One of the top track athletes in the area got a taste of national level competition last week as Iola’s Elysia Kunkler competed in the 51st USATF Hershey National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championship at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence.
This is the second year in a row Kunkler has qualified for the meet, competing in the both the 100-meter high hurdles and the long jump in the 15-16 year old girls division.
Kunkler is one of 13 athletes competing with the OKC Fuel track and field team out of Oklahoma City.
The OKC Fuel also has a new coach this year that Kunkler said she has enjoyed.
‘This is my first year with Coach Spencer and he has taught me a lot and helped me get more consistent in the 15s,” Kunkler said. “He is really funny so it makes track very enjoyable. Running on a team like OKC Fuel has allowed to be around other athletes that have the same goals and that is getting the Junior Olympics. Our team had 13 qualifiers and I think that is pretty cool “
On Wednesday, Kunkler competed in the the long jump, an event she said she’d been having some trouble with recently.
“I was pretty nervous on Wednesday when it came to long jump,” Kunkler said. “Recently I had some off-practices so I was hoping that I pull through at the meet.”
Kunkler finished with a distance of 14 feet 5 inches in a fiercely competitive field that saw the top jumper go for 21 feet 11 inches.
“It showed me what type of competition is out there,” Kunkler said. “I saw that I needed to work harder to keep up with some of the girls but I was also doing good for my age.”
Kunkler then took to the track on Thursday and Friday for the high hurdles.
At the start of this season, Kunkler came in with a goal of finishing inside of the top 20 in the high hurdles after finishing 33rd last year.
She guaranteed herself a place in the semifinals after running a time of 15.63, finishing third in her heat.
“When I saw that I got third in my heat I started crying,” Kunkler said. “Part of it was that I was so proud but the other part was that I was so nervous. So I was pretty excited.”
With just four hurdlers to beat in order to achieve her goal, Kunkler shaved .18 second off of her qualifying time to finish 16th with a time of 15.45. Kunkler did not qualify for the finals as the top eight hurdlers all recorded time under 15 seconds.
That time is now the new goal for Kunkler as she aims to get herself into that top flight of hurdlers.
“I am so much more motivated now,” Kunkler said. “I’m trying to get my form down correctly because that will shave some time off. The 8th place girl had like 14.96 as her time so I need to get down to a 14 to be up there with them. It’s fun watching some of them run, it doesn’t even look like they’re going over the hurdles.”
