US high school leader and New Balance Nationals 400 meter champion Sharrika Barnett would have been the top seed and entrant for US Junior Nationals in the 400 with her 52.25 season best last weekend, but decided to shut her season down after her national title performance last weekend in Greensboro, North Carolina.
While there are many top high school athletes and college freshmen who will be at USATF Junior Nationals this weekend in Eugene, there are many others who are not at the meet who would have certainly bolstered the field and had realistic shots to qualify for the Pan-Am Games to be held later this summer in Canada. Just taking a look at Jim Spier's latest US junior rankings list will show those not present at Hayward Field over the next few days.
Jim Spier is the executive director of the National Scholastic Athletic Foundation, which hosts the New Balance Nationals Indoor/Outdoor, but also helps with travel assistance for top high school athletes to events such as the US Junior Nationals and World Youth Trials to insure that we have the best teams possibly representing the United States on the World stage at IAAF championship meets such as World Juniors and World Youth.
Jim Spier's US Junior Rankings (6/24): Girls Rankings - Boys Rankings
Some of the top missing athletes like Candace Hill and Sydney McLaughlin are youth age eligible and opting to focus on the World Youth Trials coming up next week in Chicago since its a World Championship year for Youth (held in mid July in Cali, Columbia). Meanwhile, some have simply shut it down due to long high school or collegiate seasons or suffered injuries which have forced them to take a break to rest. Others may have lacked the funding or awareness to make the trip to Oregon for US Junior Nationals.
Top tier US junior athletes as well as their coaches and parents should certainly become aware of such US championship meet opportunities at the junior and youth level, which also can lead to moving onto the international or world stage should they meet the qualifier criteria. They should be putting these events on their season calendars at the start, adjust their training accordingly for the later finishes and peaks, and explore as well as exhaust any funding resources to make the trip to the US qualifier meet affordable.
Want to become tomorrow's Olympians or US champions? Many of them started early challenging themselves at the next level in events such as the US Junior Nationals. The early experience is incredibly valuable to recall for those who get a chance to compete internationally at a young age when they become top collegiates or professionals on bigger stages.
Check out Jim Spier's US juniors rankings lists below as of June 24th, which shows the best junior aged performances recorded nationally over the 2015 track season. See the meet that could have been for the 2015 USATF Junior Nationals...
Nonetheless, we still got a lot of great athletes and competition this week at the 2015 USATF Junior Nationals.