Cinnamon Andrews, an incoming Kokomo High School freshman, recently quailfied to the 2013 United States Track and Field Region 7 Junior Olympics Championships.
Andrews, 14, quailfied by placing 8th in the 1500-meter run at the USATF Indiana JO Championships at Wabash University. Her 8th place time of 5:25.23 is 29 seconds faster than what she ran last year, according to her coach.
"It's an improvement and it shows she has been working; now we need her to work hard and smart," said K.O. Jackson, head track and field coach at Kokomo High School. "Our team (KHS) needs to fill a void in our mid-distance group and even though she's a young freshman, we expect Cinnamon to be a leader of that group. She has much to learn and much more work to do, but she's off to a great start qualifying to the Region 7 meet. It's like we tell all our ladies: You have to perform at BIG meets and this willl be a BIG meet."
The JO Region 7 Championships will be held July 11-14 at Joilet Memorial Stadium in Joliet, Ill. Region 7 represents athletes in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
The top 5 athletes from Region 7 will advance to the USATF National Junior Olympics Championships, July 22-28 at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro, NC. There will be more than 7,000 athletes at the championships.