WICHITA, KAN. - Margaux Jones won her first event of the meet with her performance in the youth girls' pentathlon on day one of the USATF National Junior Olympics Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Jones' final score of 3,436 fell less than 100 points shy of Alyissa Hasan's national youth girls' record.

"I didn't run the best in my hurdle time, so I knew I had to make up some points," Jones said. "From then on I was set straight to do better than I did at previous meets."

Jones ran 15.27 in the 100m hurdles, threw the shot 8.76m/28-9, leaped 1.60m/5-3 in the high jump, dominated the long jump competition with a jump of 5.73m/18-9.75 and finished the 800m in 2:31.25.

"I got a lot of points in the long jump," she said. "It was the first event that I started doing when I started running track, and it was the first event that I went to Junior Olympics in. From then on it was always my favorite."

Jones, who has won numerous national titles in the pentathlon, long jump and high jump, may call it quits in the multi-events.

"I'm actually not planning on doing the heptathlon next year," Jones said. "I don't really want to learn how to do another event because I have so many different events that I do individually. So I figured instead of doing a whole bunch of events, I'd just do a few and be good at them."

Thomas hammers through competition
Kelli Thomas of Throw 1 Deep won the intermediate girls' hammer throw with her toss of 44.08m/144-7. On her sixth and final attempt of the competition, Thomas launched a two meter personal best throw to take over the lead from Sidnie Wilder.

"[Going into my last throw]  I was thinking  either I get it or I go home with nothing," Thomas said. "She threw after me, so I got to see what she did. I knew whatever she put down, that's how it was going to be."

Wilder fouled her last throw, and Thomas walked away with her first Junior Olympic title. Although Thomas has tried her hand at several of the throwing events, she has found her niche in the hammer.

"It's different from discus and shot put cause there's not a lot of movement in shot put or discus, you just got that one turn or glide," she said. "In hammer, you have a chance to fix all that when you get through with your first turn, you can correct it. Its over pretty quick, but you have a chance to get your mind right."

Worley hurdles to victory
Dillon Worley defended his 2010 USATF National Junior Olympic title with a victory in the young men's 2,000m steeple chase. Worley cruised to a time of 6:06.36 to better his seed time set at the regional meet.

"My game plan was just to go out and take the lead right from the beginning," Worley said. "I was going for the record, but the weather conditions just didn't help me out."

Worley, who competes for the Northwest Flyers, only started the steeple chase last year.

"My coach really pushed for me to do it, and my brother ran it too, so that's how I got into steeple," he said. "I like it cause it's a hard race not everyone can do."

Other event winners from today's competition include the following:

-Justin Collins, Speed City TC-youth boys pentathlon (3,314)
-Ashley Weber-young women's hammer throw (48.56m/159-4)
-Taylor Gerard, Zoom TC-intermediate girls' 2,000m steeple chase (7:40.29)
-Leslie Schilsky, Northwest flyers-young women's 2,000m steeple chase (7:33.22)
-Jackson Bertoli-intermediate boys' 2,000m steeplechase (6:30.79)
-Caitlin Palacio, Lsi Sprint-youth girls' 3,000m race walk (16:28.70)
-Andy Vazquez, Cornhusker Flyers-youth boys' 3,000m race walk (16:17.94)
-Joshua Whitener, Throw 1 Deep Club-intermediate boys' hammer throw (58.37m/191-6)
-Taylor Ewert, Miami Valley TC-bantam girls' 1,500m race walk (8:36.09)
-Emilio Andrean, Northwest Flyers-bantam boys' 1,500m race walk (9:47.21)
-Kirra Facer, Temecula Valley Time Machine-midget girls' 1,500m race walk (8:15.66)
-Ryan Thong, Equalizers TC-midget boys' 1,500m race walk(7:47.51)
-Edward Brentnall, Throw 1 Deep Club-young men's hammer throw (58.68m/192-6)