USATF JO Championships Finish: AAU JO Begins

Chris Dallager reports on the final day of the USATF Junior Olympic Championships in Sacramento. Sisters Molly and Lauren Smith(Team Woodbury) each earned medals in the 1500 meters. Bantam Girl (age 10 and under) Molly Smith finished sixth of 23 with a time of 5:32.46. Midget Girl (ages 11-12) Lauren Smith placed seventh of 29 with a time of 5:09.66. Both Smith girls ran more than nine seconds faster than their winning Region times to place at the national meet.

Youth Boy (ages 13-14) Matthew Rosen(Bloomington) followed up his national championship in the 800 meter run with a fifth place finish in the finals of the 1,500 meters in 4:17.53. Rosen will play football in the fall for Bloomington Jefferson.

Bantam Boy Ben Olson(Coon Rapids) earned a medal for his seventh place finish among the 33 athletes in the 1500 meter run with a time of 5:01.89. Olson's time at nationals was more than five seconds faster than his Minnesota Junior Olympic meet record time. Ben's sister Sarah finished twentieth of 23 in the Bantam Girls' division with a time of 6:07.43.

At the AAU National Junior Olympics in Norfolk, Virginia, Eagan girl Courtney Clark(Real Track and Field based in Rosemount) competed in the Midget Girls' Pentathlon. She scored 1388 points and finished thirty-third of 41 athletes in the event that is composed of the 80 meter Hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump, Shot Put, and 800 meter run run. This was Clark's first foray into the pentathlon. She first started to hurdle in June.

The USATF National Junior Olympics are now complete and most Minnesotans at the AAU meet begin competition Monday and Tuesday