Area track quartet to compete in National Jr. Olympic meet

Prior to this morning’s early departure, the furthest west Chris Sanders had ever traveled came on a recent trip to Texas.

After this week, Sanders’ travels — not to mention his sky miles — will have reached a whole new level.

Sanders is one of four area high school athletes to qualify for this week’s 44th National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships, a week-long event held in Sacramento, Ca. Sanders, along with South Walton teammate Brittany Crittenden, Freeport’s Bryce Sefo and Fort Walton Beach’s Jake Dearmon, will begin competition in their respective events as early as Tuesday.

The group does so with hopes of becoming crowned a national champion and with aspirations of earning a spot on the coveted World team roster.

The four local products, who along with their high school coaches, have trained extensively this summer — and, in some instances, year round — under Willie Parker, a teacher at Freeport Middle School who works with track athletes throughout the area. For all involved, next week’s meet presents the opportunity of a lifetime.

“It’s pretty cool,” Dearmon, a rising senior at Fort Walton Beach, said. “After the normal track season got done we went straight into training for the USA and outdoor seasons. We knew that we were going to get to nationals, so our training was focused more on peaking for nationals.”

At the national qualifier meet in Orlando, the foursome cruised.

Crittenden set the club national record by amassing 4,514 points in the Young Women’s decathlon, shattering the previous point-total record of 4,400 that had stood for two years.
Participating in the Young Men’s Division, Sanders will compete in the decathlon while Sefo, in just his first year training under Parker, will compete in the triple jump, high jump and long jump. Dearmon qualified for both the 1500 meter run and the steeplechase.

For Parker, who has worked with Crittendon, Dearmon and Sanders for three years, watching the group’s collective rise this summer has been a rewarding experience in and of itself.

“It is so fantastic to see them come into their own,” Parker said. “They wanted something so bad, they worked so hard … now they can go compete against (anybody) and beat them.

“It’s priceless.”

Cost of success
Qualifying for the national championships, however, certainly didn’t come cheap.

While a portion of their high school track or cross country teammates may be taking it easy this summer, the last couple of months have been anything but a vacation for Parker’s pupils. But then again, that’s just the way they want it.

“A lot of the people who are in track (at high school), it’s fun, it’s a hobby,” Crittenden said. “We’re not doing this to hang out, we’re doing it because we’re trying to get better every time we step out on the track, whether it’s a big meet or a small meet.

“It’s almost like a job, because we take it more seriously.”

Dearmon, a captain on the Vikings track team next season, has split his time this summer training for both the upcoming nationals and his senior year at Fort Walton Beach. It has been a practice in both time-management and perseverance, with each day starting with a three-hour 7 a.m. workout at Fort Walton Beach followed by a second lengthy organized workout in Freeport under the watchful eye of Parker.

From there, it’s home for a couple hours where a meal and a quick rest allow him just enough time to recharge before ending the day with a individual run of 6 or 7 miles.

His lone “day off” comes on Sunday, when Dearmon rises at 6:30 a.m. for a “long run” of anywhere between 10 and 15 miles before church.

“Literally, I train 10 hours a day, every day,” Dearmon said.

Shared experience
Despite coming from different and, in some instances, rival schools, the four have forged a deep bond as a result of hours spent training and competing in hopes of reaching this week’s nationals.

“It’s really awesome that we get to come together, almost like an all-star team, and get to travel to this awesome competition,” Sanders said. “It makes it all a lot easier being with people that you train with all the time.”

The group also hopes to use their time in the summer spotlight to further impress college coaches.

Dearmon, who arrived in California early to take part in a camp put on by Stanford, is already hearing from several college programs, the Cardinal included, while Sanders has heard from several D-I programs.

Along with increasing their visibility among those in the college ranks, the group is also gunning for a spot on the World team. Athletes that finish in the top two in each event at nationals automatically qualify for inclusion on the team, which will be announced next summer. Those selected to the World roster would then spend next summer traveling the globe competing on a fully-sponsored team.

“That’s the goal for most of us,” Dearmon said. “To win nationals, qualify for the World team and get on that.”

Still, on the eve of the biggest meet of their lives, there was still time to enjoy the moment.

Said Sanders of the days ahead: “It’s just awesome to get this experience.”