08/02/2026
Nationals Summary: This year, CCTC sent 7 athletes to the USATF National Junior Olympic Championships in Norwalk, CA. They gained valuable experience competing at the National level with over 6,000 athletes, dealing with live TV coverage, and doing it all without their coaches physically present. They competed in a total of 11 events. 5 athletes earned All-American honors (finishing in the top 8 ).
Maximus Mora started us off with the highest finish ever by a CCTC athlete. He finished second in the country in the Decathlon, achieving personal bests in the javelin and 1500m along the way. A fantastic National debut!
Callyn Duerksen returned to Nationals looking to improve in her same events from last year. She finished 33rd in the 800m, then came back strong in the Triple Jump, jumping a season best and improving by over 2 feet from last year's Nationals performance and placing 41st.
Adelyn Duerksen is no stranger to Nationals competition having competed in Savannah last year. However, this year she started a new event: the Discus. She finished 21st in the country - our highest finish by a female athlete in an individual event.
Then came our 17-18 year old crew. This was the first national meet for all four of these athletes. They set their sights on running both Mixed Relays early in the year and achieved their goal of becoming All-Americans. This group from 3 different high schools worked hard to not only make sure they could contribute on their individual legs, but also worked on technically sound hand-offs and put it together when it counted.
Shane Cornelius competed in 4 events. With an unlucky headwind for the 100m prelims, he finished 41st (but top 20 for 17-year olds). He then tied his season best time in the 200m, running 22.02. Shane was our anchor leg for the 15th place 4x100m team. He also had the biggest improvement in his 400m split time for the 7th place 4x400m relay team.
Ava Call also competed in 4 events. She finished 39th in the 400m dash. Big meet experience was had when the 3rd flight of the long jump occurred at the same time as the 1st flight at 8 am. She finished 26th. She then led us off in the 4x100m relay, placing 15th. She ran a great 2nd leg in the 4x400m relay, passing to gain the lead coming into the home stretch and finished her meet as an All-American.
Keldrick Manivong had an excellent first Nationals Meet. He competed in the 400m dash, running his second fastest time (just .06 off his PR). He then contributed with solid relay legs, running 3rd in the 15th placing 4x100m and a stellar lead off leg in the 4x400m that pulled our team right to the front and set us up for our fastest time of the year.
Olivia Martin was the consummate teammate, running in both relays for her JO Nationals debut. She ran 2nd in the 4x100m relay, finishing 15th in the country. She then ran the all-important anchor leg on the Mixed 4x400m. She did not let the large lead we gained on the first 3 legs slow her down, running her fastest split of the year, holding off all other teams in our heat and closing to a 7 second relay PR with 7th place overall finish.
Congratulations to all of these athletes. Big shoutout to their CCTC teammates who have practiced with and pushed these athletes to be their best. Thank you to the parents and siblings who made the big trip to California to support not only their kids, but all CCTC athletes. And finally, to the coaches who helped prepare them all: Coaches Tom Fish, Kelly McHargue, Matt Shrader, Amy Schreiber, Allen Duerksen, Olivia Chapman, Andrew Pearson, and Natalie Pearson.
