Sprinter Jones Again Wins Track Honor as Top Female Prep Athlete in U.S.

Marion Jones of Thousand Oaks High has been selected Track & Field News magazine’s female high school athlete of the year for the second consecutive time.

Jones, 17, won the national award in 1991 for her accomplishments as a Rio Mesa High sophomore.

Jones, who signed a letter of intent with North Carolina earlier this month, placed fourth in the 200 meters and fifth in the 100 in the U.S. Olympic trials in June.

She also won her third consecutive state title in each of the 100- and 200-meter sprints. Arguably, she had the best season in history by a female U.S. high school sprinter.

She lowered her own national junior (age 19 and under) and high school record to 22.58 seconds in the 200, and ran eight of the 12 fastest high school times in history, including the top four.

She had a record eight sub-23-second performances. The previous high was two, set by Jones last year.

In the 100, Jones produced three of the seven fastest high school times, including a personal best of 11.14, only .01 seconds shy of the national high school record set by Chandra Cheeseborough of Ribault High in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1976.

Jones also ran 54.44 in the 400 to rank seventh on the yearly national high school list and first in the state.

Jones also helped Thousand Oaks win the Southern Section Division I-A basketball championship last season.

She is the fourth athlete--all sprinters--from the region to win the female athlete-of-the-year award and the third to be honored twice.

Sisters Sherri (1980) and Denean Howard (1981 and ‘82) of Kennedy, and Angela Burnham of Rio Mesa (1988 and ‘89) are previous winners.