Posted: March 13, 2004

Athletics: Thirteen Year-Old Jackucewicz Runs 16:43.02

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Walt Murphy reported this morning that 13 year-old Briana Jackucewicz (b. 28-Oct-1990) won the 5000m at the National Scholastic meet at the Armory Track & Field Center in New York City. The tiny Jackucewicz, just 150 cm and 34 kg (4' 11", 75 pounds), passed the 3000m mark in 9:55.2 and finished the race after lapping the field in 16:43.02.

"That broke the 21-year old scholastic record of 16:52.48, set by future Olympic marathoner Cathy Schiro (Dover, N.H.) in 1983." reported Murphy, who publishes Eastern Track, X-Country X-Press and is the expert behind most track broadcasts on U.S. television.

Jackucewicz, who attends the Howell Middle School and lives in Farmingdale, N.J., races frequently and always aggressively, often topping much more experienced runners. Last November, she finished 14th overall at the famous Manchester Road Race in Connecticut, beating 2:29 marathoner Deeja Youngquist. She finished 26th overall at the Falmouth Road Race last August, one place ahead of Olympic gold medalist, Joan Samuelson.

Jackucewicz is coached by her father, Roger, who accompanies her on her training runs on his bicycle. The older Jackucewicz vehmently denies that his daughter is overtrained or pressed to train past her natural limits.

"She loves it," he told RRW last June at the Freihofer's Run for Women where Briana ran 17:45 at age 12 a U.S. single-age record.

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