(Note: This story was updated at 12:27 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 21.)

Homewood-Flossmoor senior sprinter Mariyah Robinson was named the female sprinter/hurdler of the year by the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association at the organization’s annual clinic Jan. 9 in Itasca.

Last spring, she won both the 200 and 400-meter dashes at the state championship meet. She also ran a leg on the state championship 400-meter relay team and finished second in the 100. 

“It feels amazing. It comes from a very good support system. Everyone supported me through this whole journey,” Robinson said. “I appreciate everybody who recognizes me for my talent and what I’ve been doing this season.” 

Robinson signed with the university of Florida in December. She’ll run in the SEC, the toughest conference in college track and field.

“I think she’s just destined to be great,” coach Tywon Green said. “I think she’s going to do the unthinkable.” 

Robinson said honors like these first seemed possible when she was a freshman at Simeon. She qualified for state in both the 100 and 200 as a ninth grader. That gave her the confidence to stay with the sport, she said.

“I knew this was something I could take further,” Robinson said. “Once I saw that I could compete with everybody who’d been doing track way before me, it was something that I wanted to develop and get better at. Here I am now.”

The motivation for her final high school season is a triple crown. Robinson wants to win all three sprints. No one’s done that in Illinois since Brittny Ellis from Warren in 2015.

“It would be so amazing. I didn’t even know anything about a triple crown until my junior year,” Robinson said. “To run and potentially win a triple crown and possibly make some other goals for myself, to break some records, that would be great. It would be pretty awesome.” 

Robinson didn’t get to H-F until January of last year. Green and the Vikings coaches didn’t have a lot of time to get her ready. A full year with Homewood-Flossmoor coaches and trainers could bump her up another level, Green said. 

“I think now that she’s been with us for a whole year and she’s been working, she’s been training in the offseason, she’s not doing other sports, I think she will beat all the things she did last year,” Green said. “This kid’s ceiling is through the roof. I’m excited.” 

As a whole, the Vikings will return much of that team that won a championship last May. They’ll hope to repeat, with Robinson at the helm. 

No matter what happens, Robinson said she’ll take the time to savor her senior campaign. 

“The day of the (ITCCCA) ceremony I realized ‘You got here. You’re really here,’” Robinson said. “It was just a good moment. Sometimes you got to pause and look at your environment and be like ‘I really got myself here.’”