Gochenour reigns at USA T&F Championships

DES MOINES -- Alex Gochenour allowed herself three days of rest after the Iowa high school state track meet.

Well, not really.

"I even jogged those three days," she said.

Gochenour, a 17-year-old senior-to-be at Logan-Magnolia, claimed the gold medal in the women's junior heptathlon at the USA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships on Thursday at Drake Stadium.

Her title, and her qualifying score of 5,300, should advance her to the Junior World Championships next month in Moncton, Canada.

"One of my dreams is to wear a USA (track) uniform. If I get one, I'm going to cry like a little girl," Gochenour said.

Gochenour entered the final event trailing Ashley Smith by 181 points. But Gochenour finished the finale, the 800-meter run, in 2:19.14 while Smith was clocked in 2:35.62.

That produced a 211-point swing over Smith, and thus, a 30-point victory margin.

"I knew I had to beat her by about 14 seconds," said Gochenour, who was pushed by Whitney Fountain, who won the 800 in 2:17.39.

"It was nice that (Fountain) was there. It's hard when you're leading by yourself."

Fountain was third overall with 5,197 points.

Thirty-two contestants started the heptathlon, and 28 finished. Gochenour was the top finisher in the 100-meter hurdles, an event she won here at the Drake Relays, then again at the state meet.

She was second in the 800, third in the 200 and the javelin, an event in which Iowa high-schoolers are generally unfamiliar.

"I do own my own javelin," Gochenour said. "My friends think I spear animals with it."

She threw it more than 122 feet Thursday.

"There's a coach that told me he could get me another 10 or 15 feet, just by getting a quicker snap through my hips," she said. "That gets the speed going through your body."

And the coach's name?

"I don't even know," Gochenour said.

Gochenour is familiar with glory in this stadium. She has won numerous state titles in her career at Logan-Magnolia.

It goes back far further than that. She won her first AAU national competition, a pentathlon, as an 11-year-old here in 2004.

The rest of the summer will consist of the Junior Olympics in Sacramento, a regional meet in Indianola, and now the Junior World Championships.

In addition, she'll continue to sift through college track possibilities. Alabama, LSU and Nebraska are at the top of her list.