Spotlighting Our Youth: An Olympian on the Rise

 Wayde van Niekerk may hold the 400-meter world record, and Usain Bolt might still be “the fastest man alive,” but these two speedsters may have a little competition in the future with our latest Spotlighting Our Youth honoree on their heels.  This month features 14-year-old Solomon Strader, a track and field runner for Valley United, and a student at Trinity Classical Academy with a 3.4 GPA.
Thanks to his training under four-time Olympian Denean Hill, Solomon was prepared for the 400-meter dash at the Jr. Olympics in Sacramento in July.  Racing against fellow athletes one to two years older than him, the Jr. Olympian finished strong in Heat 2 of the 400-meter with a personal best of 49.5 seconds, ranking eighth in the nation for the USATF.  As the Anchor Leg, or final runner, in the 4×100 relay, he and his teammates – Nazar Bombata, Niles Reeves and Dean Cotrone – secured sixth place with a final run time of 43.06 seconds – an amazing accomplishment for the incoming high school student.
Solomon started out at age 6 running for Santa Clarita Storm and competed in the Valley Youth Conference, which has been noted as the best conference in Southern California.  In later years, he began playing basketball but noticed how fast he was moving up and down the court, eventually coming back to track and field.
The now ninth-grader has stated that “[he tries] to enjoy what he’s doing and have fun,” which seems to be working for him!