Tate Schienbein wins JO title

BY JOSH CHAPIN • STAFF WRITER • August 2, 2008

Tate Schienbein shook off nerves and chased down a national title.
The 14-year-old from Liberty took first place last weekend in the 3,000-meter race at the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships in Omaha, Neb.

Schienbein won the race in the Youth Boys division in 9 minutes, 14.9 seconds -- a personal best.

"I would have liked to have gotten the national record," Schienbein said. "That was my goal."

Still, he was excited to capture his first title in four trips to the Junior Olympic event. "I was pretty nervous before the race," he said. "During the race I was pretty nervous as well until I took the lead."

Schienbein outdistanced his nearest competitor, Conner Smock, by about 9 seconds.

"We were happy for (Tate) because the last four years he's been running he has that aspiration of winning the USATF championship," said his mother, Cindy, who coaches track at Union County High School. "We were pretty excited. He reached that goal."

Schienbein also competed in the 1,500 race. He qualified with the fourth fastest time in the prelims, and finished ninth in the final.

His training included running six or seven days a week, up to 30-35 miles for the past five months.

"It was pretty fast," Tate Schienbein said of the competition. "There were a lot of good runners in there."

The incoming Union County freshman will face some more strong competition soon. He's competing this weekend in the AAU Junior Olympic Games in Detroit. "Hopefully he can finish on a positive note and be ready for cross country this fall," said Cindy Schienbein.

Reporter Josh Chapin: (765) 973-4463 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it