Owensboro Middle School Track and Field star Ayden Fountain is currently ranked #1 in the state of Kentucky among middle school boys in 100m hurdles. This past Saturday Apollo hosted the College View Invitational where Fountain broke the Kentucky Middle School record.
Over the weekend the 8th grader cemented his spot at #1 after recording a time of 14.58, beating the previous Kentucky Middle School boys record of 14.69. Even though last year was his first year doing hurdles, Fountain is currently 1st in MileSplit’s Kentucky Middle School Boys rankings. Ayden’s father Gregory Fountain said the road to the top spot all started with Fountain’s determination. Fountain began competing in hurdles last year and was determined to excel at it, his father said.
After his first year doing hurdles was filled with hard work and training with head coach Anthony Tate, Fountain began to focus his efforts by setting goals. According to Gregory, Ayden would study the times recorded by kids at the state championship to help push him to be the best. With track and field nearing the postseason, Fountain said one of his goals for the rest of the season is to win the conference championship. Last year Ayden reached the state championship and placed 28th, but this year he also has made it a goal to return to the big stage and win it all.
Fountain is set to start high school this coming Fall, and the leap from the middle school level to high school is not concerning to him at all. Fountain said he still plans to continue training as hard as he does now with the intention of becoming ranked #1 in the state in high school as well. Gregory is eager to see what his son achieves in the future, but he hopes that Ayden keeps in mind the fact that nothing set out to accomplish will have to be earned.
“What I hope to see from Ayden as his father is the growth of understanding that nothing is handed to you in life, period,” he said. “If you want to be great at something, you have to work harder than the next because someone is always working no matter who it is, especially with a sport like track. It’s literally a sport of seconds. Ayden is a great kid who deserves to see success, but at the end of the day he has to keep getting better. Never become satisfied, that’s when it can be taken away instantly.”
