Take a breath here.
...And one of the fastest hurdlers in the state.
She will compete in the 60-meter hurdles Saturday in the Indoor High School State Championship Meet at Spire Academy in Geneva.
Wallace will race against 30 other Division I hurdlers, and she’s seeded 10th based on her qualifying time. Her personal best is 9.22 seconds, and she has set a goal on breaking the 9-second mark at state.
That time, she said, should place her in the top 8 and give her a spot on the podium.
The 15-year-old almost can’t remember a time when she wasn’t running. She was either 4 or 5 years old and has competed in AAU meets for years.
One year, she placed third in the AAU National Championship.
Her mother, Janelle, was asked where Jada gets her speed.
“Not me,” she said with a laugh. “Not her dad (Manon) either.”
What Wallace lacks in the speed gene she makes up in determination and drive.
“She has worked really hard and she always wants to do better,” her mother said.
Middletown High School girls track coach Tyran Thompson has followed Wallace’s progress on the track when she ran in AAU events and as a freshman last season.
“She’s a great, great, phenomenal girl,” Thompson said this week during track practice. “This year she has taken a step to be a leader. She does it all. She’s one of our go-to girls.”
Some students are blessed with enough athletic ability they don’t need to practice hard to be successful, Thompson said. He said it comes easy to them, he said.
That’s not the case with Wallace, he said.
“She’s one who isn’t gonna settle,” he said. “She has the speed and she wants to get better. That’s the great thing about her because some of these kids are so gifted that they don’t have to work. She’s someone who wants to get better. She wants to compete.”
During the high school season, Wallace also runs the 100-meter hurdles, 100-meter dash, 4x100 relay and long jump for the Middies.
Excelling in academics and athletics — they’re called student/athletes for a reason — is a balancing act, Wallace said.
During the school day, she’s “locked in” on classroom work. When the bell rings, she turns her focus to the track.
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The Journal-News will profile a local high school athlete on Fridays. If you have a suggestion, please forward the athlete’s name and high school to Rick McCrabb at rmccrabb1@gmail.com.
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