which state has produced the best sprinters/hurdlers

If you go from birth... probably NJ.

Impressive list, indeed. To be accurate I think Josh Walker went to Univ. of Florida.

easily south carolina

What about this:

Ohio

1. Jesse Owens of Cleveland: (do I need a bio here?)

2. Harrison Dillard of Cleveland (Baldwin-Wallace College)--same high school as Owens. Dillard won 4 Gold medals in the following events, 100m & 4x100 (1948); 110H & 4x100 (1952) won over 80 straight 110 hurdle races and held the world record in 13.6.

3. Glenn Davis of Barberton, OH: 2x Olympic 400H gold medalist and former world record holder.

4. Willie Davenport of Warren, OH: Gold medalist in the 110 hurdles in 1968, fmr world record holder.

5. Edwin Moses of Dayton, OH: 1976 & 1984 Gold medalist in the 400m hurdles, held the world record in 47.64 (Greatest intermediate hurdler of all-time)

Those are just 5 names that come to mind...

Here's some quickies from NJ:

Dave Sime

Frank Budd

Milt Campbell

Renaldo Nehemiah

some guy named Carl Lewis

And don't forget Tom Cruise!

Seriously though...I think Dennis Mitchell is from Jersey as well.

Chris Nelloms and Ted Ginn were pretty good in high school anyways. It was a bit before my time, but what happened to Nelloms after high school? I know he ran into trouble somewhere along the line but never really heard the story.

Mike Holloway (Florida head coach) is from Ohio and ran some damn fine times in HS in the hurdles. Wish I had more than that in terms of stats, but I know he was good before getting hurt.

Altered.

Nelloms is serving time in prison for rape

TRACK & FIELD: Former Ohio State track star Chris Nelloms was sentenced Friday to life in prison for raping a young girl and will not be eligible for parole for 40 years.

``It's a bitter pill to swallow when one of the chosen such as you falls so low,'' Judge John Kessler of Montgomery County Common Pleas Court said.

Kessler sentenced Nelloms to life on each of seven counts of rape of a child younger than 13 and one count of felonious sexual penetration of a child less than 13. The judge ordered that four of the sentences be served consecutively, making Nelloms ineligible for parole for 40 years.

Nelloms was convicted Jan. 8 of sexually assaulting the girl, now 12, in homes in Dayton and Lexington, Ky., from 1995 to 1997. Nelloms denied the charges.

What was his running career like between high school and his imprisonment? Did he run collegiately or proffesionally at all?

I wouldn't say Ohio has produced the best hurdlers of the 50 states, but it's the event area where Ohio has been most productive. All five of Ohio's track-type members of the USOC Hall of Fame were hurdlers.

Amongst our hurdle stars:

Esther Alfonso (Dayton Stebbins HS) 1979 HS All-American, 1980 TAC champ

Carmen Banks (Cleveland Adams HS) 2-time HS All-American

Dick Bruggeman (Marion Elgin HS) '72 AAU champ, Olympian & world-ranked

Tonja Buford-Bailey (Dayton Meadowdale HS) '95 World silver medalist

Willie Davenport (Warren Howland HS) 4-time Olympian, USATF & USOC Halls of Fame

Glenn Davis (Marietta & Barberton HS) 3-time Olympic gold medalist, UASTF & USOC Halls of Fame

Harrison Dillard (Cleveland East Tech HS) 4-time Olympic gold medalist, USATF & USOC Halls of Fame

Ted Ginn (Cleveland Glenville HS) 2-time HS All-American

George Guthrie (Elyria HS) 1924 Olympian, 1926 NCAA champ

Tranel Hawkins (Trotwood-Madison HS) 1984 Olympian & 3-time world-ranked

Kevin Henderson (Bedford Chanel HS) 1988 TAC champ

Dalanda Jackson (Shaker Heights HS) 3-time HS All-American

Jack Keller (Columbus East HS) 1932 Olympian (4th place)

Lavonna Martin-Floreal (Trotwood-Madison HS) 1992 Olympic silver medalist

Donnica Merriman (Trotwood-Madison HS) 2002-03 world ranked

Edwin Moses (Dayt. Fairview HS) He was OK for a while

Chris Nelloms (Dayton Dunbar HS) 2-time #1-ranked HS hurdler and set national HS record; genius Russ Rogers never had him run the hurdles ONCE at Ohio State

Dan Oliver (Wooster Triway HS) 1976 HS All-American, 1979 world-ranked

Glenn Terry (Cincinatti Sycamore HS) 1989 HS All-American & set national HS record

BTW, Mike Holloway ran 13.4y while at Columbus Linden Mckinley HS in 1977.

Kele wrote:

What was his running career like between high school and his imprisonment? Did he run collegiately or proffesionally at all?

Nelloms sat out his freshman year at Ohio State for grades/SAT, if I remember right, so that "shot" his 1991 season. He was literally shot nearly to death in the summer of '91 but made a quick & complete recovery. He was pretty good through his college career ('92-'94 seasons) but anyone who saw him in HS would find his collegiate career somewhat disappointing. In HS he ran 13.30 for the hurdles and 45.36 for the quarter (and a legitimate 44.8 relay leg) but Russ Rogers, in his infinite wisdom, made Nelloms a 100/200 guy at OSU. Granted, he ran 10.33 / 20.23 while at OSU, and took 3rd, 1st and 4th at the NCAA outdoor 200 and 2nd, 1st and 1st at the NCAA indoor 200, but that was his weakest event. He was 1994 USATF indoor champ and world-ranked #9 in 1993.

And once college was done, he really didn't do much of anything.

Florida has had some ok guys:

Justin Gatlin

Xavier Carter

John Capel

Bob Hayes

Bershawn Jackson

The same high school region in northern virginia produced Allen Johnson and Ricky Harris (and probably a bunch more that I don't know about).

More GA natives

Spec Towns (one of the all-time greats)

Octavius Terry (NCAA champ 400H)

Ty Akins (NCAA champ 110H)

There are more notables, but I can't think of them off the top of my head.