On a scorchingly hot weekend in June, 12 Jericho Jets qualifiers competed along with over 2000 youth track and field athletes in the Northeast Regional Junior Olympic Championships. The meet, which was held at Mitchel Field's state of the art track and field facility, featured the premier youth track and field athletes from New York State, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts. First, second and third in each event qualified for the Junior Olympic National Championships to be held in Omaha, Nebraska in July.

The meet kicked off on Friday, June 21st, with the "multi events," which, at the 11 to 14 year old age level, is the Pentathlon. The Pentathlon, which consists of the 80 or 100 meter hurdles (depending on age), the long jump, high jump, shot put and 800 meter run, is a test of athletic skill, speed, strength and endurance, especially on a 95 degree day under a broiling sun. In the Pentathlon, points are awarded for each event, with a greater number of points awarded as the athlete's times or distances improve. The points for each event are then "totaled" and the highest total wins. Hannah Rosen, Max Rosenberg and Shawna Foulkes competed in this exhausting event (in different age groups) and all did well, each finishing among the top 8. Shawna finished only a few points out of 3rd place with 2202 points.

Saturday dawned just as bright and even hotter than Friday. In the shorter sprints, Mollie Rosen, Sun Mi Oh and Erin Sinnot ran the Midget Girls' 100 meter dash with Sun Mi having the fastest time, 15.2 seconds and Mollie running 15.3. Ryan Grand ran the Midget Boys' 100 meter dash in 15.6 seconds.

In the Midget Girls' 80 meter hurdles, Hannah Rosen came in second in her heat with a time of 17.2 seconds, 12th over all. Shawna Foulkes and Gina Perno had outstanding performances in the Youth Girls' 200 meter hurdles with Shawna once again just missing third place, this time by three tenths of a second, with a time of 31.48 seconds. Gina came back to run the 200 meter dash with a time of 29.84 seconds, good for 12th place in this Youth Division sprint.

Shawna Foulkes ran a terrific time of 62.1 seconds in the Youth Girls' 400 meter dash and although she won her heat by over fifteen meters, her fourth place time was only 2 tenths of a second behind the bronze medal winner. Despite her outstanding performances, Shawna barely missed qualifying for the Nationals in three different events.

The outstanding performance for the Jericho Jets, and perhaps the outstanding performance in the entire meet, was turned in by 10-year-old Briana Welch. Briana warmed up with a third place finish in the Bantam Girls' 400 meter dash with a time of 71.59 seconds (wining her heat by 20 meters). But Briana got better as the races got longer, taking the gold medal in both the 800 meter and the 1500 meter runs, with times of 2 minutes, 37.5 seconds and 5 minutes, 29.1 seconds, respectively. Spectators and other competitors marveled as the 70 pound sprite ran three tough races on the steaming track over a six hour period, her ever smiling face belying a tough competitive spirit.

Twelve year old Matt Sherman and 11-year-old Michelle Bogdan each covered a torturous 3000 meters under the hot sun. Matt ran an outstanding time of 12 minutes 51.3 seconds for tenth place and came back to run the 800 meters in 2 minutes 57.6 seconds, also for 10th place.

Mollie Rosen, Hannah Rosen, Erin Sinnot and Sun Mi Oh combined to take fifth place in the Midget Girls' 400 meter relay with a time of 62 seconds.

In the field events, 13 year old Max Rosenberg, who went to the Junior Olympic Championships last year, high jumped an outstanding 4 feet 7 inches for sixth place. Shawna Foulkes showed her versatility by high jumping 4 feet 2 inches. Mollie and Hannah Rosen and Gina Perno long jumped with Gina's 14 foot 3 inch leap capturing ninth place in the Girls' Youth Division. Competing in the Boys Youth Division, Max Rosen came in 11th in the shot put and then, in an event dating back to the original olympic games first held in ancient Greece, threw the javelin 80 feet for sixth place.

The Northeast Regional Junior Olympic Championship meet provided the Jericho Jet qualifiers with an opportunity to compete against the best young runners, jumpers and throwers in the northeastern United States. A meet with this level of competition gives its participants the chance to test their abilities against the best and prepares them for future competition at the high school and college levels. To compete at this level is an achievement of which each of these young athletes should be proud.

While many of the members of the Jericho Jets have been away over the summer, a number of young, dedicated athletes continued to train and compete during the summer months. With fall approaching, the Jericho Jets will continue to train at the Jericho High School track on Tuesday evenings at 6:30 and on Sunday mornings at 10, commencing with the Tuesday after Labor Day. Anyone interested in running, jumping, learning about "track and field" or merely improving their overall conditioning is welcome. The track program is a terrific adjunct for other sports which require speed, agility or endurance; in other words, for virtually all other sports. For more information contact coach Richard Rosen at 931-0771 or visit the Jericho Jets website at 11753.com under "Jericho Jets."