SSA Athletes In The News
Three local track stars compete at national championships
by Daniel Rubens Aug. 5, 2017, 9:21 p.m. LAWRENCE, Kan. — Three high school athletes from the Wenatchee Valley were among the nearly 10,000 athletes who traveled to Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas last week to participate in the 51st USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships. All three placed in the top 15 of at least one event in the women’s 17-18 year old division for Spokane Speed Academy. Wenatchee High School rising junior Skyler Walton ran the third leg in a Spokane 4x100-meter relay that placed third with a time of 46.01 seconds. That result earned Walton All-American honors for the second time in her track career. Walton also finished 23rd in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.18 seconds. She set a season-best mark with a time of 12.09 seconds in her preliminary heat. Also competing in two events was Emily DuFour, a rising senior at Eastmont. DuFour finished 14th in the high jump with a mark of five feet, three inches, and ran in another Spokane Speed Academy 4x100-meter relay which placed 32nd. Dani Taylor, an Eastmont junior, also ran in the relay that finished 32nd and competed in Spokane’s 4x400-meter relay which finished 12th with a time of 3:55.38. Taylor also finished 43rd in the 400-meter run. The competition took place from July 24-30 with nearly 10,000 junior athletes in attendance. http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2017/jul/12/three-local-track-athletes-to-compete-in-junior-national-championships/ |
From left, Skyler Walton, Emily DuFour and Dani Taylor pose for a picture after the 2017 USATF Region 13 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships this past weekend at Central Valley High School in Spokane. Submitted photo/Spokane Event Photography
Three local track athletes to compete in Junior National Championships
by Jarrod Peterson
July 12, 2017, 5:15 p.m.
Four local athletes from the Wenatchee Valley competed in the 2017 USATF Region 13 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships this past weekend at Central Valley High School in Spokane, with three booking their places in the national championships later this month.
Wenatchee rising junior Skyler Walton, Eastmont rising senior Emily DuFour and Eastmont rising junior Dani Taylor will be moving on to the USATF Hershey National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Lawrence, Kansas at the end of the month.
Walton, DuFour, Taylor and Wenatchee’s Oscar Benjume competed in several events for the Spokane Speed Academy team and had strong showings.
Walton and her 4x100-meter relay team took first place with a time of 46.63. She also set a season best in the 100-meter dash with a mark of 12.12, which was good enough for third place.
Taylor’s 4x400 relay team also won first place with a posted time of 3:58.05. She also helped her team to a fourth-place finish in the 4x100 relay with a time of 50.80 and took fifth in the 400-meter dash, clocking in at 1:03.18.
DuFour was part of Taylor’s 4x100 team that took fourth, and she also took third in the high jump with a height of 5 feet, 3 inches, which equalled her personal best.
Benjume, who will be a senior at Wenatchee High School in the fall, helped his team to a sixth-place finish in the 4x100 relay. His team crossed the line with a time of 45.59.
Walton will be making her third appearance at the National Junior Olympic meet, while DuFour and Taylor will each be participating for the first time.
The 51st USATF Junior Olympics Track and Field Championships will be held July 24-30 at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas. Nearly 10,000 high school athletes are expected to attend the event.
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2017/jul/12/three-local-track-athletes-to-compete-in-junior-national-championships/
by Jarrod Peterson
July 12, 2017, 5:15 p.m.
Four local athletes from the Wenatchee Valley competed in the 2017 USATF Region 13 Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships this past weekend at Central Valley High School in Spokane, with three booking their places in the national championships later this month.
Wenatchee rising junior Skyler Walton, Eastmont rising senior Emily DuFour and Eastmont rising junior Dani Taylor will be moving on to the USATF Hershey National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Lawrence, Kansas at the end of the month.
Walton, DuFour, Taylor and Wenatchee’s Oscar Benjume competed in several events for the Spokane Speed Academy team and had strong showings.
Walton and her 4x100-meter relay team took first place with a time of 46.63. She also set a season best in the 100-meter dash with a mark of 12.12, which was good enough for third place.
Taylor’s 4x400 relay team also won first place with a posted time of 3:58.05. She also helped her team to a fourth-place finish in the 4x100 relay with a time of 50.80 and took fifth in the 400-meter dash, clocking in at 1:03.18.
DuFour was part of Taylor’s 4x100 team that took fourth, and she also took third in the high jump with a height of 5 feet, 3 inches, which equalled her personal best.
Benjume, who will be a senior at Wenatchee High School in the fall, helped his team to a sixth-place finish in the 4x100 relay. His team crossed the line with a time of 45.59.
Walton will be making her third appearance at the National Junior Olympic meet, while DuFour and Taylor will each be participating for the first time.
The 51st USATF Junior Olympics Track and Field Championships will be held July 24-30 at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas. Nearly 10,000 high school athletes are expected to attend the event.
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2017/jul/12/three-local-track-athletes-to-compete-in-junior-national-championships/
Zoom: Walton sprints past regionals and into the national spotlight
by David HeilingWorld sports editor July 13, 2016, 10:20 p.m. Wenatchee sprinter Skyler Walton, 15, showed she can run with the fastest girls Washington state has to offer when she took second place in the 100-meter dash and third place in the 200m dash as a freshman at the 4A Track and Field State Championships in Tahoma in late May. At the U.S.A. Track and Field Regional Championships in Seattle June 7-10, Walton proved her state performances were no joke. Walton took home first-place finishes in the 100m and 200m events and was a part of a 4x100 relay team that also took home first place. Each win qualified Walton for the U.S.A. Track and Field National Championships in Sacramento, Calif. July 25-31. Walton’s time of 24.62 seconds in the 200m broke the Inland Northwest and junior Olympic record of 24.90 seconds set by former Washington State University sprinter Bree Skinner in 1997. Walton competed in Region 13 — which consisted of runners from the Alaska, Inland Northwest, Oregon and Pacific Northwest regions — to qualify for the National Championships later this month. Recently, Walton decided to spend her summer training with Spokane Speed Academy instead of splitting her time between running and basketball. “The decision to give up basketball was hard for me,” Walton said. “For me, track is an individual thing and it’s my thing. I love running. I had a decision to make. … ‘What do I want to do?’ For me, I knew I wanted to run track when I didn’t want to travel anymore to play basketball. I had to travel for track and I had to travel to ball. For basketball, I didn’t want to travel anymore. For track, I always want to travel.” With Spokane Speed Academy, Walton gets the opportunity to train, run and learn about nutrition with other like-minded high school athletes. Walton splits her time between Wenatchee and Spokane and truly eats, lives and breathes running. Walton emphasizes the mental aspect of running when talking about the most important parts of being a good runner. Walton has born talent — both of her parents were collegiate track athletes — but that doesn’t mean Walton can coast by. She physically trains six days a week. Mentally, she never gets a day off. “I have my team, but when you are at the starting line you are on your own. Before I run, I have to be mentally prepared. Deep breaths, deep thoughts. Visualization. Visualization of winning. Visualization of how good you are going to do. Those races take a lot out of me, this weekend I had to push through that. It’s very tiring. For me, mentally, I’ve learned to push through.” Walton is no stranger to the bright lights. On top of her appearance in the 2016 state championships, Walton competed at the U.S.A. Track and Field National Championships a year ago as a 14-year-old, not yet in high school. None of those successes or accolades matter to Walton. She is concentrated solely on Sacramento at the end of July and what it will take to succeed in her own eyes. “It’s going to be hard training for me in the next few weeks, there is a lot of mental stuff I need to prepare for,” Walton said. “When I go down there, I will focus on doing the best I can and I really want to get a personal best. I always want to do better. I want to do better than I did last year. That would be big for me.” http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2016/jul/13/zoom-walton-sprints-past-regionals-and-into-the-national-spotlight/ |