MORAN — Marmaton Valley’s Janae Granere was named one of Allen County Area Athletes of the Month for May.
The junior Wildcat has excelled at both the triple and long jumps in track and field throughout her high school career, finishing with her best marks yet at the Class 1A state track and field meet last month.
Marmaton Valley brought home five medals from the state meet. Granere’s contribution was three. She came in second place in the triple jump at 37 feet, 5.5 inches, fifth place in the long jump and eighth place in the 400-meter run.
“Competing at state is a big enough accomplishment but bringing home medals means even more,” said Granere. “We’re such a small school and sometimes I feel small schools get overlooked a lot of the time.”
The jumping events have been Granere’s specialty throughout high school. She also qualified for state her sophomore year. That season, Granere took fourth place in the triple jump and eighth place in the long jump.
After the state track meet her sophomore year, Granere joined a summer track team, the Girard Warriors, which helped her improve on her jumps. The knowledge and skills which Granere took in on that team has paid off in high school track and field.
“I put a lot of work into my jumping on that summer track team,” said Granere. “Two of my jumping coaches are phenomenal and I feel like I carried that well into the high school season.”
“Piper (Barney) and I always went to the track later in the day to focus on training,” said Granere.
Barney took home the other two medals from the state meet for Marmaton Valley. She came in fourth place in the 300-meter hurdles and sixth in the long jump.
Granere saw steady improvement over the spring track season. At the league meet in Pleasanton, she took first in the 400-meter dash, long jump and triple jump.
She increased her triple jump distance by over 2 feet between the league and state meets.
“I was really happy about the triple jump,” Granere said. “I hadn’t jumped what I wanted at regionals but when I saw where I was seeded I just wanted to PR. My goal all year was to get a 36 in the triple jump. Once I got to state I got the adrenaline going. My first jump was a 37.”
“My long jump was not my best jump but I’ve worked a lot more on my triple jump,” said Granere. “I am really happy all around with how it ended, from sprinting to jumping.”
Granere also enjoyed her role as a team leader.
“I love helping build others up,” said Granere. “My freshman and sophomore years we were league champions and that came from everyone being positive together. This year, we wanted to go for the league title, we just didn’t have the numbers.”
