A pair of youngsters won their events, as Kiya Pogue won the girls sub-bantam 100-meter dash and Gabriela Valdez took home gold in the bantam girls long jump.

"I'm very pleased," Gold Rush coach Eureka Hall said of her athletes' performances. "I told the kids going into the regional meet just keep competing like they have all year long, just be a little more aggressive in what you do. I just put it into their minds, do what you've been doing all year long plus put a little more effort in. It turned out to be a pretty good meet."

In addition to Pogue's 100 victory, which she ran in 15.24 seconds, she was also third in the 200 at 33.17. In the 100, she ran even faster during preliminaries, setting a personal record with a 15.1.

"Kiya was really focused," Hall said. "We pretty much planned in her head that you know what, you have the best time in the 100 meters, it's your race, all you've got to do is rehearse all the things you've done all year long, come out of the blocks focused, drive hard and just maintain."

Valdez won the long jump with a leap of 3.75 meters (12.38 feet). She had finished third at the Arizona Junior Olympics meet in mid-June but increased her leap by .22 of a meter to help her strike gold.

"She's a hard worker and all the coaches always talk about how hard Gabby works," Hall said. "Eventually it pays off. She's a hard worker, she came in focused and knew the things she needed to do."

Trey Johnson qualified for nationals with a second place showing in the midget boys long jump (5.05 meters or 16.67 feet). However, he almost didn't make it out of preliminaries because he scratched on his first two jumps.

"In the first round, that third jump was what landed him second place overall and he jumped from way behind the board," Hall said.

Johnson had to jump from far back to make sure he didn't scratch again and get disqualified from the event. Had he jumped from the board Hall thinks his distance would have been long enough to win it.

"In my mind he could have came out of there with the gold, but unfortunately his first two jumps were a scratch," she said.

Johnson also qualified for nationals in the 100 with a fourth-place showing. His time was 13.21.

C.J. Scieneaux qualified for nationals with a third place finish in the midget boys 800 and a fourth place in the 400. His times were 2:22.57 and 1:00.66, respectively. Both were personal bests.

Near make and miss
Tamia Robinson was fifth in the midget girls long jump at 4.43 meters (14.6 feet), squeaking into the last spot for nationals. She barely missed qualifying in the 400 as she was sixth.

Eric Chambers also qualified in one event and had a narrow miss in another, getting fifth in the boys sub-bantam 100 at 15.59. However, he was sixth in the 400.

"He just missed," Hall said. "It was hot that day and we had a difficult time finding shade for the kids. We had tents but the fact that the awards ceremony, the kids were waiting for a while to get their awards and then they had to jump right back on the track. They didn't get the time to relax before running their next race."

The midget girls 4x400 relay team of Isabella Hart, Morgan Anderson, Kenzington Pratt and Robinson were unable to top their state time of 4:38.40, but still qualified for nationals with a 4:43.74, good for fifth place.

Jayda Pogue, who competed in the midget girls long jump but did not qualify for nationals, will be an alternate on the relay team.

That makes 10 total athletes for Arizona Gold Rush heading to the national meet in Wichita, Kansas July 26-31.

"For the most part, I'm really pleased with the kids' performance," Hall said. "For the most part, they went in focused. Some of them were a little nerved up with competition, but for the most part when the pressure is on the kids got to handle the pressure."

For more information about Arizona Gold Rush or to help sponsor their trip to Kansas, visit www.azgoldrush.org or call 623-206-5029.

Casey Pritchard can be reached by email at cpritchard@westvalleyview.com.