Emerald Ridge sophomore is jumping to new heights
This year, JaiCieonna Gero-Holt won the championship in the high jump, 100 hurdles, javelin and came second in the long jump.
PUYALLUP, Wash. — JaiCieonna Gero-Holt, Emerald Ridge sophomore, 16 years old and has won six state titles.
This year, JaiCieonna won the championship in the high jump, 100 hurdles, javelin throw and came second in the long jump.
“When the math started, if we didn’t have other Emerald Ridge runners at the state championships, Jaiceonna would be fourth and take home the race herself,” said Bob Frey, Emerald Ridge track coach. team cup.
The Emerald Ridge girls’ track and field team eventually won their first state team 4A title.
“For me, it just gets me excited about the future of what I am doing now and what I can do when I finish my high school career,” says JaiCeonna Gero-Holt.
Oddly enough, Jai wasn’t the biggest fan of the track when she first started.
“I hated it the first year. I was really scared to work out – every workout I would cry, I’d get a headache, I’d be so tired – like, I was that kid. And then I started got better, and I was like, OK, this is exciting,” JaiCeonna said.
The good times will continue, especially after she starts competing in hurdles and high jumps.
“I watched her as a sixth grader and a coach came and said you’re going to get this girl, she’s special, I said. Then, as a sixth grader, , I watched her jump 5’7″ high, which should have won all the classifications last weekend,” Frey said.
Hall of Fame track and field coach Mike Strong said: “Her athleticism is different from any kid I’ve coached. “When I first started with her, she said, ‘I’m going to be a high jumper and a hurdler, and I say no, you’re going to be a heptathlete.”
The triathlon includes 100 meters hurdles, high jump, pitching, 200 meters, long jump, javelin and 800 meters.
JaiCeonna said: “Just like with your children, you love all of your children equally, equally, and that’s how I feel with all of my events, I love all of her events. We are the same,” JaiCeonna said.
As a freshman at the 2022 World Under-20 Championship, JaiCeonna finished second in the triathlon. She scored 5401 points, which is the best 9 and under 16 score in US track and field history.
JaiCeonna said: “Every time I step onto the track, I feel like I’m falling in love again.
“I think as long as she can keep improving, she will have a chance to become one of the best in the world, if she continues to work and be diligent at what she is doing,” Strong said. do”.
The United States has not won an Olympic gold medal in pentathlon since Jackie Joyner-Kersee did in 1992. Jai is on a mission to be next. She has big dreams about going to the Olympics.
“Oh my god, you don’t know how many times I think about that in a day, it’s the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think of before I go to bed, so JaiCeonna said.
