Girls Recap: Leah Starkey Breaks Sophomore Class Record With 9:46 Victory In 2-Mile

By Lori Shontz For DyeStat

Becky Holbrook Photos

RESULTS/VIDEOS | INTERVIEWS

EUGENE -- Another day at Hayward Field, another victory for thrower Jaslene Massey.

Or, to be more precise, two victories.

Massey won the shot put Saturday morning at Nike Outdoor Nationals, throwing 54-2.50 to win by more than five feet, and then won the discus Saturday afternoon, throwing 180-3 to break a meet record and win by nearly seven feet.

“You’re not about to lose at your home field,” said Massey, who will join the Oregon Ducks in the fall. “And I wanted to prove why people should watch field sports. That’s near and dear to my heart.”

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As she spoke, Massey was wearing four gold medals around her neck, including the two U20 medals she won Thursday and Friday, one each in the discus and the shot put. Her Saturday performance, she said, was good practice for the World Athletics U20 Championships, which will also be held at Hayward Field.

The schedule for worlds will be a challenge: discus qualifying the evening of Aug. 5, the first day of competition, then shot put qualifying the morning of Aug. 6. The finals in both events will be contested the evening of Aug. 6 – and an hour apart. Discus starts at 6:05 p.m., and shot put starts at 7:05 p.m.

Massey said Friday that she considers herself a discus thrower first, then a shot putter – although she improved her PR by two feet in the U20 competition and moved to No. 4 on the all-time high school list.

She said her coach plans to put her through another lifting cycle to prepare for worlds. “Just to hold my peak, hold the feeling in my body and move at the pace I’ve been able to compete at,” she said.

One of Massey’s teammates on the U.S. team for worlds, Mia Maxwell, broke the meet record in the triple jump with a leap of 43-6 on her fifth jump. Maxwell, who will compete in the 100 and 200 at worlds, said she came to NON with the goal of breaking that record in her last meet as a high school athlete.

“It’s a little bittersweet,” she said. “At the same time, I’m ready for bigger and better things.”

Maxwell's mark is US#1 and No. 10 all-time. 

In the 2-mile, sophomore Leah Starkey from Ocean Township NJ picked up an outdoor title to go with the Nike Indoor Nationals title she won at The Armory in March. Running alone for most of the race, she finished in 9:46.57, the US#2 time and a sophomore class national record.

“Indoor was a big breakout race for me,” she said. “It gave me a lot of confidence in myself. And also, just going into outdoor season, I had bigger goals for myself.”

In other track events, Natalie Dumas won the 400 in 52.21, more than a second ahead of runner-up Oregon state champion Sophia Castaneda.

Rebekah-Jhade Garrett (North Canyon AZ) won the 100 hurdles in 13.28. A day earlier, she missed the U.S. U20 team by one spot but ran personal best and Arizona all-time best 13.19 seconds. 

Melanie Doggett (Landmark Christian GA) won the 100 meters in 11.18, equaling the mark she ran in the prelims. Doggett has run 11.01 this year, an age-14 world record.

“That’s my first time ever getting a tape,” she said. “They need to do it for middle school. … I’m going to take this home, and it’ll be on my medal rack. It’ll be there forever.”

IMG Elite Track Club FL dominated the 4x800 relay, with Mackenzie Winning, Anlya Robinson, Aurora Bertelsen Del Solar and Danielle Graham running 8:44.91, a new US#2, and winning by more than 15 seconds.

In the other field events, Bailey Hensgens won the high jump at 1.80m (5-10.75) a day after winning the U20 title, and Katherine Blue won the pole vault at 4.18m (13-8.50).