Let me take you back to that electric night in California on April 9, 2016! The Arcadia Invitational, one of the Super Bowl of high school track, had a buzz of its own as the Boys 200M final approached. Among the lean, hungry competitors stood an 18-year-old kid from TC Williams in Virginia, sporting a red half-shirt and blue shorts that would soon become the colors of legend. Noah Lyles was clearly no ordinary teenager. He had already dominated the 100M earlier that day with a blistering 10.17, but honestly, what happened next left spectators absolutely speechless! Starting from lane 5, Lyles didn’t exactly burst from the blocks, as he would have liked but 4 seconds later, when he accelerated, it seemed like Bugatti was unleashed, his competitors seemingly frozen in time as he blazed down the straightaway!

When the clock stopped, it read 20.48 seconds! For nine long years, that mark would stand untouchable at Arcadia, a ghostly reminder of the night California witnessed lightning in human form. But perhaps most remarkably, the seemingly impossible has happened there is now a new kid on the block.

April 12, 2025, another cool California evening, same electric track, but a whole new storm was brewing. Brandon Arrington, just 16, stood in lane 5, yeah the same Lane no 5! All black in jersey and shorts and with white spikes, he looked like business. But honestly, no one really expected what was about to unfold. The whispers were still around Noah Lyles’ name, fans reminiscing about that 20.48. And then, bang! The gun went off.

Arrington didn’t just react. He attacked. His start was sharp, and by the curve, you could feel it; he was flying, not running. That upright form? Flawless. Arms slicing the air, knees driving like pistons. And when he hit the straightaway, the crowd started rising. You know that feeling when something insane is about to happen? That. He pulled away with every step, eating up the track, leaving the field behind like they’d hit rewind. Honestly, it felt surreal. As he crossed the line, eyes darted to the clock. 20.35. Gasps. Cheers. Disbelief. A nine-year-old record gone in a flash, by a sophomore from Mt. Miguel. The Arcadia meet record, was shattered!

Is it the only record Brandon Arrington has broken this season?

Brandon Arrington was already on record-breaking spree before Noah Lyles’ record 

Before he even lined up at the Arcadia Invitational with Noah Lyles’ 20.48 meet record in his crosshairs, the Mount Miguel junior has already rewritten San Diego Section history.

At the 44th Mt. Carmel Sundevil Invitational on March 29, Arrington opened eyes by blazing a 10.24 in the 100 meters, becoming the first San Diego sprinter to ever go sub-10.30 wind-legal in the 65-year history of the section. For context? No one in the section had ever broken 10.30 before. Not even state champs like Riley Washington or Kenan Christon. The wind? A perfect +2.0 m/s , legal and just enough to make history.

And if that wasn’t enough? A few hours later, he came back and dropped a 20.37 in the 200 meters, crushing his own section record. “This was a good time to set the record,” Arrington said to The San Diego Union Tribune. “I really didn’t come in with any goals, but I started working two weeks after football and knew I was ready.”

While his outdoor season is off to a red-hot start, he admitted that indoors didn’t go quite as planned. “ — it was my first indoor race — and I didn’t know those rules,” he said. “It just told me I was ready.”

When asked about the 200m performance? His answer was crystal clear. “My mindset is anything is possible,” he said. “I did it with God’s help. I’m thinking ‘drive, drive, drive.’ I’m better in the 200, so I’m more impressed with that mark. My only thoughts were to just finish it.”

He’s now got his eyes on the California all-time bests,  10.14 in the 100 and 20.14 in the 200. “I want to run the fastest times in state history before I’m finished,” he said.