Thursday, July 28, 2011

Multis shine on day one and two of the USATF National Junior Olympics

DAY ONE
WICHITA, KAN. - Margaux Jones, who competed for California Rising Stars in 2010,won her first event of the meet with her performance in the youth girls' pentathlon on day one of the USATF National Junior Olympics Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Jones' final score of 3,436 fell less than 100 points shy of Alyissa Hasan's national youth girls' record.

"I didn't run the best in my hurdle time, so I knew I had to make up some points," Jones said. "From then on I was set straight to do better than I did at previous meets."

Jones ran 15.27 in the 100m hurdles, threw the shot 8.76m/28-9, leaped 1.60m/5-3 in the high jump, dominated the long jump competition with a jump of 5.73m/18-9.75 and finished the 800m in 2:31.25.

"I got a lot of points in the long jump," she said. "It was the first event that I started doing when I started running track, and it was the first event that I went to Junior Olympics in. From then on it was always my favorite."

Jones, who has won numerous national titles in the pentathlon, long jump and high jump, may call it quits in the multi-events.

"I'm actually not planning on doing the heptathlon next year," Jones said. "I don't really want to learn how to do another event because I have so many different events that I do individually. So I figured instead of doing a whole bunch of events, I'd just do a few and be good at them."

Thomas hammers through competition
Kelli Thomas of Throw 1 Deep (Marietta, GA) won the intermediate girls' hammer throw with her toss of 44.08m/144-7. On her sixth and final attempt of the competition, Thomas launched a two meter personal best throw to take over the lead from Sidnie Wilder (Cameron, Wisconsin).

"[Going into my last throw] I was thinking either I get it or I go home with nothing," Thomas said. "She threw after me, so I got to see what she did. I knew whatever she put down, that's how it was going to be."

Wilder fouled her last throw, and Thomas walked away with her first Junior Olympic title. Although Thomas has tried her hand at several of the throwing events, she has found her niche in the hammer.

"It's different from discus and shot put cause there's not a lot of movement in shot put or discus, you just got that one turn or glide," she said. "In hammer, you have a chance to fix all that when you get through with your first turn, you can correct it. Its over pretty quick, but you have a chance to get your mind right."

Worley hurdles to victory
Dillon Worley (Northwest Flyers. Houston, TX) defended his 2010 USATF National Junior Olympic title with a victory in the young men's 2,000m steeple chase. Worley cruised to a time of 6:06.36 to better his seed time set at the regional meet.

"My game plan was just to go out and take the lead right from the beginning," Worley said. "I was going for the record, but the weather conditions just didn't help me out."

Worley, who competes for the Northwest Flyers, only started the steeple chase last year.

"My coach really pushed for me to do it, and my brother ran it too, so that's how I got into steeple," he said. "I like it cause it's a hard race not everyone can do."

Other event winners from today's competition include the following:

-Justin Collins, Speed City TC (Carson, CA)-youth boys pentathlon (3,314)
-Ashley Weber (Buena, SIERRA VISTA, AZ) Class: 2012.-young women's hammer throw (48.56m/159-4)
-Taylor Gerard, Zoom TC, Lone Tree, Colorado-intermediate girls' 2,000m steeple chase (7:40.29)
-Leslie Schilsky, Northwest flyers, Houston-young women's 2,000m steeple chase (7:33.22)
-Jackson Bertoli (Terri Haute South HS, Indiana 2014)-intermediate boys' 2,000m steeplechase (6:30.79)
-Caitlin Palacio, Lsi Sprint, San Jose, CA-youth girls' 3,000m race walk (16:28.70)
-Andy Vazquez, Cornhusker Flyers-youth boys' 3,000m race walk (16:17.94)
-Joshua Whitener, Throw 1 Deep Club-intermediate boys' hammer throw (58.37m/191-6)
-Taylor Ewert, Miami Valley TC-bantam girls' 1,500m race walk (8:36.09)
-Emilio Andrean, Northwest Flyers-bantam boys' 1,500m race walk (9:47.21)
-Kirra Facer, Temecula Valley Time Machine-midget girls' 1,500m race walk (8:15.66)
-Ryan Thong, Equalizers TC, Orange County, CA-midget boys' 1,500m race walk(7:47.51)
-Edward Brentnall, Throw 1 Deep Club-young men's hammer throw (58.68m/192-6)


DAY TWO
Goodale sets three PR's to claim heptathlon title
Sarah Goodale bettered her personal best heptathlon score by 200 points on her way to a victory in the intermediate girls' division. On day one, Goodale ran 15.71 in the 100m hurdles, cleared 1.55m/5-1 in the high jump, tossed the shot put 9.44m/30-11.75, and ran a 26.99 in the 200m. She highlighted day two with a mark of 5.06m/16-7.25 in the long jump, a heave of 31.50m/103-4 in the javelin and a time of 2:26.41 to finish the event with an overall score of 4,454.

"I've been training a lot for this meet and had a couple of PR's in a lot of events," Goodale said. "The ones that went better were shot put, javelin and long jump. Those were kind of my weaker events, so I was able to PR in all of those. I ran faster in the 800m and hurdles and the 200m than my last heptathlon, so that went well too."

Goodale, who began track as a hurdler and high jumper, started the multi-events on the suggestion of her coach. After her first pentathlon, she fell in love with the multis.

"I like that you don't have to be great at one thing," she said. "You can kind of just be able to do everything. I really like being able to try all the events and be out there for a long time."

After a long season, Goodale is happy to walk away with the victory.

"I'm really excited," Goodale said. "I worked a lot this summer, and I'm glad it's really paying off."

Chavez strolls to race walk victory
Alejandro Chavez took home the USATF Junior Olympics young men's race walk title with his winning time of 14:05.53. Chavez, who represents South Texas Walking Club, crossed the line more than a minute ahead of the second place finisher.

"It was pretty hot," Chavez said "I was shooting for the national record because last year I missed it by four seconds. I wanted to do it, but I didn't take into account the heat. I started on pace, and then I just died. Most importantly, I finished the race."

When Chavez first started race walking in middle school, he thought it seemed easy. Over the years, he has realized the challenges that the unique event presents.

"The most challenging part is to keep it legal," Chavez said. "I've been disqualified two times before. It's hard because even in the last 100m, if you're not legal they'll automatically disqualify. It doesn't matter what distance you're at."

For Chavez, race walking isn't just about winning titles or medals.

"In fifth grade, I wasn't really good at other sports, and I was headed towards obesity and diabetes," he said. "It's changed me, its changed my life. I've lost weight, have good health and am no longer on my way to diabetes."

Johnson proves best in multi
In the bantam boys' triathlon, Jalen Johnson rode two personal bests on his way to a multi-event victory. Jones opened up with a toss of 8.82m/28-11.25 in the shot put, and followed that performance up with a clearance of 1.30m/4-3.25 in the high jump. In the 400m, Jones clocked the second best time at 1:02.97 on his way to a final score of 983.

"I PR'ed in the shot put and the high jump," Jones said. "My 400m I don't know what happened. It was just really hot."

Jones, who also won the bantam boys' triathlon title last month at the USA Youth Championships, enjoys the diversity of the multi-events.

"I get to try new and different events, and most of the events are easy," he said. "I guess I'm just athletic."

Although Jones has found success in several events, including the long jump which he is seeded first in, it's not all about winning for him

"I just want to keep running because it's fun," Jones said.

Other event winners from today's competition include the following:

-Wolf Mahler-young men's decathlon (6930)
-Laque Moen-davis, Midwest Striders-young women's heptathlon (4692)
-Danai Metoyer, United Southern Express TC-midget girls' pentathlon (2678)
-Brenda Mccollum-intermediate girls' 3,000m race walk (16:27.25)
-Aadrian Mccollum-young women's 3,000m race walk (16:50.02)
-Nathaniel Roberts, Bowerman AC-intermediate boys' 3,000m race walk (14:40.53)
-Tierra Crockrell-bantam girls' triathlon (1422)
-Joseph Delgado, YMCA Team Idaho-intermediate boys' decathlon (6,508)
-Jaiden Woodbey, California Rising Stars TC-midget boys' pentathlon
-Ceoni Bennett, Kyra Carroll, Selah Dixon, Martayja Hill-United Stars TC-midget girls' 4x800m (10:19.52)
-Terrell Davis, Myles Lewis, Daerribiyean Turner-Texas Storm TC-midget boys' 4x800m (9:53.15)
-Jordyn Colter, Julia Hall, Aubrey Till, Katie Till-Zoom TC-youth girls' 4x800m (9:51.28)
-Philip Hall, Patrick Mccall, William Wicks, Luis Remigio-Fayetteville Flyers-youth boys' 4x800m (8:54.85)
-Devan Foster, Taylor Gerard, Madeline Ivy, Rachel Lopez-Zoom TC-intermediate girls' 4x800m (9:37.58)
-Rahiim Aponte, Clifton Casurra, Alonzo Guilluame-allen, Chaz Mapp-Impact Athletics-intermediate boys' 4x800m (8:32.49)
-Samantha Levin, Colleen Riley, Montene Speight, Marina White-Gateway City United TC-young women's 4x800m (9:16.89)
-Richard Gary, Hector Hernandez, Cory Jones, William Stovall-Texas Stars TC-young men's 4x800m (7:51.43)



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