The 300 meter hurdles is a high school race and almost nowhere else. Boys clear 36 inch barriers. Girls clear 30 inch. Both run eight hurdles with 45 meters to the first and 35 meters between each one after that. Most pages publishing 300 hurdle times skip the height entirely, which makes the times close to meaningless. Below: the ladder by grade for both genders, the actual NFHS specs, and published entry standards from two states so you can see how far the bar moves. The longer race, where the barrier moves again with age, is tracked in average 400m hurdle time by age.
Boys race 36 inches in the 300, girls race 30. NFHS raised the boys' height from 30 to 36 inches in 1984 and left it there. Spacing is identical for both: 45 meters to hurdle one, 35 meters between each, 10 meters from hurdle eight to the finish line. Every event's barrier height sits in one table in hurdle height by event and age.
A 300 hurdler is a 400 runner who can hold a stride pattern under fatigue. Sprint hurdle technique matters far less here than it does over the high hurdles. If your open 400 is not moving, your 300 hurdle time is not going to move much either, no matter how much you drill clearance. Your open 400 baseline is easy to check against the average 400m times by age.
A junior in her first hurdle season looks like a freshman on the clock. The ladder below sorts by grade because that is how the question gets asked, but the honest variable is how many seasons you have run the event. Two years of stride-pattern work beats a year of growth. The college version of the race is compared with this one in 300m hurdles versus 400m hurdles. What counts as a strong mark once you are running it sits in good 400m hurdle times by level.
The 300 falls apart between hurdles six and eight, when the stride pattern stretches and the trail leg starts dragging. Film the back half from the side and the AI counts your strides between barriers and flags the exact hurdle where the pattern broke.
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Grade rows run from a typical varsity performer to the fast end of that group. Boys clear 36 inch hurdles, girls 30 inch.
| Level (age) | Boys 36 in (s) | Girls 30 in (s) |
|---|---|---|
| Freshman (14-15) | 45.0 - 50.0 | 51.0 - 58.0 |
| Sophomore (15-16) | 43.0 - 47.0 | 49.0 - 54.0 |
| Junior (16-17) | 41.0 - 44.0 | 47.0 - 51.0 |
| Senior (17-18) | 40.0 - 43.0 | 46.0 - 50.0 |
| Varsity average, all grades | 41.0 - 45.0 | 48.0 - 53.0 |
| State entry standard, Oregon 2025 | 39.77 - 42.66 | 45.63 - 49.38 |
| State entry standard, Utah 2025 | 40.74 - 45.91 | 46.68 - 53.33 |
| State final / podium | 38.5 - 40.5 | 44.0 - 46.5 |
| National class | 36.0 - 38.5 | 41.0 - 43.5 |
| HS national record | 34.72 (Andrew Jones, 2026)* | 38.90 (Sydney McLaughlin, 2017) |
Common questions athletes and coaches ask about this topic.
A directory of every hurdles page on the site, from broad analysis tools to specific phase deep-dives. Each entry points to a focused write-up.
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