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Track: Danville's Pace wins national AAU title

August 05, 2007|MIKE MARSEE

Diamond Pace of Danville won a national track and field championship Friday at the AAU Junior Olympic Games in Knoxville, Tenn.

Pace won the girls triple jump in the sub-youth division, beating 16 other competitors in the field of 12- and 13-year-olds.

Her winning jump of 34 feet, 5 inches was one half-inch better than runner-up Shantel Swift of San Antonio.

"It was really fun, and it wasn't too hard because I didn't really get my best jump," Pace said. "It wasn't as tough as the state (high school) meet, really, because I was just competing against people my age. It wasn't that nerve-wracking."

Pace, an eighth-grader at Bate Middle School, finished second in the Class A triple jump at the state high school meet at 35-1 1/2 for Danville High School.

She also competed in the 200-meter hurdles on Monday at the AAU meet, finishing 26th of 42 runners in the preliminaries - she was ranked 36th going in - in a personal-best 31.44 seconds.

Pace said she thinks this experience will help her in next year's high school season.

"I think it'll do me a lot of good and prepare me more for next year," she said, adding that she'll likely try for another AAU title next summer.

Another area athlete, Chrys Jones of Harrodsburg, was second in a field of 43 in the boys young division triple jump on Monday. His best leap of 48-10 1/2 was 3 feet, 2 3/4 inches behind winner Christopher Carter of Hearne, Texas, in the meet's oldest age group, which included athletes born from 1988-90.

Jones also competed in the long jump, finishing 30th of 39 athletes at 20-9 1/2.

Candace Taylor of Danville was entered in the girls intermediate long jump but did not compete.

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