6/23 Bulletin - Gochenour stands 4th in USA Junior National Heptathlon
At the end of Thursday, 6/23, Iowa’s Alex Gochenour stands fourth after the first four events (100mH, HJ, SP, 200m) of the heptathlon in the USA Junior National Track & Field Championships, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. She’s only 48 points behind the leader (3126 to 3174), Allison Reaser, San Diego State University going into Friday’s final three events (LJ, Javelin, 800m). See results at http://www.usatf.org/events/2011/USAJuniorOutdoorTFChampionships/results/138.asp .
The USA Junior Championships is the highest level meet in the U.S. available for high school T&F athletes, serving as the qualifier for the USA National Junior Team 2011. The top two in each event of the Championships will participate in the Pan American Junior Championships, Miramar, Florida July 22-24. To be eligible to compete in the Junior Championships, athletes can be up to 19 years of age and must meet rigid qualifying standards. Therefore, the meet includes mostly college freshman and sophomores, with only the best of the nation’s high school runners, jumpers, throwers, and multi-eventers qualifying.
Gochenour won the USA Junior Championships (held at DrakeUniversity, Des Moines) heptathlon in 2010, scoring 5300 points. She was 3rd after the first 4 events last year, with 3228 points. She qualified and then went on to finish 10th in the IAAF World Junior Championships, Moncton, Canada, scoring 3260; results at http://www.iaaf.org/wjc10/results/eventcode=4146/racedate=07-23-2010/sex=W/discCode=HEP/combCode=hash/roundCode=7/summary.html#detW_800_HEP_u