Maurice Gleaton

Langston HS, Fairburn, GA, c/o 2025
AthleticNET Bio

Maurice Gleaton liked to run when he was little. As a six year old, he played football and ran track for the local YMCA, but never took it that seriously. He just did it for fun.

By middle school he stopped competing in both.

“In middle school, I actually stopped running and doing sports,“ he says. “ I lost the love for sports during that age range. I wasn’t winning so I didn’t want to do it anymore.” 

He continues: “ When I got to high school I kind of got back into it.”

That first year of high school, only two years ago, was a good one. He lowered his personal best to 11.14 and 23.13, but then injury struck. He wasn’t able to finish the season.

His tenth grade year “ was when everything turned around,” he says.

He played wide receiver and defensive back, but a broken collarbone kept him sidelined for the season. His team went on to win the 6A state title going undefeated. [The starting quarterback was and still is Air Noland, a 5 star QB prospect who has committed to Ohio State University. This year they are 2-0 as of August 30, ranked #15 in the nation by MaxPreps and have scored 79 points]. After healing over the football season, Gleaton returned to the track, but this time, everything was different. 

“After football season last year, we went into track season and we started practicing and stuff and after the first week I just kept improving.”

He went 22.06 in the 200m at the Galleria Games on December 17 and then outdoor season he opened with a 10.93 on Feb 18 and 21.73 for 200m on Feb 25. 

He continued lopping off time as during the season before he realized he was doing something special.

“After my third or fourth meet, my time would drop every week. Every time I would get faster and faster and faster. So that's when I started thinking something is going right.”

One of his early meets was the Gail Devers Invitational on March 18 in Buford, GA. He sped to wins in the 100m(10.71) and the 200m(21.58) and was on the winning 4 x 100m(41.59) and 4 x 200m(1:27.63) winning relay teams. There to greet him each time for the medal ceremony was none other than Gail Devers herself.

“She was excited to see me because that day I had won four events,” he recalls. “She just kept seeing me at the podium. Every time she saw me, she would be like, ‘Wow, you won again?’"

He didn’t know her at first until his coach introduced the two.

“It was so cool to be running her meet. I didn't even know who she was then my coach told me that she was an Olympian so that was good to know.”

A month later on April 15, he went 10.43 and 20.89. The time drops for the sophomore were astounding and with it brought more attention from the media. At first he wasn’t comfortable with the interview process.

“It kind of made me nervous a lot at first, but I'm starting to get used to it,” he says. “I had never been interviewed before this and then they start asking me questions and have a camera on me.”

Heading into state, he had improved to 10.16 and 20.52 and was a bit sick. He ripped a 10.14(+0.5),  21.38(+0.7), 40.93 in the 4x1 and a non-qualifying 51.39 in the 400m preliminaries on Friday, May 12. The 10.14 eclipsed the sophomore record of 10.23 run by Rynell Parson(Stevens, San Antonio, TX) in 2007,  the  age 16 record of 10.15 run by Anthony Schwartz in ‘17 and was a 6A state meet record.

In Saturday’s finals, he was second in the 100m(10.37, NWI), won the 200m(20.81, -1.7), a 6A state meet record and won the 4 x 100m relay(40.55) in another 6A state meet record time.

His great success was built on a staple of good workouts.  Monday and Wednesdays were hard days where he ran 300s and 200s sprints. Tuesdays and Thursdays, they worked on block starts.

He ran 48 for the 400m last year which he was happy about and hopes in the future to build off the success he had as a sophomore.

“My goal is to run nine seconds in the 100 meter, 19 in the 200 meter and 45 in the 400 meter, “ he says. “ I really feel like I can achieve those times because I'm very close to nine. I just got to fix up some things. I'm close to 19. I just got to fix up some things. And the 400 is the same thing, I got to fix up some things. I feel like I can run those times.”