VA Jr. Olympic Championship Record Holder!
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Outdoor 2007 >> Outdoor 2007

Hillary Parsons improved her personal best twice to set the new Virginia Association Junior Olympic Championship record in the Young Women division. Beating the old record by over a foot, the new mark is 11 feet 4 inches. Hillary's previous best was 11 feet. She jumped that height for the first time last week at the Milestat.com Elite Gala. Today, with the bar at 11 feet, Hillary was the only girl left in the competition. She easily flew over that height and the bar went to 11 feet 2 inches. No problem there! The bar went up another 2 inches and Hillary cleared it on her first attempt with some room to spare! Unfortunately this doesn't count as a school record because the meet is not VHSL sanctioned, but we have no doubts that Hillary will jump even higher next Indoor and Outdoor seasons. This mark also puts Hillary at the top of the XH record list for 11th graders.

Hillary borrowed Anne Marie's uniform for this meet and we heard her say that it must be the uniform that's making her jump high. We think it's you, Hillary! All your hard work is paying off and we think that it will take you even higher!

Two other Xtreme Heighters competed at the meet today. Caitlin Walton placed second in the Intermediate Girls division and Eric Zwarcyz jumped 10 feet, which ties his personal best mark, in the Intermediate Boys division. All three qualified for the USATF Region III Junior Olympic Championships which will be held at the Sports Backers stadium July 12th-15th.

Earlier this weekend we had two athletes compete at the Nike Nationals in Greensboro, NC. Anne Marie Gordon jumped Friday afternoon in the first of two flights in the girls pole vault. She was one of only 3 girls to clear 11 feet 10.75 inches in her section. On attempts, this put her in third place with another flight still to go. Nine girls in the second flight cleared 11'10.75 or better and Anne Marie ended up taking 11th. This was Anne Marie's last high school competition. She will spend the summer preparing for her freshman year at Duke University. Her summer workout schedule includes, among other things, 200 crunches daily and we hear she's very excited about it.

Matthew Armentrout competed at the National meet on Saturday. His state winning 15 foot jump qualified him for the competition. The starting height was 14 feet 4 inches and combined with a head wind was a unfortunately a little too high to clear. Matthew had a couple of good attempts though and we fully expect him to come back next year as one of the top competitors at the National Meet.

Great job everyone!