Bentonville girl brings home gold medal

From Staff Reports

Posted on Saturday, August 2, 2008

ROGERS - A trip to the mall uncovered Sophie Hill's hidden talent.

That led the 9-year-old Bentonville girl to the AAU Junior Olympic Games and a gold medal in the 1, 500-meter race walk.

Hill was one of six athletes from the Golden Wings of Arkansas to compete at the Junior Olympics at Eastern Michigan University in Detroit.

Her gold medal was the second ever for the Rogers-based AAU team.

She joined the Golden Wings after older brother Brody, a distance runner, joined the team but didn't immediately find an event that fit her.

After watching her zoom from one store to the next at the mall, Hill's father, John, suggested she try race walking.

She qualified for the Junior Olympics by winning the event in 10 minutes, 18. 01 seconds at the Region VIII meet in June.

Hill cut more than a minute from her time to win it at the Junior Olympics, recording a time of 9: 13. 75 in the girls sub-bantam division.

She beat top-seeded Cherylen Chavez (Edinburg, Texas ), who pushed Hill but was never able to overcome her during the race. After the race, Chavez's race-walking team in southern Texas invited Hill to join them at a camp during the Christmas break.

Brody Hill, 11, turned in personalbest times in two of his three events at the Junior Olympics.

He had personal-best times in the boys sub-midget 3, 000-meter and 1, 500-meter runs while finishing 15 th and 18 th, respectively, in those events.

Brandon Workman, 12, of Rogers finished in the top 10 in both of his events. He was eighth in the long jump and finished fifth overall in the 80-meter hurdles in the boys midget division.

Shelby Newell, a sophomore at Gravette, took 19 th in the intermediate girls triple jump.

Jordan Snoderly, a junior at Rogers Heritage, finished sixth overall in the boys intermediate decathlon. With a second-place finish in the high jump and a third-place finish in the long jump, Snoderly was in third place after the first day.

An injury prevented Michael Tibbs, a senior at Rogers, from fully competing in the young men's decathlon. He wasn't able to do several of the running events but did well in the three throws - taking third in the shot put and javelin and winning the discus.

The Golden Wings also had athletes compete at the 42 nd USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships in Omaha, Neb.

Alex Miles, 13, of Rogers took 10 th in the youth boys pole vault by clearing 9-4. 25.

Bailey Pearson, 15, of Bentonville was also at the meet but got sick and did not compete in all of her events. She took 19 th in the preliminaries of the 400-meter hurdles and did not triple jump.