JaiCieonna Gero-Holt sets another girls heptathlon record, this time in winning USATF U20 Track and Field Championships
Emerald Ridge High School's JaiCieonna Gero-Holt keeps racking up bundles of wide-spanning track and field acclaim - and national records.
The uber-talented teenager from Puyallup reset her own national sophomore-class record in the girls' heptathlon at the USATF Under-20 Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon earlier this month.
Buoyed by personal-best marks in the high jump (6 feet, 1.5 inches), javelin (142-5) and 800-meter run (2:31.94 seconds), Gero-Holt scored a whopping 5,552 points to run away with the meet title.
Texas standout Abby Elmore was the runner-up with 5,271 points.
"The hurdles (15.07 seconds) was an anomaly, but to her credit, she moves forward," said Mike Strong, Gero-Holt's personal training coach. "That is our rule - whatever happens in the past, we have to go to the next thing."
Strong said the two had put extra work in the high jump - and Gero-Holt's 6-11/2 came after a series of clean attempts. It also fell just short of Mary Moore's all-time Washington high school mark of 6-2, set in 1981.
Gero-Holt also was a half-inch short of her personal-best in the girls shot put (43-51/4), then registered career-bests in the javelin and 800.
Last month, Gero-Holt set the national sophomore record at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene - at 5,481 points.
A year ago, she also set the national freshman mark at 5,401.
Gero-Holt earned a spot at next month's Pan American Under-20 Championships, (Aug. 4-6) in Puerto Rico.
