ELLIS WINS 400-METER DASH AT AAU JUNIOR OLYMPICS
08/08/2013
Written by: News-sun staff The sport of youth track is similar to youth baseball and youth softball in that there is not just one governing body that sets the rules for the sport and holds one national championship. Baseball, for example, has Little League, CABA, and PONY, etc., while softball has ...
Written by: News-sun staff 
Baseball, for example, has Little League, CABA, and PONY, etc., while softball has its own version of alphabet soup, with ASA, ASSSA, etc.
Track has its own split, with some elite athletes running under the United States of American Track and Field umbrella, and others opting to competing under the Amateur Athletic Union guidelines.
Last weekend, several of this area’s top female athletes competed in the AAU-sanctioned Junior Olympics in Michigan, and the best local story to come out of age-group meet was the success story involving Brittny Ellis.
A junior at Warren High School in Gurnee, Ellis is the two-time defending high school state champion in the 400-meter dash, and she also claimed that title at the AAU national meet, winning the girls 15-16 age group in a blistering time of 54.06.
By comparison, in the girls 17-18 age group, a girl from Michigan won in 53.33.
Ellis also qualified for nationals in the 100 and 200 dashes, and placed second in her age group in the 200, running 24.24. The winning time was 23.48.
In the 100, Ellis had the fourth-fastest time in prelims, then scratched in the semis to focus on the longer races.
Also competing at the AAU Junior Olympics were twins Danielle and Brittani Griesbaum from Lake Villa. They are junior at Lakes High School and competed, like Ellis, in the girls 15-16 age group.
Brittani finished fifth in the long jump with a leap of 18-0.75. The winning jump was 19-7.5.
Danielle finished fifth in the 800-meter run in 2:14.15. She also placed 11th in the high jump at 5-2.
Source: Lake County News-Sun
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