Record Setting Performances Earn This Week's Performance of the Week Awards

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Sydney McLaughlin

With 49.87 percent of the vote, Sydney McLaughlin won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Katelyn Tuohy with her second-place tally of 28.31 percent.

The Kentucky freshman has been racing every event from 100 meters to 400 meters, but her attempts at running the 400-meter hurdles, her signature event, have been limited. McLaughlin's first attempt came April 27 at the National Relay Championships. She ran a personal-best 53.60, setting a new World U20 record and moving up to second on the collegiate all-time list.

Then came the SEC Outdoor Championships. Rather than load up in multiple events to maximize team points, McLaughlin was entered in only two events, the 400-meter hurdles and the 4x400 relay. McLaughlin opened with a 54.85 in the prelims. It was more than a second off her best, but only three U20 women have run faster than that mark. It was an omen of what was to come.

In the final, McLaughlin led from the gun and never relented. Entering the homestretch, there was no one in sight. She crossed the finish line more than three seconds ahead of the field in 52.75. That time shattered her own World U20 record and broke the collegiate record of 53.21 set in 2013 by former Stanford standout Kori Carter.

What makes McLaughlin's performance even more impressive is her age. She is 18 and now equal to ninth on the all-time performer list, tied with Shamier Little. Of all those athletes in the top 10, Little was previously the youngest at 22 when she also ran 52.75 at the 2017 USATF Outdoor Championships. There is still a great deal of room for improvement for McLaughlin.

Closing out the SEC Outdoor Championships, McLaughlin split 50.4 on the third leg on Kentucky's 4x400 relay team. Kentucky won the event in 3:25.99, moving them up to seventh on the collegiate all-time list.

The only question remaining this season for McLaughlin is which events she will contest at the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships. She could qualify in multiple events, but if she focused on the 400 hurdles, the world record would not be out of the question. She is only 0.41 seconds behind the world record now.

Editors’ Choice: Tori Franklin

Fans made a great choice in selecting McLaughlin and she rightly deserves recognition for her performance. With all the collegiate action this past week, it would be easy to miss the performance of Tori Franklin in the triple jump. For that reason, the DyeStat Editors' award goes to Franklin.

Franklin entered 2018 having only once jumped over 14 meters (45-11.25), often considered the standard of women's international triple jumping. She did so at the 2017 IAAF World Outdoor Championships, jumping 46-0.50 (14.03m) in the qualifying round and just missing the final.

Signs of good things to come began during the indoor season for Franklin. She won her second USATF Indoor Championships title Feb. 17 with a personal best 46-5.25 (14.15m). Then at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, Franklin finished eighth March 3 and equaled her 2017 outdoor best.

Moving outdoors, Franklin made a big leap at the Texas Relays, jumping 47-6.25 (14.48m). That made her the second-best jumper in American history, ranking only behind Georgia senior Keturah Orji.

And now this past week, Franklin made another big leap at the Baie Mahault Meeting International Guadeloupe, an elite meet on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. All five of her legal jumps bettered her personal best and two bettered Orji's American record.

In the end, it was Franklin's second jump that would hold up as her best. Her leap of 48-8.25 (14.84m) was a personal best by more than a foot. It also broke the American record by five inches and it stands as the current world lead. In all, she has improved by nearly three feet this year.

Now Franklin just needs to improve her head-to-head record against Orji. In the past three years, Orji beaten Franklin in every meeting, including this year at the IAAF World Indoor Championships and April 21 at the 60th Mt. SAC Relays.