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Special Forces compete in Junior Olympics
Five athletes from the Leesburg-based Special Forces Track Club ran at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Olympics, which concluded Aug. 2 in Detroit.
Vincent Brown earned a medal with his sixth-place finish in the 110-meter hurdles.
"He has a chance to be the No. 1 hurdler in the nation next year," Special Forces coach Nick Savage said of Brown, a rising senior at South Lakes High School in Reston.
Brown, the AAU regional hurdles champion, is an All-American in the event, as well as a Junior Olympian in the long jump. He has drawn interest from the University of Notre Dame and the Air Force Academy, among others.
Middle-distance runners Janay Jackson and Jackie Deffer and sprinters Jessica Rolle and Britt Savage also count themselves as Junior Olympians, having earned the trip with medals at the AAU state meet. Each finished in the top 30 at Detroit.
The coach feels his kids received a course in dealing with pressure by competing in front of thousands of people.
"They did a great job for not having been on that stage," Savage said.
Special Forces can boast yet more honors, as Mark Melbourne -- who earned Junior Olympian status with his bronze in the 100-meter sprint at the AAU state meet but was unable to attend -- ran in Special Forces' 400-meter relay, which placed first July 5 at the Hershey State Championships in Charlottesville.
Jazmin King-Simms earned a medal July 26 at the Cliff Wiley Invitational in Columbia, Md., while sibling sprinters James and Brittany Schanck both are AAU regional finalists.
Savage, who co-founded Special Forces in 1998, said Loudoun high schools will soon be the beneficiaries of his kids' talents.
"Just like with all sports, you have to learn how to compete at the big events against the nation's best," he said before looking ahead to the 2009 Junior Olympics. "All of them should be back next year."
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