Beyond the Medals: Dayton Wolverines Take Dayton to the National Stage
- RoShawn Winburn
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- 7 min read
By RoShawn Winburn
DAYTON, OH — Sixty-eight Dayton Wolverines Track Club athletes qualified for the 2026 AAU Junior Olympic Games in Des Moines, Iowa. By the time competition ended, Wolverines athletes had collected national championships and All-American honors in hurdles, sprints, combined events and relays.
Ask some of the young athletes what they remember about the experience, though, and they don’t start with their medals.
They talk about learning from races that didn’t go their way, trusting teammates, setting higher expectations for themselves and discovering they could compete with some of the best young athletes in the country.
68 Wolverines Qualify for Nationals
The 2026 AAU Junior Olympic Games marked the 60th edition of the national competition, with track and field events held at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.
For the Wolverines, getting 68 athletes to qualify was an accomplishment in itself.
“It’s always a blessing to take any athletes to Nationals,” Coach Keith Ways said. “To have 68 athletes qualify for the National J O’s is huge, but we expect that year after year. Nationals is our goal.”
The Wolverines then turned those opportunities into national titles and All-American performances.
Fourteen-year-old Damare Smith led the Wolverines’ individual performances, winning national titles in the boys pentathlon and 100-meter hurdles, where he ran 13.2 seconds. He finished second in the high jump at 5 feet, 10¾ inches and second in the 200-meter hurdles in 25.04 seconds. His pentathlon victory made him a back-to-back AAU Junior Olympic champion.
Te’Yone Strodes won the 13-year-old girls 100-meter hurdles in 14.7 seconds, finished fourth in the pentathlon and sixth in the 200-meter hurdles with a time of 28.32.
Faith Brown won the 17–18 girls 400-meter hurdles in 59.5 seconds and finished third nationally in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.2 seconds.
Twelve-year-old Kaniyah Taylor finished fourth nationally in the 200 meters in 25.5 seconds and seventh in the 100 meters in 12.5 seconds.
Aliyah Walker finished seventh in the 12-year-old girls pentathlon and third in the 80-meter hurdles in 12.91 seconds.
Taylor and Walker joined Zion Payne and Vivian Meyer on the Wolverines’ 12-year-old girls 4x100-meter relay team, which finished fourth nationally in 51.1 seconds.
Ni’Zyah Dunson finished eighth nationally in the 13-year-old girls 200-meter hurdles in 30.0 seconds, earning All-American recognition.
The 12-year-old girls 4x800-meter relay team of Reina Reynolds, Elizabeth Honaker, Ayshia Lewis and Claire Searcy also earned All-American honors with a seventh-place national finish.
Those results show what the Wolverines accomplished in Iowa. Conversations with the athletes offer a look at what it took to get there and what they brought home from the experience.
Strodes: “I Belong With the Best”
Strodes’ schedule required her to compete in multiple events while dealing with the different outcomes that come with each competition.
“Competing in multiple events has taught me how to stay focused and keep pushing, even when things don’t go the way I want,” Strodes said. “I’ve learned that disappointment is part of competing, but it doesn’t define me.”
She said she tries to learn from each race, whether the result is good or bad.
“I try to learn from every race, celebrate my successes, and use both the good and bad experiences to become a better athlete,” she said.
The national competition also gave Strodes a different perspective on where she stands among athletes her age.
“Competing nationally showed me that I belong with the best athletes in the country,” Strodes said. “It gave me more confidence in myself and made me believe that I can accomplish bigger goals than I once imagined.”
“Now I know that if I work hard, stay focused, and believe in myself, I can compete at the highest levels.”
Brown: Starting Strong and Finishing Stronger
For Brown, one of the biggest tests in Iowa came before she won the 400-meter hurdles championship.
Her position after the preliminary rounds wasn’t what she expected.
“Going from first place to sixth place after the preliminary rounds was definitely unexpected,” Brown said.
She turned to her coaches and the work she had already put in.
“After talking with my coaches, I remembered how hard and how long I had been working for this track meet,” she said.
Brown knew the physical race plan: attack the first five hurdles. The bigger adjustment was mental.
“Mentally I had to believe that I was capable of starting strong and finishing stronger,” Brown said.
She did. Brown won the national championship in the 17–18 girls 400-meter hurdles and added a third-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles.
But when Brown talks about what being a Dayton Wolverine has given her, she doesn’t limit the answer to racing.
“Being a Dayton Wolverine has taught me that I really value being part of something bigger than myself,” Brown said. “Through volunteering and working with my teammates to give back to our community, I’ve realized how much I enjoy helping others and being able to make an impact outside of track.”
Taylor Sets Her Sights Higher
Fourth place in the country might be enough for some young athletes to celebrate for a while.
Taylor is already thinking about what comes next.
“Finishing fourth nationally really affected the expectations I have for myself because now I would expect to do better and make it to a better ranking next year,” she said.
Taylor said racing has also changed how she responds when things don’t go as planned.
“Track has taught me that having confidence is key to a good race,” she said. “It also taught me to take mistakes as lessons on the next race and to take successes as someone saying you did everything right but you can still improve.”
Taylor’s national meet wasn’t limited to her individual races. She was also part of the fourth-place 4x100 relay team.
“Being responsible for teammates has taught me that you have to trust them to do their part to bring the relay together,” Taylor said.
Walker Learns Her Attitude Matters
Walker competed individually in the pentathlon and hurdles before joining Taylor, Payne and Meyer in the 4x100 relay.
Her third-place finish in the 80-meter hurdles showed her something about her own ability.
“It taught me that I can push myself past my limits,” Walker said.
Her experience at the national meet has also raised her expectations.
When asked whether competing nationally had made her dreams or goals bigger, Walker didn’t need many words.
“It has. My goal is to get 1st place.”
Running on a relay taught her a different lesson.
“It taught me that my attitude affects the other girls on the relay team, so I needed to keep a positive attitude,” Walker said.
Dunson Leaves Iowa an All-American
Dunson’s eighth-place finish in the 200-meter hurdles earned her AAU All-American recognition. She said getting there required learning to deal with more than winning.
“Track has taught me how to handle pressure, disappointment and success all at the same time,” Dunson said. “Also I have learned that every race doesn’t go the way I want it to.”
“Although I may have some failures, as well as some successes, each race I learned from it.”
Competing at the Junior Olympics gave Dunson an opportunity to measure herself against athletes from around the country.
“Being there showed me that I can compete with talented athletes like me and better,” she said. “Competing nationally showed me that I could accomplish more than I thought I could as an athlete.”
Dunson said the experience made her believe in herself more and reinforced the connection between the work she puts in and the opportunity to compete nationally.
“This big accomplishment taught me to believe in myself more,” she said. “Also to keep doing the hard work to get me there again in the near future! As well as to never give up!”
She now has something tangible to show for that work.
“Every race makes me stronger and helps me become a better athlete,” Dunson said. “I am even more proud of myself, because now, I am an AAU All American in the 200m hurdles.”
More Than the Results
Ways said one of the most gratifying parts of coaching is watching athletes mature over the course of a season.
National competition can accelerate that process.
“I do know that the majority once they see the ‘bling’ for the first time, they come back ready to work,” Ways said.
For Strodes, Iowa showed her that she belongs alongside the country’s best young athletes. Taylor came home expecting more of herself. Walker learned that her attitude can influence her teammates. Dunson returned as an All-American with greater confidence in what she can accomplish.
Brown expects her memories of Iowa to extend well beyond winning a national championship.
“Traveling to Iowa, competing alongside my teammates, and being surrounded by athletes who had worked just as hard to get there made me appreciate how special the experience was,” Brown said. “It gave me a better perspective on how much goes into reaching this level and made me more appreciative of the people who helped me get there.”
The results document what the Dayton Wolverines accomplished in Iowa. The athletes’ own words show what those results cannot: how competing on a national stage is shaping what these young people expect from themselves, what they learn from setbacks and how they understand their responsibility to the people around them.
The Dayton Wolverines Track Club was formed in 2009 with Head Coach, Keith Ways, with the initial purpose of providing an avenue for youth to learn the fundamentals of running track and staying healthy.
To get involved or to support their mission, visit them online at daytonwolverinestrackclub.com/ or follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
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