Beatty long distance runner Jose Granados has made the cut for the USA Track and Field Junior Olympics and will be traveling to Lawrence, Kansas this year.
The 51st USATF Hershey National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships will be held at Rock Chalk Park, the home of Kansas Track and Field, in Lawrence. The championship organizers are expecting 10,000 athletes to travel to this event.
Granados was a freshman athlete this year, participating in two sports, basketball and track. He impressed his track coach, Ellice Dunsterville, this year with outstanding times.
“Jose (Granados) is pushing himself to break records at state,” the coach said after the regional meet.
Although he didn’t break any state records at state, he went to the Nevada Class 1 A State Track and Field finals in May of this year and ran in two events, the 1,600-meter run and the 3,200, finishing second (4 minutes, 47.70 seconds) in the 1,600 and third (10:31.32) in the 3,200.
He said his goal is to win state and to get a college track scholarship, which means he has to work harder.
To do that he has dedicated his summer to working on track and has taken on an ambitious summer program.
“I am doing a track club in Las Vegas to train hard and beat the Northern athletes,” he said. “I run anywhere from three to five days a week. I am really happy doing this. It’s a great opportunity and will help me get scholarships.”
The club Granados is training with is at Cimarron Memorial High School in Las Vegas. He had been wanting to go to the Junior Olympics since seventh grade.
“I had heard about the Junior Olympics when I was starting to run in seventh grade,” he said. “My coach had said my times were good enough to run in and he said he hoped one day I would run in them.”
Granados will be running in the 800 and the 1,600 at the Junior Olympics and will be fundraising in town.
“As of now, I will be putting up a couple of donation buckets in Amargosa,” he said.
Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtime.com