With the Carif­ta Track and Field Cham­pi­onships less than two months away at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain, Lisa Raye is al­ready shin­ing for the world.

The reign­ing na­tion­al Un­der-17 100-me­tre and 200m cham­pi­on blazed to a World U-18 60m best time of 7.13 sec­onds in rac­ing to vic­to­ry in the High School dash at the pres­ti­gious Mil­rose Games in New York City, New York, USA on Feb­ru­ary 8.

The 17-year-old im­proved the pre­vi­ous mark of 7.18, held by Amer­i­can Shawn­ti Jack­son in 2002. The West War­wick High stu­dent al­so re­set the US High School record and is at the top of the World U-20 rank­ings.

The US-born teenag­er al­so moved up to joint sec­ond on the T&T se­nior women's in­door 60m all-time list along with Kel­ly-Ann Bap­tiste, who sped to a then-na­tion­al record of 7.13 in 2008. Both are be­hind Michelle-Lee Ahye's 7.09 time es­tab­lished in 2016.

Raye al­so set a new T&T Na­tion­al U-20 in­door record dis­lodg­ing Bap­tiste's 7.32 from the top spot.

Raye, whose moth­er is from Siparia, ex­tend­ed her record form to the 200m as she cracked the na­tion­al U-20 mark in that event as well af­ter she raced to 23.39 in Vir­ginia on Jan­u­ary 18. She eclipsed an­oth­er of Bap­tiste's records, her 23.68 clock­ing from 2002. Paris Olympian Sole Fred­er­ick al­so moved past Bap­tiste with her 23.40 run in Clem­son, South Car­oli­na on Feb­ru­ary 15.

Re­act­ing to her record-break­ing feat, Lisa told Guardian Me­dia Sports she was sur­prised by her record run.

"When I ran that time it was re­al­ly shock­ing be­cause dur­ing the race I did not even think I won. I thought I came in sec­ond or third. I have been want­i­ng to break that na­tion­al record record in the 60m," said Raye, adding the clock­ings in­di­cat­ed that her train­ing is on tar­get. "I think we are just right. The (60m race) will help me im­prove in my 200m and 100m times."

The 11th-grade stu­dent is look­ing to im­prove her times in the out­door sea­son.

"More per­son­al bests, run­ning and faster and get­ting faster. I want to run low 11s (in the 100m) or maybe un­der (11) and hop­ing to (run a) PR (per­son­al record) in the 200m."

Raye's fa­ther Li­onel is one of her coach­es. She trains along­side her el­der sis­ter Xe­nia who is the 2024 na­tion­al U-20 100m 200m win­ner.

An­oth­er US-based ath­lete who has been break­ing records is Dy­lan Woodruffe who sped to a na­tion­al U-20 200m mark of 21.29 in rac­ing to gold in Gainesville, Flori­da on Jan­u­ary 26.

Cougars' Woodruffe, who trains at IMG in Flori­da, an­chored T&T gold in the Boys' U-20 4x100m re­lay at the 2024 Carif­ta Games. He is look­ing for­ward to com­pet­ing at this year's Carif­ta Track and Field Cham­pi­onships at home.

"I am very ea­ger. Hope­ful­ly, I get to make (the team) in both events 100m and 200m and the (4x100m) re­lay, of course. The home Games are al­ways the best Games and I want to be rep­re­sent­ing T&T on home ter­ri­to­ry."

Reign­ing Carif­ta cham­pi­on and record hold­er Janae De Gannes is al­so mak­ing waves on the US Col­le­giate cir­cuit. De Gannes won the 2024 Girls U-20 long jump crown with 6.50m to set a new Games record. The Bay­lor Uni­ver­si­ty fresh­man has sur­passed the Carif­ta Girls' U-20 long jump stan­dard of 5.50m sev­er­al times with her best of 6.43m achieved in Lub­bock, Texas on Jan­u­ary 17.

Pey­ton Win­ter has bet­tered the Girls' U-20 shot put qual­i­fy­ing mark of 11.74m at four of the meets she par­tic­i­pat­ed in thus far. The Burn­ley throw­er won sil­ver in the Girls U-17 shot put in 2023 and 2024 and will look to im­prove on gold this year.

"I have been per­form­ing well but there is al­ways room for im­prove­ment. My train­ing is com­ing along ex­treme­ly well. I am look­ing for­ward to com­pet­ing at the Carif­ta Games at home. I am ex­cit­ed and ready to com­pete," said Win­ter.

World Un­der-20 In­door Rank­ings

Women

60m: 1st Lisa Raye (West War­wick/Track Blaz­ers) 7.13, W U-18 Best 31st Sanaa Fred­er­ick (Geor­gia/Sim­plex) 7.39

200m: 4th L Raye23.39, 5th Sole Fred­er­ick (Geor­gia/Sim­plex) 23.40 , 35th Sanaa Fred­er­ick (Geor­gia/Sim­plex) 24.02; 108th Xe­nia Raye (West War­wick/Track Blaz­ers) 24.49

Long jump: 3rd Janae De Gannes (Bay­lor/Con­corde) 6.43

Men

800m: 121st-Keer­an Sriskan­dara­jah 1:54.06

World U-18 In­door Rank­ings

Girls

60m: 1st Lisa Raye (West War­wick/Track Blaz­ers) 7.13

200m: 1st L Raye 23.39

List of Carif­ta Track and Field Cham­pi­onsh­ps Qual­i­fiers (For­eign-based)

Janae De Gannes (Bay­lor/Con­corde)

Girls U-20 LJ (5.50)

6.34 - 2 Texas A & Mc­Fer­rin 12 De­gree In­vite, Col­lege Sta­tion, Texas, Jan 10

6.43 - 3 Corky Clas­sic, Lub­bock Texas, Jan 17

6.27 - 4 De­Loss Dodds In­vi­ta­tion­al, Man­hat­tan, Kansas, Jan 31

6.35 - 2 Jarvis Scott In­vite,Lub­bock, Feb 14 Texas,

Dy­lan Woodruffe (IMG/Con­corde)

Boys U-20 200m (21,74)

21.29 - 1 RA­DO Sun­shine Show High School, Gainesville, Flori­da, Jan 25-26

21.32 -1 Leg­ends of Alachua Coun­try In­vi­ta­tion­al, Gainesville, Flori­da, Feb 1-2

Girls U-20 200m (24.67)

Lisa Raye (West War­wick/Track Blaz­ers)

23.39 - 1, Vir­ginia Beach, Vir­ginia, Jan 18

23.45 - New York, New York, Jan 24

Sole Fred­er­ick (Geor­gia/Sim­plex)23.40, Clem­son, South Car­oli­na, Feb 15

23.61 - Col­lege Sta­tion, Texas, Jan 25

23.84 - Fayet­teville, Arkansas, Jan 31

24.02 - Sanaa Fred­er­ick (Geor­gia/Sim­plex), Col­lege Sta­tion, Texas, Jan 25

Xe­nia Raye (West War­wick/Track Blaz­ers)

24.49 - New York, New York, Jan 24

Boys U-20 800m (1:55.86)

Keer­an Sriskan­dara­jah: 1:54.06 - Lon­don, Eng­land, Jan­u­ary 5