Bryanna Craig is headed for the World Athletics Under-20 Championships later this summer after all.
Craig, a Millville native who graduated from Ruston (La.) earlier this month, placed 3rd in the hepthatlon at the USATF Under-20 Championships this week in Eugene, Ore., and only the top two placers reveive automatic invitations to join the U.S. national team that will compete at the World Championships in South America in August.
Craig scored 5,388 points, the 11th-highest score in high school history. She finished 13 points behind JaiCieonna Gero-Holt, a freshman at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, Wash., who broke Craig’s U.S. freshman record earlier this year and improved it this weekend to 5,401 points. That’s No. 10 in U.S. high school history.
NCAA Division 2 All-America Blakelee Winn, who recently finished her freshman year at Pittsburg (Kans.) State University, won the event with 5,473 points in her final year of Under-20 eligibility. She placed 3rd at the NCAA Division 2 Championships in Allendale, Mich.
But due to an administrative issue, Winn will apparently not be able to represent the U.S. at the World Under 20 Championships, which is scheduled for Aug. 1-6 at Estadio Olímpico Pascual Guerrero in Cali, Colombia.
As the first alternate, Craig joins Gero-Holt on the U.S. Under-20 team.
Winn, Gero-Holt and Craig rank 27th, 38th and 41st among all U.S. women through Saturday.
In Eugene, Craig PR’d in the shot put (34-7), 200 (25.11), javelin (118-0) and 800 (2:19.42). She also ran 14.55 in the high hurdles, high jumped 5-7 ¾ and long jumped 18-6 ¼ in the two-day, seven-event challenge.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 