Champion Allison Jayson Baldridge
Coming off their gold-medal performances at the State UIL Track and Field Meet, Longhorns Champion Allison and Jayson Baldridge will have the opportunity to compete against Cuban athletes in Havana’s Estadio Panamericano. The meet will be held this year in conjunction with the Barrientos Memorial, the long-running elite-level invitational held annually in the late spring.
The duo will compete as part of Team NSAF (National Scholastic Athletics Foundation) in Cuba May 27-28. Baldridge will run the 400-meter hurdles and Allison will compete in the 400-meter dash. Only 28 of the nation’s best high-school-aged track and field athletes will compete on Team NSAF.
The NSAF began the Caribbean Scholastic Invitational in 2006 with a dual purpose: One, to expose rising track and field stars – with more potential Team USA berths in their futures – to international competition at an early stage of their career and, two, for an exchange of cultural goodwill between American athletes and those from Caribbean nations.
The event had typically taken place in Puerto Rico and has been very successful during eight meets since.
Photos by Tia Weiss