Piatt's OT: Speed lives in Danville with sprinters Jackson, Esther ahead of field
· Yahoo Sports
Apr. 10—DANVILLE — Danville sophomore Jamia Esther broke the Vikings' girls' track and field 60-meter dash record on Feb. 28 at the Olivet Nazarene University High School Classic with a winning time of 7.51 seconds, nearly a quarter-second ahead of second place.
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The very next day, she was answering questions about her record-breaking start to the season at The News-Gazette's office. Trying to, at least. Despite sitting in a big, comfortable conference room chair, she was nervous. That's where junior teammate D'Mario Jackson came in. Sitting right next to Esther, he reassured her with one simple phrase: "One lane, one focus."
"I was just running hard," Esther said after taking a deep breath. "I knew I had to focus on myself, and I knew I had to push myself."
Those four words — "one lane, one focus" — have been both Esther and Jackson's motto this season, and it evidently works on and off the track. One week later, Esther lowered her record 60 time to 7.46 seconds to win the event at the First to the Finish Charger Invite.
"She's like my little sister," Jackson said of Esther. "Seeing her do something so amazing is awesome."
But Esther isn't the only one who broke new ground during Danville's indoor season. Jackson lowered his own 60-meter dash school record to 6.88 seconds to win the Big 12 Conference indoor title in the event on March 17. He was at it again at the Illinois Top Times Championships, running a 21.81 to break the 2A meet record and claim an indoor state title.
Jackson also finished fourth in the 60 at the Top Times meet, and Esther took third in the 60 and sixth in the 200. At this point, it's safe to say speed lives in Danville.
"It definitely feels awesome," Jackson said. "We're very underrated, and people overlook us a lot. You see Danville, and people are like, 'Oh my gosh, who's Danville?' We've been here the whole time."
Both of the Vikings' star sprinters made immediate impacts when they first joined varsity as freshmen, Jackson in 2024 and Esther in 2025. In his first year of high school competition, Jackson placed seventh in the 200 and 14th in the 100 at the 3A outdoor state meet.
"It was really awesome to come in right away and get to work," Jackson said. "Definitely set the tone early to be able to have such a great team now, and we're just going to keep building off of what we have."
And at last year's state meet, Esther finished 12th in the 200 and 17th in the 100, a great start to a promising high school career.
"I was scared, actually," Esther said. "I was crying at some of the meets because I was so nervous with it being my first year in high school. They just kept pushing me and telling me I'd be OK, and I was just running. I was in my head too much sometimes."
Now, they have realistic goals of bringing home some hardware once the outdoor state meet rolls around in late May in Charleston. Especially with Danville dropping down to compete in 2A this year.
Esther's 100 and 200 times from the 3A state meet last year would have put her in the top five of both events in 2A. Jackson's personal-best 100 time would have left him just off the 2A podium at last year's state meet, but his fastest 200 time would have made him the state runner-up.
"Everyone definitely liked that drop," Jackson said with a smile. "We were hyped, like 'We're about to roll through the competition.' That's the No. 1 goal right now is to win state and drop some fast times."
Team trophies are certainly in play, too. When Esther heard the news of Danville's reclassification, she reacted with one simple phrase: "We can win state."