Kyson Fayant’s not going to tell you how good he is. 

But he’ll darn well show you.

Fayant, the quiet, unassuming senior for the Aberdeen Central boys’ track program is, after all, the defending state champion in the 300-meter hurdles, so it’s only fair to assume he’d be in the mix again this season.

But Fayant’s not just in the mix. He’s at the top of the heap. Fayant is the newest all-time record holder in that event, having broken the old standard twice already this season and looking for a new mark this weekend at the state track meet.

“Being the all-time record holder is a pretty incredible feeling,” Fayant admitted.

Still, by his own admission, setting state records wasn’t necessarily his goal coming into the season. At least, not a stated one.

“I was just focused on breaking 38 (seconds),” Fayant said. “I wasn’t really sure what the record was.”

But, as Central coach Greg Murley said, one does not simply break records without having a touch of ambition.

“He’s not going to be the kid that jumps up and down,” Murley said. “Obviously, he’s goal oriented. You don’t do what he does without having a goal. He knew. Initially, getting into the 38s was our school record … so I kept kind of looking for that, breaking 39 to get to that school record mark. He’s just run better and better and better.”

Fayant currently sits with a top time of 37.77 seconds and has his sights set on something in that 36-second range at this weekend’s state meet.

“It’ll be interesting if there’s a calm day at the state track meet at 9 o’clock in the morning in that prelim where it’s nice and cool and he’s going to be semi-rested still,” Murley said. “It’ll be interesting to see how low he can go with that. He’s certainly pretty talented.”

Fayant said he was drawn to the 300-meter hurdles for several reasons, one of which was because it was hard.

“I saw how hard it was and honestly, I kind of like a challenge,” he said. “I like how hard a race it is. It gets me better and better every time I run it. I find it mentally challenging also. It’s a really long race and you have to feel a lot of pain to run it.“

After winning the state title at last year’s state meet, Fayant employed a somewhat radical tactic to make himself even faster this season. He joined the cross country team.

“He’s a kid that came out for cross country because he thought it would make him better for a 300-meter race,” Murley said. “He went out and ran 5 and 6-milers every day in the fall to get ready for this, so it’s not like he hasn’t put in the time and effort. … He was our number five guy in cross country most of the year. It’s not like he went through the motions. He was in the running and every meet we counted on him for points.”

Fayant, who also runs the 110-meter hurdles, said he visualizes all his races stride-by-stride and hurdle-by-hurdle before he ever runs them. And with one more shot this weekend before turning his attention toward a collegiate career, he’ll just let his performance speak for itself.

“Get out hard. Focus on my own race and hopefully get that 36 this weekend,” he said.