Selmon captures first national title

By Jerome Boettcher
Saturday, August 2, 2008 10:13 AM CDT

As if Precious Selmon needed to add a little more shine to her resume.A five-time state champion, Selmon recently snagged her first national title, winning the heptathlon at the USA Track and Field National Junior Olympics in Omaha, Neb.

Selmon's title was one of seven individual national titles collected by Jefferson County Jets athletes in the last couple weeks.

For the Crystal City High senior-to-be it was her first crown after finishing second in the long jump and third in the heptathlon at the Junior Olympics last summer.

"She's been knocking on the door a couple times," Jets Coach Vince Bingham said. "Her confidence just took her through."

Selmon posted first-place finishes in the 100-meter hurdles, the 200-meter dash and long jump and finished the seven-event heptathlon with 4,450 points. The Jets standout squeaked by Samantha Collins of the Arizona Flames by just 126 points.

"I was so excited. Very excited," said Selmon, who won Class 2 state titles in the 100-meter dash and 100-meter hurdles in May. "It is a whole lot bigger than school. It is against different athletes I don't see year around. I only see them once a year, and I don't know if they've gotten better or not."

"I thought it was a matter of time (before she won)," Bingham said. "She had never put it together at a national meet. This is going to be the first of many for her."

While Selmon was grabbing her first national title, Alyssa Allison collected her fifth crown.

The Festus High senior-to-be set a national record in the 2,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 6 minutes, 54.37 seconds. Her mark was 12 seconds better than the second-place finisher. The previous record was 7:02.

"What can you say about her?" Bingham said. "She is just unbelievable. She just keeps going and going and going."

Allison, who won the Class 3 state titles in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs in May, also took third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Columbus, Ohio in June. At the junior nationals, her personal-best time of 10:42.22 was the best finish by a high school athlete in a meet that drew top high school and college runners. The title was won by Rebecca Wade of Rice.

Allison narrowly missed out on an invitation to run with the USA junior team at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland in July. The top two finishers at the Junior Championships ran at the World Junior meet.

"It was kind of a bittersweet deal," said Allison, who will open cross country workouts with the Festus Tigers on Aug. 11. "(Next year) those two girls will be too old in that race. It looks like it could be a possibility next year."

Breanne Borman capped off her summer with a first-place finish in the heptathlon last Sunday at the AAU Junior Olympics in Detroit. Borman, who will be a freshman at Festus, scored 3,958 points.

Sisters Landon and Paden Wachter combined for four gold medals for the Jets. Landon, who will be a junior at Jackson High, was a part of the 4x800 relay that took first in Omaha. She also won the 800-meter run at the AAU National Club Championships in Orlando, Fla., in July. Paden, an eighth grader at Jackson Elementary, won the shot put and discus at Orlando.

"It was just an unbelievable summer," Bingham said. "We feel we are blessed to have some great young kids, and we feel the future is bright."