I am not talking Jr or Youth, but the World Championships Team
It is very rare that a high school athlete can make the U.S. national team, even rarer that 4 high school athletes have a legitimate shot. With that said, I have no idea if any of these athletes are committed to making the World Championships team.
The most likely is Vashti Cunningham in the women’s high jump, at 6-4¼ she is ranked number one in the U.S. 'among seniors' and is currently ranked number 3 in the world. Last year only 2 U.S. athletes jumped better than 6-4¼ and Vashti seems to get better every times she is put under pressure.
High school sophomore, Sydney McLaughlin ran 55.63 in the 400m hurdles last year at age 15. She pushed the NCAA 400m hurdle champ all the way to the finish line at the Jr Nationals and it wasn’t a perfect race for her. I think she could have possibly won that race if she knew how to hurdle with her alternate leg. She basically lost due to a stutter step on the 9th hurdle. Right now all of the top U.S. hurdlers are clustered around 55x and at 5’ 8”, the 1 inch higher senior hurdles won’t matter to Sydney.
Last year, Kaylin Whitney ran 11.10 and 22.49. While in the U.S., those times are unlikely to put you on a national team; however she ran those times as a 16 year old H.S. sophomore. Consider this, Allyson Felix ran 22.83 at age 16 and 22.11 at age 17. You get the point, teenage sprinters can improve a lot in one year. Also, watching Kaylin run 2 sets of relay legs this year against the pros and she more than held her own. While finishing top 3 is unlikely, I would not count her out making the 4x100 relay pool.
Alexa Efraimson ran 2:03.23 on a Thursday and 2:01.13 two days later. Before you say making the National team in the 800m impossible, consider this, at last year’s USATF Championships. Alexa’s 2:03.23 would have gotten her through the preliminaries and two days later, her 2:01.13 would have gotten her out of the semi-finals. Obviously with the return of Alysia Johnson, making it in the 800m is going to be tough, but the 800m is such an unpredictable event that rule is anyone who makes the finals has a shot. What’s more interesting about Efraimson is that the 1500 is supposedly her better event.
Realistically, there is a lot I am not considering in terms of these kids being able to manage the rounds at the national meet and 2014 was a down year for some pros and they will primed for 2015. Except for Vashti Cunningham, the chances are less than 50% for these kids, but the chances are good enough to put them in the conversation. And, btw, all of these kids have met the USATF and WC A standard and what’s even more crazy is that Cunningham, McLaughlin and Whitney are still eligible to compete in this year’s Youth World Championship.