After a season-ending knee injury in May, Cahokia’s Ja’Mari Ward returned to the track and field scene in a spectacular way last weekend.
The recent Cahokia High graduate won the national championship in the men’s long jump at last weekend’s USATF Junior National Outdoor Championships in Clovis, California. Ward won the event with a career-best jump of 25 feet 8 ¾ inches.
With the victory, Ward also earned a berth on the USA Junior National Team that will compete in the World Junior Track and Field Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. The World Championships will begin on July 19.
The Junior National meet was Ward’s first competition since dislocating his left knee cap at the Collinsville Invitational more than a month ago. He missed the remaining meets of his high school career, which included Cahokia’s march to its sixth consecutive Class 2A state championships. Ward was a two-time state champion in the long jump and triple jump.
An incoming freshman at the University of Missouri, Ward becomes Cahokia’s second national champion, joining former star jumper Kali Jackson, who won the triple jump at the same meet back in 2006. Ward also competed in the triple jump, but scratched out of the finals when he experienced some swelling in his right knee. He already owns the National High School Federation record in the triple jump with an effort of 53 feet 7 ½ inches from this season.
Former Lutheran South standout thrower Cecilya Johnson finished in fifth place in the women’s discus with a throw of 169 feet 8 inches. Johnson just completed her freshman year at Tulsa University.
Former McCluer North star Jasmine Barge finished sixth in the 400-meter hurdles. Barge just completed her freshman year at the University of Nebraska, where she was a NCAA Outdoor qualifier in the hurdles. She led McCluer North to consecutive state championships in 2014 and 2015.
Hazelwood Central’s Justin Hall finished in eighth place in the men’s long jump while LaJarvia Brown of Alton finished in ninth place in the women’s triple jump.
