From its origins back in the late 1940s, the Amateur Athletic Union’s Junior Olympics has grown in size as well as exposure. It was held at Turner Stadium in Humble, Texas, in order to organize over 1,600 students in over 20 sports. From its larger-than-life TVs that display all the action to its live coverage online for the world to see, this event is nothing like the school competitions that Dreyfoos’ own strings junior Jenna Meyers-Sinnet is accustomed to.

“The meet was the largest I have ever been to. With over 10,000 kinds competing of many different ages,” Meyers-Sinnet said. “The meet was the most organized meet I have ever been to. They had preprinted heat sheets [predetermined group numbers], pins in case your bib number or sticker number that is supposed to go on your thigh comes off. There was a massive TV that was about the size of Dreyfoos’ gymnasium.”

Meyers-Sinnet competed in both the 400 meter hurdles and pole vaulting. She only began to pole vault about a year and a half ago when her team’s competitive spirit forced her to begin participating in this event.

“Pole vaulting was not something that I even was supposed to do. My coach over at Suncoast thought I would be able to do it to rack up a couple team points and threw me into the event, and now I never want to stop,” Meyers-Sinnet said.

Meyers-Sinnet cleared a 9’6” bar in the Junior Olympics. She also got a time of 1:09 in her second event, the 400 meter hurdles, which she is also new to. Although she began practicing for this specific event this summer, she has been running since elementary school.

“I always used to race and play tag with all the kids in elementary school and I always thought I did pretty well against them,” Meyers-Sinnet said. “That’s what got me into track and field.”

When she was in middle school, Meyers-Sinnet’s coach, Thomas Conboy, passed away from kidney cancer. Although this loss was difficult to overcome, she ran with a renewed vigor, spurred by her coach’s memory. Meyers-Sinnet recalls a time in middle school when, shortly after his death, she achieved a personal goal of hers.

“My favorite memory in general for track and field would be the first time I qualified for the county track and field competition in eighth grade. I had wanted to go to county ever since I even heard about it,” Meyers-Sinnet said. “I was even more nervous than [I generally am] the day of the county qualifier. I ended up qualifying for 100 meter hurdles.”

Despite the emotional blow, Meyers-Sinnet now runs every race in Mr. Conboy’s memory. This summer she undertook a physically and mentally intense training program. On Mondays she would train with a two mile interval, where she would run a continuous two miles with hurdles every 200 meters. For the rest of the week she went through other various running exercises that tested her endurance. As far as pole vaulting, she says that it’s just a matter of repetition.

“For pole vaulting, one of my coaches would put up bungees at 12 feet or higher and would ask me to at least hit them. He also tricked me into vaulting a 10’ bar in practice by saying it was lower than it actually was to help my mental portion of the sport,” Meyers-Sinnet said.

All this hard work paid off at the Junior Olympics, which was a completely different world than she had been accustomed to. Despite being confident in her skills, Meyers-Sinnet could not help but be overwhelmed by the grand scale of everything.

“The meet was the largest I have ever been to, with over 10,000 kids competing of many different ages,” Meyers-Sinnet said. “There was a massive TV screen where you could see what was being broadcasted on the internet. It was about the size of Dreyfoos’ gymnasium, just to give you a size of the TV.”

Even though the large event was different than other events Meyers-Sinnet has competed in, it did not stop her from focusing on the task at hand. Before each event she would attempt to mentally prepare herself for the competition the best she could.

“Before my events I got my mind set very differently,” Meyers-Sinnet said. “For pole vaulting I mingled with all the girls, and in hurdling I didn’t say a word. The thing is [that] generally sprinters aren’t exactly the nicest people.”

Yet Meyers-Sinnet did not let the other girls distract her. As she was running her race, her driving force was the thought of all her friends and family back home watching her.

“My favorite memory of the Junior Olympics was knowing that I had so many people supporting me back home here in Florida and while I was hurdling. That’s practically all I could think about was everybody watching me and rooting me on,” Meyers-Sinnet said.

Although Meyers-Sinnet did not place, she does plan on returning to the Junior Olympics in future years. Social studies teacher Jeffrey Stohr, who is also Dreyfoos’ basketball coach, believes that for Meyers-Sinnet, there is nothing that is too far out of her reach.

“I think Jenna can do anything. I’ve heard her play the violin and she’s amazing. There is nothing that she can’t do,” Mr. Stohr said. “She’s one of the best [athletes]. First, she’s athletic but she’s also got heart, guts and learns from her mistakes. She’s very tough.”