With no one to challenge her, Amy-Eloise Neale didn’t get the national record she wanted. But she did win another Junior Olympic title.
Neale — a 14-year-old who will be a sophomore this fall at Glacier Peak High School in Snohomish — quickly built a big lead and won the 2,000-meter steeplechase in the Intermediate Girls age division Tuesday at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track &Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif.
It was the sixth career Junior Olympic track victory for Neale, who didn’t start running the steeplechase until last month. The steeplechase is a distance event that uses five barriers, including one water jump.
In just her third competitive steeplechase race, Neale hoped to break the national age-group record in the event: 6 minutes, 56.97 seconds, set by Eleanor Fulton in 2008. But Neale finished in 7 minutes, 9.61 seconds — more than 12 seconds slower than the record.
Still, Neale beat the second-place finisher, Gabrielle Stearns of Iowa, by 13.17 seconds. Stearns’ time was 7:22.78.
“It means a lot,” Neale said of her steeplechase win, “because I haven’t been doing it very long and it’s kind of a new event (for) me.”
The victory wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been, though, Neale said, because she didn’t set the age-group record.
Neale went out fast, separated from the other runners and was by herself the rest of the race.
“There just really wasn’t any competition, and that’s what we thought was going to happen,” said Neale’s coach, Frank Dauncey of the Snohomish Track Club.
Neale’s arms appeared to tire during the race and she struggled with the water jump, Dauncey said. Her time Tuesday was 2.58 seconds slower than the one she ran at the regional meet earlier this month in West Seattle.
Just like at the regional meet, no one tested Neale in Sacramento, which hurt her chances of attacking the record.
“It’s so hard to push like that when there’s no competition,” Dauncey said, “and knowing that you have a couple more races coming up it’s easy to relax subconsciously.”
Neale also is a favorite to win the Intermediate Girls 1,500 and 3,000 runs later this week.
Other local athletes competed Tuesday at the Junior Olympic Championships, which are being held at Sacramento City College’s Hughes Stadium and go through Aug. 1.
Oak Harbor High senior-to-be Adrianna Royal placed second in the Young Women 2,000 steeplechase. Her time was 7:21.80. Melissa Parks of Nebraska won it in 7:13.14.
Royal, who will run the 800 and 1,500 later this week, improved on her regional steeplechase time by 17.08 seconds.
In Day 1 of the Young Men decathlon, Edmonds-Woodway senior-to-be Alec Fellows competed in five events: 100 dash, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400 dash. Fellows won the long jump with a top jump of 23 feet, 0.5 inches. His performance was worth 818 points. He scored 804 points by running the 100 in 11.26 seconds, the second-fastest time in his heat.
Today, Fellows will finish the 10-event decathlon. His Day 2 events are the 110 hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500.
Get updated Junior Olympic results all week at http://tinyurl.com/22oqo6u.
Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
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