'Just run': How Williams Field's Saira Prince's dream day on track came together

It never gets old. She'll go over technique as if it's her first day learning the hurdles.

Even after having a day like Saturday, when she came to the Arcadia Invitatonal in Southern Caifornia and did something never seen before. Prince feels there still is work to do on her technique to get better.

In less than an hour that evening, she won the star-studded girls 100-meter hurdles invitational race and set an Arizona high school record at the same time at 13.58 seconds. It was an impeccable race, clearing all 10 hurdles with ease, bolting to the finish line, smiling, knowing she had just done something special.

"Once I crossed the line, I yelled out, 'Yes!' " Prince said. "Just because I felt I PR'd. I felt like it was such a good race. It was an amazing race."

It came just a couple of weeks after winning the same event at the Chandler Rotary Invitational in 13.86 and feeling she had just run one of the worst races of her life. She had to get back to basics and work on her starts.

Saira Prince slowly lifted her leg over the hurdle, meticulous about every movement, as she warmed up before Gilbert Williams Field's track practice began. One leg at a time. Over and over.

Then, less than an hour later, on Saturday after Mesa Red Mountain junior Tyler Mathews set an Arizona record in the boys 800 meters and Phoenix Mountain Pointe senior Jayden Davis set an Arizona record in the 400 meters, Prince did it again.

She blew away the field on her way to victory and another Arizona record in the hurdles, this time the 300 hurdles at 41.24 seconds.

"I was looking at all the girls' times and I said, 'OK, I need to get out quick,' " Prince said. "It didn't really feel I had a good start. Looking back at it now, I don 't think I could have run it faster."

All in all, it was a dream day, one the recent Arizona State signee will never forget.

"I was just going to have fun," Prince said. "It was my senior year. I was going to get PR. I just need to relax, and just run."

After that Chandler meet, she focused on her starts.

"That's the weakest part of my race," she said. "I knew to get out and get my lead leg down and just run. That Chandler race was not my strongest."

Williams Field hurdles coach Stephanie Pearson knows what a perfectionist Prince is and told her Saturday just to relax and have fun.

"That girl is super competitive," Pearson said. "There is no one she will back down from."

Pearson already is expecting Prince to break her own records before the season ends.

"I have a number in my head that she's supposed to hit, before the season ends, and she's right exactly where I need her to be," she said. "There's still four weeks left, and I haven't even started her speed training."

But she does have Prince training with Josiah Dye, a senior football player at Williams Field, who is one of the state's top male 110 and 300 hurdlers. He is the only who can push her in practices.

Prince started out as a gymnast growing up and didn't start doing the hurdles until middle school. But she didn't get serious with the hurdles until her sophomore year mainly because COVID wiped out the track season her freshman year in 2020, she said.

She won state titles in the 100 hurdles both her sophomore and junior seasons.

"It's unbelievable," Williams Field head track and field coach Kelvin Hunter said about Prince's double state records on the same day. "I've never seen anything like that in my life. It's a great accomplishment for her.

"She was just having fun. She didn't put any added pressure on herself. She just went out there and ran. And things happened."

The state records were always on her mind but, but after Saturday's performance, she still isn't satisfied.

"I want to try to lower that time so that nobody else can reach it," Prince said. "Just because I like being in first place."

She's looking forward to a college career at Arizona State. She loves the location. She has a close family and wants to be near them. And she said she likes the heat, having grown up here.

She has five siblings. Prince is the second-oldest in the family. She hopes she can be a role model. She knows family is what motivates her.

"They're amazing," she said. "They're my biggest supporters."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How Williams Field's Saira Prince's dream day on track came together