SACRAMENTO - Daniel Richardson's record-setting performance in the Midget Boys discus was the spotlight of yet another exceptional day at the National Junior Olympic Championships at Hughes Stadium on the campus of Sacramento City College in Sacramento, Calif. The meet concludes Sunday, Aug. 1.
Daniel Richardson (Team RAW) set a National Junior Olympic Championships meet record in the Midget Boys discus throw with a toss of 40.81m/133-11, easily bettering the mark of 39.32m/129-0 set last year by Aaron Hanna. Richardson was easily in the lead going into his sixth throw, but he let loose his best mark on that final toss to solidify his placing and break the record. Earlier in the meet Richardson finished second in the pentathlon, only two points behind the winner.
Running
Preliminary heats of the 100m, 1,500m and 4x100m relays produced several top performances on the track. Thomas Tyner (Warrior TC) ran a blazing 10.58 in the Intermediate Boys 100m and will enter Sunday's finals less than one-tenth of a second off the National and meet record of 10.58 set by Jeremy Ranking in 2006.
USA Track & Field's 2009 Youth Athlete of the Year, Bryce Love (Carolina Elite, Raleigh, N.C.), cruised to a 50.34 as the top finisher in the Youth Boys 400m. Love, the National Midget Boys record-holder in the 100m, 200m and 400m, will be looking to add another National mark when he challenges Obea Moore's 47.16 record in the 400m finals on Sunday.
Raevyn Rogers and Robin Reynolds both brought in the fastest 400m qualifying times in the Youth Girls and Intermediate Girls events. Rogers, the owner of the National Youth Girls and Midget Girls 800m records will scramble for yet another record, currently held by Reynolds at 53.10. Reynolds will have to improve on her 54.26 prelim time to make another mark in the record books.
Field
Diamante Luna (UNLV Elite Youth TC, Las Vegas, Nev.) won a close Youth Boys long jump competition with a jump of 6.49m/21-3.5, a mere .04m/0-1.5 farther than the next finisher. A similar situation was seen in the Midget Girls and Bantam Boys long jumps as Laura Panteau (Team Focos, Long Beach, Calif.) and Mikey Corrin (Vast TC, Studio City, Calif.) each won their event by one-half inch. Panteau had a leap of 4.71m/15-05.5 and Corrin finished with a distance of 4.62m/15-2.
Last year's Youth Girls triple jump champion Carla Forbes (Waltham TC, Newtonville, Mass.) hopped, leaped and jumped to another first-place finish in the Intermediate Girls triple jump (11.99m/39-04) competition.
In the Intermediate Boys high jump, Evan Eggenberg (Kern Future Athletes, Bakersfield, Calif.) cleared the winning height of 2.00m/6-6.75 on his final jump to pull ahead of the next four finishers who all jumped 1.95m/6-4.75.
Thursday's Midget Girls discus champion Katelyn Gochenour (Cornhusker Flyers, Omaha, Neb.) returned to the top of the podium today with a first-place finish in the javelin throw. Gochenour's performance of 39.18m/128-06 was good enough to better her 2009 Junior Olympics third-place finish and continue her winning streak from the 2010 Youth Outdoor Championships.