The Parker Panthers competed in the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics this past weekend at Legacy Field in Aurora. The Panthers are a local track team that has been in Parker for seven years, focusing on children ages 8 to 14.
Coach Ross Cargo reported, "While our program is designed for kids to get introduced to track and field and have fun, we did have a very good showing at this year's Colorado Junior Olympics. We had 15 kids qualify for the Regional Junior Olympics in Phoenix, Arizona. Many other kids placed in the top six or got personal bests."
One of the most outstanding performers was Alexander Jackson who competes in the 10 year old and under division (Bantam). Alex won the high jump with a national level performance of 4'8". He also finished third in the long jump and just missed qualifying in the 400 meter dash with a fourth place finish.
High Jump youth coach Rachel Benton said, "If he continues to high jump at the level he has for the last four meets he should qualify for the national meet in Omaha, Nebraska at the end of July."
The Bantam girls 4x100 meter relay team of Emily Smith, Ashley Diefenbach, Hannah Martellaro and Jaimee Morand finished third in an exciting photo finish.
Panther coach Brent Timmons related, "I got to see the official finish line photo and Jaimee's head came across the line in second place by a few inches, but her chest was about one inch behind the other team and that's what decides the places. They did get the Parker Panther record by almost a full second so we're very happy about their performance. This is the hardest working relay team that I've ever seen."
One of the Panther assistant youth coaches, Michael McPherson, who was a stand out at Chaparral High School, won the Decathlon where they compete in ten track and field events over two days with a solid performance of just under 6,000.
He scored 6,250 a few weeks ago, but was excited about his clearance of 11'8" in the pole vault, an event he just picked up after the high school season ended. He plans to compete in the decathlon in addition to the long and high jump at Utah Valley State University next year.
Other Bantam-age Panthers who qualified for regionals by finishing in the top three last week, include Kiera Carney in the shot put, Andrew Timmons in the 800 meters, Jake Ellis in the 1500 meters and Andre Hogan in the shot put. Jaimee Morand also qualified in the long jump with third place finish.
Older Panthers who qualified were Erin Seeber in the 11-12 year old girls and the 13-14 year old boys 4x100 relay team of Joshua Timmons, Nathan Crowley, Mitchell Rogers and anchor William Pasion.