At left, Mauricio Morales, 5th in the YM Steeple
The Steeple Story - by SteveU
The four 2000 meter steeplechase races at the USATF Junior Olympics each featured large fields and a mix of experienced and inexperienced steeplers. All had quality finishes, if not quite as strong as Nike Outdoor or USATF Junior Nationals.
Headlining the Young Women’s race was Ashlyn Sinclair of Mach Los Trac, the national record holder for IG with her 6:57.46 from 2004 and the IG winner here in 2005. Defending YW champ Nefeteri Williams of the Chicago Zephyrs brought a 7:05 seed into the race, while unseeded Megan Hudson was the 2003 IG winner in meet record time. The 7:15.97 meet record was in jeopardy.
Williams wound up with the gold in a meet record 7:10.47, while Sinclair edged Hudson for 2nd, 7:16.46-7:16.92.
Alyssa Allison of the Jets TC blazed a meet record 7:13.70 to win the Intermediate Girls race by more than 27 seconds over Sarah Higgens of Personal Feat (7:41.39). She also improved from her runner-up spot a year ago. Higgens, in turn, was more than nine ticks up on third.
Robert Barkulis (Heart of Illinois) had the top Young Men’s seed coming in at 6:10.84, but lurking at the #3 spot was 3:46 1500-meter runner Sam Borchers of Miami Valley OH. Borchers decided just to run the 1500, however, and Barkulis had a bad day. Seventh-seeded Dan Sorenson thus emerged with a strong 6:07.44 to win by more than four ticks ahead of Skyler Delmott (Emporia) as five ran under 6:18.
Top-seeded Donny Roys, 6th in this race last year, was an 11-second winner over Patrick Morgan with his 6:15.12 in the Intermediate Boys race. |
