Talented Sophomore Follows In The Footsteps Of Nyckoles Harbor At Archbishop Carroll

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

Jake Odey-Jordan is just getting started.

The Archbishop Carroll DC sophomore is already a national champion and the third-fastest 200-meter sprinter of all-time indoors.

Odey-Jordan knew something big was coming when he stepped onto The TRACK at New Balance for his 200-meter dash final on March 10 at New Balance Nationals Indoor. So did his coach, Rafiu Bakare.

In the preliminary round, he clocked a 21.34, putting him nearly 0.3 seconds behind IMG Academy’s Caine Stanley, and Bakare could tell he was not happy with that performance. He also knew that the Reggie Lewis Center, site of the 200 prelims, was not as fast as the state of the art venue hosting the finals. And he also knew that Odey-Jordan had been practicing at a high level.

“He asked me, ‘What do I have to do (to win)?’” Bakare said. “I told him that he was already under 21.5 (seconds) ... he was going to be on a better track for the final, and the way he was running, he was going to run under 21.”

Odey-Jordan still wasn’t convinced.

“I know I had the second fastest seed in the race book, but my PR was the slowest in the race,” Odey-Jordan said of the finals. “I knew I could have gotten dead last.”

One thing making him nervous was seeing Stanley to his left in lane 5. He knew Stanley was the favorite to win, so he wanted to get as far away from him as possible when the gun went off.

With 50 meters to go, Stanley was just barely in the lead with Jaden Wiley right beside him, but Odey-Jordan knew he was going to win; he could see Stanley and Wiley were tensing up.

“I knew they were all going to break down,” Odey-Jordan said, “and I just stayed relaxed, stayed composed, and ran through the line.”

He broke the tape in 20.66 seconds, a new US #1 time in the event and a sophomore class national record. He believed he had the potential to break the previous record, which was 21.02 seconds, but he was shocked to see a time that fast, and his coach was, too.

“That was a surreal moment for us,” Bakare said. “We expected him to drop under 21. Did we know he was going to drop to 20.6? No. That was a great, euphoric shock.”

Assistant coach Victor Blackett didn’t know Odey-Jordan had won the race until the results showed up on the big board. He saw Odey-Jordan’s name come up first, but he thought it might slide down to make room for Stanley and Wiley. When the result and time were confirmed, Blackett was in tears.

“I was shocked, I was happy, I was grateful, I was crying,” Blackett said. “I can’t believe he ran (that fast). It was surreal.”

That race was a climax to Odey-Jordan’s impressive indoor season, his first at Archbishop Carroll. He recorded top-10 finishes in the 60-meter dash at the VA Showcase and the Millrose Games, and he won the 55-meter dash and the 300-meter dash at the DCSAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, Washington, D.C.’s version of a state meet.

From his 2023 indoor season, he improved his PRs in the 55, 200, and 300 by 0.24 seconds, 3.37 seconds, and 2.42 seconds, respectively. 

Last year, Odey-Jordan attended St. Vincent Pallotti High in Laurel, Md. He recorded impressive performances in the 2023 outdoor season, including a win in the Freshman 200 at New Balance Outdoor Nationals.

However, his training opportunities were limited. St. Vincent Pallotti doesn’t have a track, and his coaches were mostly volunteers.

One of his teammates, Dezmone Starks, had transferred to Archbishop Carroll in 2022, and that move paid off; Starks lowered his PRs to 10.47 in the 100 and 21.41 in the 200 in 2023. After seeing that success, Odey-Jordan and his family decided to take the same route.

They noticed a difference immediately. 

“The coaches (at St. Vincent Palotti), they knew what they were talking about, to an extent,” Odey-Jordan said. “These coaches (at Archbishop Carroll), they really take it to the next level.”

Bakare recognized that Odey-Jordan was different. The team’s first practice last fall began with testing for every athlete, and the sophomore made a stellar first impression.

“At that moment, when we did our first short testing,” Bakare says, “we knew he was going to be doing great things pretty quickly.”

In addition to his raw physical talent, Bakare also noticed some of his impressive mental traits: maturity and eagerness to learn all he can about sprinting. These traits, Bakare says, are what allow athletes like Odey-Jordan to succeed.

“With that maturity and sense of self they bring in, it allows them to acclimate to training quicker and to develop relationships with coaches faster,” Bakare said. “Those two things put together create an environment where you can learn and apply and achieve very quickly.”

In this way – and many others – Odey-Jordan is the kind of athlete Bakare and Blackett value heavily when building their team.

“When we bring in athletes, we’re looking for Jakes… we’re looking for athletes who want to do this better,” Bakare said. 

When Bakare took over the program nine years ago, there were only six athletes on the team. He built the program into a national power from the ground up.

“When we got here, the cupboard was bare,” Bakare said.

It didn’t stay that way for long. His first star athlete was sprinter Ethan Fogle, who graduated in 2018 and competed at the University of Kansas. Fogle won three DCSAA championships in his senior season and took home a silver medal in the 400-meter dash at New Balance Nationals Outdoor.

Fogle’s success led to more athletes and families buying in to Bakare’s program, which in turn created exponential growth.

“One thing (successful programs) have in common is that we have family buy-in to what we are trying to do,” Bakare said. “When you have that… that’s an atmosphere where you can really coach a young person from one level to the next.

Since Fogle’s departure, Bakare and Blackett have continued growing Archbishop Carroll into a sprinting and jumping powerhouse. You might remember another recent star: Nyckoles Harbor, a sprinter and football player who now competes in both sports at the University of South Carolina.

In addition to taking home five DCSAA titles in four years and throwing down a 10.20 at the East Coast Elite Invitational in his senior year, he anchored some of Archbishop Carroll’s best relays in school history, including a first-place finish (and near national record) in the 4x200 at New Balance Nationals Indoor in 2023, followed by the top American finish in the 4x100 at the Penn Relays.

Blackett has fond memories of coaching Harbor. The two became as close as family over four years, allowing Blackett to see every side of Harbor.

“There’s a Nyck Harbor that the public sees, and then there’s a Nyck Harbor that I see,” Blackett says. “We cried together, we got mad together, we gelled together.”

One of the things that helped Blackett become a better coach to Harbor was learning more about football. Blackett knew next to nothing about the sport before Harbor shot up on recruiting lists, but as Harbor kept advancing, Blackett realized he would have to understand both sides of Harbor’s training if he wanted to properly support him.

This – self-knowledge – is a major part of the training philosophy at Archbishop Carroll. Bakare says that self-knowledge is “being able to put it all on the table” – your strengths, your weaknesses, everything. Until coaches and athletes are able to do this, they won’t be able to achieve what they want to achieve.

“As an athlete, we tend to live in a vacuum because of how intensely we go after the goal,” Bakare says. “We lose the facts. We lose sight of where we are on that road. Knowing yourself is knowing where you are on the way to being who you want to be.”

Bakare, Blackett and Harbor helped create the model, and now it’s Odey-Jordan’s turn. According to Bakare, the sophomore not only knows himself but actively seeks out more information about himself.

“Jake knows himself, but he does not rely on that,” Bakare says. “He’ll come up to us and ask, ‘Did I do this? Am I there? Is this where we want to be?’ Those are questions that young folks don’t always ask. Those are uncomfortable moments.”

Bakare says this is the “bright spot” in athletes like Harbor and Odey-Jordan, who have traits in common. Physically, the two couldn’t be more different – Harbor is 6-foot-5, while Odey-Jordan is only 5-10 –  but Bakare says it’s impossible not to compare the two in terms of personality.

“They are very, very similar,” Bakare says. “Nick was a sponge and a learner… just like Jake is now. Nick knew what numbers he wanted to hit, just like Jake does. It’s almost like they could be brothers.”

Odey-Jordan agrees. He says Harbor is like a brother to him. In February, he went to see Harbor compete at the SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships. Harbor was on FaceTime to see Odey-Jordan’s performance at New Balance Nationals Indoor. Odey-Jordan calls Harbor for advice on sprinting, college, and other topics. 

As the younger brother, Odey-Jordan says he has the responsibility of “keeping the legacy going” and making sure Archbishop Carroll remains a powerhouse.

So far, he has. In addition to his win in the 200-meter dash at NBNI, he has carried Archbishop Carroll’s 4x200 and 4x100 relay teams to impressive performances at several high-profile invitationals this spring, including the Texas Relays (US#15 40.73 4x100), and the Beach Run Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C. (US#8 3:14.15 4x400).

The future of this season and beyond remains bright.

“I don’t want to say a time because that sets a limit on myself,” Odey-Jordan said. “I just want to be the best I can be.”