Gatlin Bair ready to 'cut off more time,' do something special in IHSAA boys' sprints

Perhaps what gets lost with Idaho teenager Gatlin Bair amid the pure-speed blur is his innate understanding of the science of sprinting.

Yes, Bair has natural gifts. But there are reasons why his season-best times at Burley High School in either the 100- or 200-meter dashes have dropped in five consecutive meets.

"Obviously when you are in-season, the technical things are what drop times more than anything," Bair said. "The 200 is a big one - the more you win it, the better you get at it."

Bair, a junior, heads into the IHSAA Class 5A/4A track and field championships at Mountain View High School this weekend as the heavy favorite to nab 4A titles in both races.

* GET TO KNOW TALENTED BURLEY MULTI-SPORT ATHLETE GATLIN BAIR

Preliminaries for the events are Friday afternoon; his pursuit of the gold medals will start at approximately 2:45 p.m. Saturday.

More intriguing that the wins are the times - or what they could be. Bair comes into the meet with mind-blowing marks in each race - 10.15 seconds in the 100 (No. 4 high school mark in the nation), and 20.47 in the 200 (No. 2 in the nation).

Under the watchful coaching eye of his father, Ben, the teenager said his body feels in peak form this week in practices.

And the burst?

"Ran some 60s (60-meter dashes Tuesday), and I was running some pretty good times there," Bair said. "He's happy. And I am excited for this weekend. I have the possibility to put some really fast times up."

Most fans around the country are in tune to Bair as the highly-acclaimed, four-star wide receiver in the 2024 class who just revealed his top five schools in April - Boise State, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon and TCU.

What has accompanied the football hype is his track-and-field accomplishments over the past seven weeks.

It all started at the 95th annual Texas Relays where he posted a blistering 10.18 in the 100 to take over the national lead.

Three weeks later, Bair went under 21 seconds in the 200 for the first time at the Oregon Relays - 20.83.

A week later, that time dropped again at the Tiger/Grizz Invitational in Idaho - 20.61.

He lowered it again at the BYU Invitational in the first weekend of May - at 20.47.

"Throughout the season, I did experiment with ways to relax my upper body (during the 200)," Bair said. "It's more about things I focus on while I am running while I am relaxing my upper body, like when to drive coming off the corner and get into slingshot (mode)."

Last weekend at his Class 4A district meet, Bair recorded his career-best time in the 100 during preliminaries - 10.15 (which was recorded by a football teammate on the iPad).

"I really surprised myself," Bair said. "When I got done with the race, I did not think it was that fast. I can think cut off more time ... because my start was not super good."

More time - as in under 10 seconds?

"I think so," Bair said. "I would probably need a 1.5 tailwind to make it legal

"You have to have the right conditions to put up a time like that ... but if I had the right elements, yeah."

As far as extending his track-and-field success past this weekend, Bair said he will spend most of June taking official visits for football. He said he might enter a meet or two in July.

"I will be on a time crunch," he said.

Indeed, he will.

(Featured photo by Ryan Sun/The Deseret News)