The AAU Northern Indoor Junior Olympic Games
February 26, 2009
Written by Jill McCluskey
The 2009 AAU Northern Indoor Track and Field Championship Meet took place over the weekend (Friday to Sunday February 20th-22nd 2009) in Merrillville, Indiana. I brought my daughter Lauren to compete in the pentathlon and the individual competitions in high jump, long jump, and hurdles in the midget age group. We live in Washington state, and there no indoor meets for youth within driving distance for us. We flew into Chicago and drove just under an hour to Merrillville. There are good deals on airfares to Chicago. There was no southern meet this year.
Like all AAU meets that I’ve heard about, the kids compete in one-year age groups as opposed to USATF two-year age groups. There are tradeoffs to this. I see positives in competing against older kids. It may push their performances and the kids experience being both on top and on the lower end. On the other hand, it can be discouraging, especially in the younger age groups, where can be huge physical differences.
Last year in the high jump, my then 5′0″ tall daughter competed against a 5′11″ tall 12 year old. (My daughter has already grown almost 4 inches since the summer. The midget age group, as they are approaching the teen years, seems to be a time of growth spurts.)
A big positive for us is that this meet offers the combined events. The combined events take place on Friday, starting at 5:00 p.m. There are very few combined event meets, and my daughter loves doing it. I wish the combined events started earlier in the afternoon. It was a little hard for her to compete the next morning in her individual events with an 8:00 a.m. hurdle prelim race, and a 8:30 high jump competition. Her individual event high jump was a little lower than her combined events. I like that they hold both prelim and final races for all age groups, including in hurdles.
Overall, my daughter had a good meet, with PRs in hurdles and shot put (she was happy to break 25 feet). Her pentathlon score was lower than she hoped for because of difficulties with her steps in the long jump and needing to build more endurance for the 800 m. The first two long jumps (out of three) were fouls, and she got a short one in on the third jump, but at least got points. In the pent high jump, she cleared 4′10″, but then bumped the bar with her leg on the way down. So, her best jump was 4′8″. Each meet has its ups and downs and can be a learning experience.
In other performances, it was great to watch Stacy Destin from Boyton Beach, Florida, dominate in the sub-youth pentathlon. Last summer, she broke youth records at the USATF JO National meet in the midget age group with over 3400 points in the pent and a high jump of 1.69 m (5′ 6.25″). I was hoping to see a repeat match up with multi-event star Alexa Harmon-Thomas from Kansas, but she didn’t come this year. One of her teammates told me Alexa injured her wrist playing soccer.
In the sprints, Brittny Ellis had some impressive performances in the midget age group with 7.74 in the 55m, 27.01 in the 200 m and 1:02.76 in the 400m. The 200 and 400 were good for first place, and the 55 m performance was second to Chisom Obasih who ran a 7.70 second 55m in the midget age group.
The medals at this meet are really impressive - they’re the new AAU national medal for 2009.
Lastly, the track parents are always wonderful. My digital camera was in my pocket and fell out. I left my cell phone number with the meet officials in case anyone turned it in. As I was driving into Chicago, I got a call. My camera was found and they will mail it to me. I would recommend this meet to others. Merrillville is easy to navigate with a lot of restaurants and a big mall. You can explore Chicago a bit after the competition is over.
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- AAU Junior Olympic Games .. Central California Wins Big
- AAU Narrows Choices for 2013-2022 Junior Olympic Games
- Day 2 July 29th,2008 AAU Junior Olympic Games
A 7.74 55m and 1:02 400 meter was impressive by Britny as well as her 200m. Its amazing that these young athletes can run more events in one meet then most pros can do in three.