Jones to Defend Pair of Titles in TAC Junior Meet

Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks High will defend her 100- and 200-meter titles in The Athletics Congress Junior (age 19 and under) track and field championships at Ohio State University, starting today.

Jones finished fifth in the 100 and fourth in the 200 in the U.S. Olympic trials, which concluded Sunday.

The semifinals and final of the 100 will be contested tonight and the semifinals and the final of the 200 will be held Sunday.

The top two finishers in each event qualify for the U.S. team that will compete in the World Junior championships in Seoul, Sept. 16-20.

Those same individuals are eligible to compete in a Canada-USA dual meet in Kamloops, British Columbia, Aug. 8.

Jones, who just finished her junior year at Thousand Oaks, has personal bests of 11.14 seconds in the 100 and 22.58 in the 200. The 200 time is the national junior and high school record, and the 100 clocking is .01 seconds shy of the high school record.

Derek Scurry, Tyrone Gayles, and Nicole Logan, who recently completed their freshman seasons at Cal State Northridge, are scheduled to compete Saturday.

Scurry has a personal best of 25 feet 8 1/4 inches in the long jump, Gayles has thrown the hammer 165-5 and Logan has put the women’s shot 45-7 3/4.

Future Track, an Agoura Hills-based club, will send five distance runners to the meet, including Amy Skieresz and Kristie Camp of Agoura High, who will compete in the 1,500. Skieresz placed third in the 1,600 in the state championships last month, and Camp finished eighth in the 800.