AAU Club National Championships Off To Hot Start

Today was Day 4 of the AAU Club National Championships at Disney; these past three days have been full of fast races and some fast records. Every year at the AAU Club Championships there’s always some new people on the scene, and more records being broken.

Day 2 - Multi Events & the Race Walk

To start off the day, the 15-16 girls heptathlon was very close, only 23 points separated first and second. Christin Hackney (Sstcfiano) held of Yarilsa Delgado by scoring 3,335 points to Delgado’s 3,308 points. For the 15-16 boys decathlon Kollon Smith (Marlboro Boys Girls Club TC) scored 5,952 points to win the event. In the 17-18 year old women began to compete in their final events of the heptathlon. This year’s winner, Lyndsey Lopes (USC Commit) won the heptathlon with a total of 4,762 points, which is only about 300 shy of her personal best of 5,069 points. A familiar face in the mulit’s from down South, Gillian Morrison (Douglas) placed 3rd scoring 4,370 points. In the 17-18 men’s decathlon John Rodriguez of Puerto Rico wins by scoring 5,639 points. In a close second was William Stout (Middle Tn Elite) with 5,563 points. To close out the day in the 14 year old 3,000m race walk, Angel Carrillo (Puerto Rico) broke a 3 year record of 15:29.88 by walking 13:57.57.

Day 3 - 100m & Javelin

The biggest event of the day was the 100m dash prelims, in the prelims only the top 24 would advance to the final. In the 15-16 girls 100m the top 7 times are all under 12.7. The leaders going into the semifinals are Jamesha Moorer (St. Pete Nitro) running 12.30 and Dianisty Bolden (727 Track) running 12.35. On the 15-16 boys side we saw a sub 11 performance from Elija Goodwin (Elite Speed) running 10.93. Moving on to the 17-18 girls, the top 5 times are all under 12.5. The leader going into the semifinal is Jadzia Beasley running 12.22. For the men’s 100m, it’s very apparent that not only the semifinal, but also the final are going to be really fast. The top 5 times are all under 11 seconds, the leader of this pack running 10.78 is Chauncy Smart (Muck City Striders). In the 17-18 Women’s Javelin, Samantha Zelden broke a 5 year record with a throw of 147-07.

Day 4 - 800m & 200m

In the first event of the day Daesha Rogers claims another record in the 15-16 girls 800m. Rogers leaves her competition from the first lap as usual to run a new record of 2:11.77. Daesha Rogers had no one by her in the prelim which is not new, but going into the final I think we might be able to see a sub 2:10 performance, which we haven’t seen in a while. For the boys 15-16 800m, the times are pretty even, the top 5 boys are all 2:01. In the 17-18 Women’s 800m, Amber Tanner leads the pack running 2:12.57. On the boys side, Devin Dixon ran 1:54.41, which was clearly done by himself as the next fastest time in is heat was 2:00.88. To close out the girls 800m’s for the day, in the 14 year old age group, Daishon Spann strikes again after just winning her age group pentathlon, by running 2:15.11 and going into the final as the fastest qualifier. In the 200m dash for the 15-16 girls, Sydni Townsend was the only girl to break the 25 second barrier, by running 24.76 she is the fastest qualifier for the semifinals. For the boys 15-16, Tyrese Cooper ran 21.26, which is only 5 hundredths off the current record of 21.21. Not far behind cooper was Elija Goodwin running 21.73.

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