Another spectacular day at the Jr. Olympics here in Houston, TX. We got our day started with the 17-18 Girls Long Jump where Abby Taylor finished 18 of 41 athletes! She got better with each jump but it wasn't quite enough to get her to the finals. So proud of our "oldest" athlete and the example she sets for the rest of the team. Great job Abby!! Next we ventured back on the track for the (15-16 & 17-18) Girls 100 Hurdles where both of our Heptathletes showed that they were more than able to keep up with the rest of the ladies. Kaylee Carter improved her time in the open 100 hurdles from her Heptathlon with a time of 16.47 placing her 30 of 46 Girls. Olivia (Birthday Girl) Leavitt decided to give herself a present for her birthday by running a new PR of 14.63 in her hurdle race and finished 19th of 40 ladies. Her time on Monday in the Heptathlon was 14.94 so I think she figured out how to run on this track and heat rather quickly. So proud of our "oreo"!
Next, up was the 100's where Oliver Jensen (11-12 Boys), Sampson Doyle (13-14 Boys), Kylie Dorius and Starlee Woodbury (15-16 Girls) and Abby Taylor (17-18 Girls) ran some amazing times with at least half of them setting new PR's in the process! When you factor in that these runners best times came when they ran at altitude and "thin" air, to running in Houston which is close to sea level and humid. So to PR or even run the same time you did at altitude is quite incredible and these athletes did that! Our final 100 meter runner Jaslyn (Jaz) Gardner is the Nations top returning runner in the 13-14 Girls 100 where she finished in 8th place last year. This year Jaz has been winning every race by almost 1 full second in the 100. She has not been pushed once this year so when she ran a 12.27 at our Region meet in the 1st round, I knew she was ready to "POP" a big one here. Jaz, decided it was time to get one of those "POPS" in so today she ran a 12.09! This is a new PR and new Utah Youth Record. Coming into this season the all-time Utah High School State record was 11.85 and our goal was to break 12 this year for Jaz and start knocking on the door of this record. She is starting to pound on that door because she made a few technical errors and still ran this incredible time. If she puts it all together and corrects them then a sub 12 will happen soon!! Her time tied her for the 3rd best time going into the semi-finals. So we shall see what happens tomorrow! Oh and BTW, I did mention this all-time high school time that Jaz is approaching…..she is going to be a FRESHMAN this coming year!! She just finished the 8th grade!
Our last events of the day were the 4X100 where we had a 13-14 Girls and a 15-16 Girls team compete. Our (15-16 Girls) came in with a season best of 52.43 and today they ran 51.73 and finished 32nd. Our (13-14 Girls) came in with a 53.39 at our Region meet and as a result we were placed in lane 8 of our heat. Our team of Myley Alexander, Laveni Vaka, Daviana Vaka and Jaslyn Gardner today ran a 49.44 which placed them 9th of 40 teams and one place out of the finals!! We had a couple of rough exchanges that made it difficult for us to crack the top 8. These ladies have a low 48 in them and although they were disappointed to finish one spot out of the finals they did an amazing job! Their time is also a new all-time Utah Youth Record! So proud of these incredible young women!!!
Here is Tomorrow (Friday) Schedule:
All times are UTAH times:
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8:00am Carter Slack (9-10 Boys) 400 Meters
9:00am Jacob Bastian (11-12 Boys), Myley Alexander (13-14 Girls), Connor Poulsen (13-14 Boys) 400 Meters
10:00am Kylie Dorius and Lexi Olds (15-16 Girls) and Chris Poulsen (15-16 Boys) 400 Meters
11:30am Jaslyn Gardner (13-14 Girls) 100 Meter Semi-Final
2:30pm (13-14 Girls) 4X400 Relay: Daviana Vaka, Laveni Vaka, Emme Leavitt and Myley Alexander
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