Haile student excels at long jump

BRADENTON — Olivia Ogles silently walked over to the long-jump pit and looked around in awe and anticipation.

Jamaican music blasted from across the stadium, as some of the Caribbean’s top amateur athletes made their way onto the track at the University of South Florida for the 20th annual Bay Area Youth Track and Field Classic.

The Haile Middle School eighth-grader jumped a personal best 15 feet, 7 inches at the meet, which pits Florida and the Caribbean’s top amateur track and field athletes against one another.

“It’s a bunch of different cultures,” Ogles said. “It’s so cool. It’s just awesome.”

Ogles started running track for Haile, where she won the 100-meter dash and the long jump and anchored the school’s sprint relay team to a first-place finish at the Manatee County Championships.

But after learning Haile wouldn’t be competing in county championships this past spring, Ogles’ father, Mark, a former high school state champion pole vaulter, began searching for alternatives for his daughter.
The two stumbled across Florida Express Track Club. She joined the team and since then has only continued to excel on the track while developing a passion for the sport along the way.

“I really like to run,” Ogles said. “I don’t know why. I just do.”

In her first year with Florida Express, Ogles, who is coached by former University of Florida track stars Kristina and Camille Bratton, set personal bests in both the long jump and the 100.

Earlier this spring, Ogles ran a personal best 13.1 seconds in the 100, capturing first-place and defeating the nation’s top middle school sprinter, at the Bolt Power Invitational at Gibbs High in Tampa. Ogles also finished second in the 200.

Ogles followed up her championship performance with a medal in the long jump at the Baytaf Classic.
Most recently, Ogles finished ninth in the long jump at the 15th Amateur Athletic Union Club Championship July 13-17, in Orlando.

Ogles practices two to three times a week at Bayshore High and competes about every other weekend with Florida Express. Ogles competes in the 100, 200, where she holds a personal best of 26 seconds, and the long jump, but she admits the 100 and long jump are her two favorite events.

“I like the 100 because I like the finish,” Ogles said. “That’s what I’m the best at. I like playing catch up. I have a really good finish, so that’s how I win my races.

“And with long jump, just the whole outlook of long jump is so cool,” she said.

Now with her first year of track complete, Ogles will spend the offseason training both on and off the track with the hopes of eventually breaking 13 seconds in the 100 and jumping 16 feet in the long jump, which would earn her National Elite status.

Ogles plans to run high school track next year with the hopes of one day running for the Gators and maybe one day going to the Olympics.

“In the future I would like to go to the Olympics in the long jump or at least make the semifinals,” Ogles said. “Just to be able to say that you’ve been.”

Contact Jen Blanco at j[email protected].