At the 2008 United States Olympic Trials, he broke the 10-second barrier for the first time. He ran 9.99 seconds for third place in the quarter-finals (the fastest ever by a former Indiana high school athlete), However, he was slower in the semi-finals and was eliminated from the Olympic Trials. He began 2009 in Europe and had podium finishes at the PSD Bank Meeting, BW-Bank Meeting and the Athens GP. He won his first national title in the 60 m at USA Indoor Championships with a run of 6.51 seconds – a time which ranked him fourth in the world that year. Turning to the outdoor season, he came first in the 100 m and 200 m at the Meeting Grand Prix IAAF de Dakar and was a semi-finalist at the USA Outdoors with a run of 10.06 seconds. At the Tsiklitiria meet in Athens, he was runner-up in the 100 m with a wind-assisted 9.99 seconds and set a personal best of 20.28 seconds to win the 200 m. He ran a season's best of 10.04 seconds for the 100 m a week later at the Vardinoyannia meet. As one of top 200 m performers that year, he was invited to the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Final and came seventh.