Two Sweet Home athletes have qualified for the national Junior Olympics track and field meet, to be held July 24-29.
Maria Kropf will compete in the 100 and Dakotah Keys has qualified in the decathlon and the javelin.
Hannah McClaskey finished fourth in the hammer throw, but her mark of 126-1 was a qualifying mark so she is being considered as an at-large competititor and will be notified later in the week if she’s chosen.
Land Florek finished eighth in the 400, but ran a personal-best time of 51.49.
“He really trained hard, since the Oregon Association meet, for regionals and it really showed through his race,” said Lila Danforth, who coached the competitors and accompanied them to the event.
The meet was held at Stealth High School in the Seattle area July 12-15.
Kropf, who will be a high school freshman in the fall, won her preliminary heat on Saturday in 12.74, then ran 12.82 Sunday to win. She had planned to run the 100 hurdles as well, which were to be held right after the 100-meter dash, but Danforth said Kropf was feeling tight and decided not to risk injury before the nationals.
“She was so tight, she could not even practice jumping the hurdles in the preliminary race,” Danforth said.
Keys, though tired from his decathlon win at the USA Youth Outdoor championships the week before in Illinois, managed a second-place finish in the decathlon, scoring 5756 behind Andrew Gay, also from Oregon, who scored 5998. Keys threw a PR of 128-4 in the discus during the decathlon on Friday.
Danforth said he and Gay would have scored higher, but decided to jog the last event, the 1500, to save their energy for training and nationals.
On Sunday Keys ran the 110 high hurdles, but another competitor tripped over a hurdle and fell into Keys’ lane, slowing him down. He placed sixth.
Two hours later, though, Keys found his groove in the javelin and threw 189-8 on his first attempt, breaking Mike Severn’s school record of 184-11, set in 2004.
Keys threw 192-6 on his next attempt, followed by three in the 180s, then threw 193-10, good for second behind Alex Cartwright’s 195-10. Cartwright finished behind Keys at the Oregon meet.
“Everything came together – his block, his timing, perfect through the point,” Danforth said. “The wind was ideal. It was wonderful to see him get the reward for all the training and sacrificing he has done this summer. He struggled all season with the javelin and today it all came together.”
Danforth said Keys got a chance to meet Tom Petranoff, former world-record holder in the old-style javelin, who gave him some encouragement and coaching.
She said the national meet, to be held at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, will be “interesting.”
Keys (6395) and Gay (6024) have the top scores in the nation among intermediate boys in the decathlon, and Cartwright and Keys are first and second in the nation in the javelin. All are from Oregon, Danforth noted. The competition will be tougher for Kropf as well.
“Maria will see faster runners at the National Meet,” Danforth said. “It will be good competition for her.”