US Paralympics Announces First Ever High School All-American Track & Field Team

US Paralympics has announced its first ever High School All-American Track and Field Team. The athletes on this list represent 22 different states, with five states (Washington, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois and Oklahoma) each having four athletes named to the team.

“We are excited to be able to name our first All-American team,” said Cathy Sellers, Director of High Performance Track and Field, US Paralympics. “We wanted to recognize these exceptional high school athletes and their efforts and let people know that there are great, young, Paralympic athletes.”

Eight members of the All-American squad will also take part in the 2011 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand from 21-30 January. The World Championships will see more than 1,000 athletes from more than 70 different countries compete at the QEII stadium and will be the last major international Athletics event before the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Austin Pruitt took top honors as the 2010 Boys Track Athlete of the Year. He earned the distinction by virtue of his number one ranking in the world in the 400m (T34), as well as being world ranked in the 100 and 200 metre races.

Shaquille Vance’s performance in the shot put at the National Junior Disability Championships gave him the title of 2010 Boys Field Athlete of the Year. His throw of 12.81 metres was the dominant field performance.

Sydney Bolen is the 2010 Girls Track Athlete of the Year as well as the youngest athlete, at the age of 15, to be named to the World Championships team.

Heather Haynie holds the honour of the 2010 Girls Field Athlete of the Year as she leads all three throwing events (discus, javelin and shot put) with performances just below the IPC World Championships standards.