INDIANAPOLIS – Eighty-eight track and field athletes will represent Team USA at the Pan American Junior Championships in Bridgetown, Barbados July 18-20.

Athletes qualified for Team USA at the 2003 USA Junior Outdoor Championships, a part of the Verizon Youth Series in Stanford, Calif. All other selections on Team USA were at the discretion of USATF and its committees. Junior athletes are age 19 or under during the 2003 calendar year.

Team USA will be led at Pan Am Juniors by Kenneth Ferguson and Shalonda Solomon, the Verizon Outstanding Athletes of the Meet from the USA Junior Championships. The 2002 World Junior Championships silver medalist in the 400m hurdles, Ferguson won the 110m hurdles (13.60) and 400m hurdles (50.70) in Stanford. The University of South Carolina sophomore-to-be ran a school and personal record of 48.79 in the 400m hurdles to earn his first SEC title on May 18 in Knoxville, Tenn.

Solomon, from Long Beach Poly (Calif.) High School, won the USA Junior 100m (11.40) and 200m (23.37) titles. Her 51.4 anchor lap in the sprint medley in April helped Long Beach Poly to a time of 1:38.73, taking more than three seconds off the previous national high school record.

Ashton Collins of the University of Texas will lead a strong U.S. sprint corps after winning the men’s 400m in 45.64 seconds over Baylor University’s Jeremy Wariner (46.41) at the Junior Outdoor Championships. Collins’ brother, Aaron won the men’s 200m title in 21.06, with Carlos Moore of Mt. San Antonio College winning the 100m title in 10.38 seconds.

The men’s and women’s pole vault competitions will feature two recent record-breakers. Two-time U.S. junior pole vault champion, Tommy Skipper (Sandy, Ore.), broke the national high school record in the pole vault June 15 at the Golden West Invitational, jumping 18 feet, 3 inches, to beat the previous record of 18-2.25 by Eric Eshbach of Orangefield, Texas, in 1999. The University of California-bound Kira Costa set a women's record of 13 feet, 8.5 inches, also at the Golden West meet. 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. But Julene Bailey is the junior national champion clearing 4.13m/13-6.5 on June 21 to defeat Costa, who placed second at 3.95m/12-11.5.

The women’s throws will be strong as well. National high school record holder Michelle Carter added a 2003 U.S. junior title to her resume winning the women’s shot put with a throw of 16.05m/52-8 at Stanford. 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. Carter will be joined by 2003 Junior Outdoor Championships hammer throw champion Kristen Michalski of Syracuse University who tossed 57.26m/187-10. Amarachi Ukabam of Ohio State will compete in the women’s discus after posting a big victory in Stanford with a throw of 56.21m/184-5.

For more information on the 2003 USA Track & Field Youth Athletics National Championships and the Verizon Youth Series, including results and complete coverage of this year’s event, visit the USATF website at www.usatf.org.