Heim to participate in national youth track meet

Brent Hardin

Journal sports editor

PLATTSMOUTH - A Plattsmouth resident will square off against the nation's top youth track athletes this month when she competes in a pair of elite meets near Chicago and Minneapolis.

Taylor Heim, 10, will compete in the United States Youth Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the Chicago suburb of Lisle, Ill., July 3-8, and she will participate in the Region VIII Junior Olympic Championships in St. Paul, Minn., July 12-15. She will throw the mini-javelin and shot put at both meets.

Heim qualified for the meets by doing well in the Nebraska Junior Olympics Championships held at Ralston High School June 16-17. Heim won the mini-javelin event with a throw of 76-5 in the finals and finished second in the shot put with a 26-3 toss.

Heim and Jessica Hanks of Hemingford were the only two Nebraskans in the Bantam Girls Division to qualify for the U.S. championships in the shot put. The qualifying standard was 18-1.

Heim's mini-javelin distance of 76-5 is the top mark of the 14 competitors who have qualified for the national track meet.

A Plattsmouth Community Schools student, Heim has competed with the Cornhusker Flyers track club for the past three years and has traveled across Nebraska for different meets. She finished fourth in the javelin and fifth in the shot put in the Bantam Girls Division at the 2006 U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Greensboro, N.C.

Heim is the daughter of Dennis and Rhonda Heim of Plattsmouth.