into competition against seasoned collegiate hurdlers this autumn.