STANFORD, Calif. – Nearly 700 young athletes vying to win a spot on Team USA will compete at the 2003 USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships, part of the Verizon Youth Series, June 19-22 at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

The USA Junior Championships are being held in conjunction with the 2003 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships presented by Verizon at Stanford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field. As a part of the Verizon Youth Series, this meet will serve as the Team USA selection competition for the 2003 Pan Am Junior Championships, July 18-20 in Bridgetown, Barbados. The top two finishers in each event at the Junior Championships will be eligible for the selection pool for the Pan Am Junior Championships in Barbados. The selection of teams will be at the discretion of USATF and its committees.

In order to qualify to compete at the Junior Championships, an athlete must meet certain performance standards and be between the ages of 14-19 in the calendar year of 2003. The top eight athletes in each event at the meet will be named Verizon All-Americans.

The men’s and women’s pole vault competitions will feature two recent record-breakers. Defending U.S. champion Tommy Skipper (Sandy, Ore.), broke the national high school record in the pole vault Sunday, June 15, at the Golden West Invitational, jumping 18 feet, 3 inches, beating the previous record of 18-2.25 by Eric Eshbach of Orangefield, Texas, in 1999. Skipper won last year’s U.S. junior pole vault crown at Stanford with a clearance of 5.35m/17-06.50.

Kira Costa, who just graduated from San Joaquin Memorial High in Fresno, Calif., set a women's record of 13 feet, 8.5 inches at Golden West on Sunday afternoon. A future freshman at the University of California, Costa broke the U.S. high school mark of 13-8 set two years ago at the California state meet in Sacramento by Shayla Ballentine of Morro Bay (Calif.).

Leading the field of competitors is the 2002 World Junior Championships silver medalist in the 400m hurdles (49.38, breaking the national high school record) Kenneth Ferguson. The 2002 USA Junior National championships 400m hurdles runner-up ran a school and personal record of 48.79 in the 400m hurdles to earn his first SEC title this year for the University of South Carolina. Ferguson holds the Michigan high school state record in the indoor 60m hurdles (7.75), 110m hurdles (13.61), 300m hurdles (35.90) and 4x400m relay (3:13.70).

2002 Junior Championships 1,500m runner-up Adam Perkins also will be back this year. The University of Arkansas-bound Perkins ran 3:49.09 at the 2002 Junior Championships.

Stanford-bound Ari Lambie (Harvard, Mass.) on June 7 became the third-fastest female high school miler in history when she ran 4:37.23 at the Massachusetts state meet. Lambie finished in a meet-record time of 4:39.05 in the women’s mile June 14 at the adidas Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Raleigh, N.C. to further solidify her status as the favorite this weekend in the 1,500 meters. Top prep thrower Michelle Carter (Ovilla, Texas) will join 2002 and 2001 Junior Outdoor Championships hammer throw runner-up, Kristen Michalski (Syracuse University) who had a toss of 56.25m/184-6 last year. Carter set a new high school girls’ shot put mark with a toss of 16.73 meters/54 feet, 10.75 inches in May at the Texas State high school championships.

Returning to this year’s championships will be high school prep star Shalonda Solomon (Inglewood, Calif.), who has a personal best of (11.35) in the 100m and (23.47) in the 200m. Solomon was third at the 2002 USA Junior Championships in the 100m (11.54) and 4th in the 200m (23.69). Her 51.4 anchor lap in the sprint medley in April helped Long Beach Poly High School to a time of 1:38.73, taking more than three seconds off the national high school record (1:42.08 Berkeley, Calif., 2000 and 1:42.0 Hawthorne, Calif., 1987). She is scheduled to compete in the 100 and 200 meters in Stanford.

The U.S. Junior program has contributed greatly in the development of many of America’s finest track and field athletes. Past junior champions include all-time greats Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Marion Jones, Lynn Jennings, Mike Conley and Renaldo Nehemiah, among many others.

For more information on the 2003 USA Junior Championships and the Verizon Youth Series, including meet schedule and a complete list of the athletes entered in the event, visit the USATF web site at www.usatf.org.

The USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships presented by Verizon will be broadcast live from 4-6 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, June 21, on NBC, and live from 4-5:30 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2. Check your local listings.