* The San Antonio Swift girls celebrate after a race on Friday at the AAU Junior Olympic Games
Photo Credit: David Nguyen/MileSplit
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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Action, action, action.
It was a flurry of races, field events, finals and records on Friday, the penultimate day of the AAU Junior Olympic Games at Drake Stadium.
The stakes were higher, the performances were ramped up, and as a result we saw national records fall, four in total, giving us 14 for the week and with one day remaining.
Check out our full coverage and more from Friday's efforts below.
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WATCH LIVE: The AAU Junior Olympic Games
The Scoop:
STORY OF THE DAY
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It was a successful route to the finish for the Pearland Track Club boys, who authored a winning effort of 7:44.52 in the 17-18yo boys division of the 4x800 on Friday at the AAU Junior Olympic Games.
Check out what the group had to say about the performance.
STAT OF THE DAY
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69.59 meters
That was the winning mark that Leikel Cabrera Gay, a Cuban athlete competing for Miami Elite Track Club, threw on Friday to win the boys 17-18yo division in the javelin. That 228 foot, 3 inch throw was just 13 inches shy of the national record that was last set in 2018 by Tzuriel Pedigo.
NATIONAL RECORDS
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14
The national record race heated up on Friday as four new marks went down, including the 8-year-old boys 4x100, the 15-16yo boys 4x100, the 17-18yo girls 4x100 and the boys 13yo 400m.
MVP OF THE DAY
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Gideon Newton (Birmingham, AL)
It was a mighty day for Newton, a 13yo out of the Alabama Heat Track Club. The morning began with a 200 meter title in 22.48 seconds, Newton's first at the distance. But from there, things only got better.
Newton blitzed through his 400m semifinal with a new national record of 49.11 seconds, surpassing Jaelen Hunter's former record of 49.98, which was achieved in 2022.
There's reason to think Newton might go after it again. Newton won a 12yo title in 2022, clocking a time of 53.36.
RACE OF THE DAY
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Let's give a shout out to the Team Quest girls of Texas, who ran 44.68 seconds, a new national record in the 17-18yo girls division. That performance was so fast, in fact, that it would have been ranked No. 3 in the U.S. this year in high school.
Previous Recaps:
QUOTE OF THE DAY
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"My start was perfect. I ran through the line. But I can improve accelerating through the curve."
That quotable is courtesy of Charlotte Heat's Zhoe Holt, who ran 24.72 to win the girls 12yo 200m final on Friday after finishing second over the past two seasons (Holt is going for her third straight 100m title on Saturday).
PHOTO(S) OF THE DAY
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Photo Credit: David Nguyen/MileSplit