Community rallies to help send New Kensington youth Adrionna Foster to national track meet

Adrionna Foster qualified for the USA Track and Field Junior Olympic National Championships in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes last summer.

But the considerable cost associated with making the trip prevented her from attending and competing on the biggest stage in the country.

This year, however, Foster is on her way to AAU JO nationals with the help and support of family, friends and others who are backing the fast 7-year-old sprinter in her attempt to go after medals and the ultimate prize of national titles.

Maria Adams, Foster’s aunt, spearheaded a fundraising effort — a Super Bingo event July 16 at the Alle-Kiski Senior Center in New Kensington — to gather enough money to make sure Adrionna; her mother, Brittany; father, Adrian; and brothers Noah and Deon could travel to the championships this week at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Money was collected through admission tickets, the bingo games themselves, and a 50/50 raffle and Chinese Auction.

“It turned out really nice,” Brittany Foster said. “A lot of people showed out. Different companies donated baskets so we could do the Chinese auction. We are so grateful for all of the support and the donations to help us get to nationals. It gives us a good feeling to know that so many people care for Adrionna and want to see her have the chance to run well and win.”

Foster has the potential for a busy week as there are preliminary, semifinals and finals heats in both the 100 and 200 dashes.

“I’m pretty nervous and pretty fine,” Adrionna said about the mix of emotions she has as she is on the cusp of her first national meet.

The preliminaries in the 8-and-under 200 (Monday) and 100 (Tuesday) kick everything off. The semifinals are Wednesday for the 200 and Thursday for the 100. The finals heats are Friday and Saturday.

“She’s a little nervous, but we are confident she can go all the way,” Brittany Foster said.

Adrionna Foster began competing in track and field sprint races a year ago and has built on what her parents saw in her raw talent.

“Since she was younger, we could see she had the potential to be a track star with the way she loved to run and the way she was built,” Brittany Foster said.

“She started running for her school, Mary Queen of Apostles (New Kensington), and she dominated in meets. We ended up running unattached for USA Track and Field, and she dominated there, too, and made nationals.”

Foster made the most of her runs at this year’s USATF Three Rivers Association Championships on June 17-18 at Slippery Rock.

She set a meet record of 14.82 seconds in the 100 dash. The previous record stood since 1998.

In the 200, she crossed the finish line first in a time of 31.75. Her personal best in the 200 came in the semifinals when she sprinted to a 31.51.

Unlike last year when she ran at USATF regionals, Foster took a different path this time to her national meet.

She was registered with an open entry to the AAU Regional 12 National Qualifier on July 1-2, in Ypsilanti, Mich., and she again fared well with victories in the 100 and 200.

Foster clocked a time of 15.02 in the 100 and a winning time of 32.01 in the 200 to propel her to nationals in both. The top three finishers in each event punched tickets to the national meet.

“We couldn’t do both USATF JO Nationals and AAU JO nationals,” Brittany Foster said.

“The USATF nationals are going on now (in Oregon). They are just too close together. AAU, we feel, has a little bit more competition. Since AAU doesn’t have a region here, we were able to go anywhere we wanted to compete to make it at nationals.”

Foster trains several times a week with her El1te Spr1nt Athlet1cs team at both the Robert Morris complex on Neville Island and at Carlynton High School.

“Twenty five from El1te Spr1nt Athlet1cs went to regionals and 18 qualified for nationals,” Brittany Foster said.

“That was a really good meet for a lot of the athletes. Everyone competed hard and had some great outcomes.”

Foster also had a strong spring worth of competition, and she capped it with four gold medals — 50 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters and long jump — at the Pittsburgh Diocesan Developmental Championships in May at the RMU Island Sports Center.

She set the meet record in the long jump with a top attempt of 9 feet, 8 inches.

“That really helped jump start her into her summer meets and performances,” Brittany Foster said.

Ron Newton, Foster’s coach with El1te Spr1nt Athlet1cs, said she has made a number of positive strides in the first year working with her.

“Adrionna has God-given track and field ability,” Newton said. “We’ve done what we’ve been able to do on our end as coaches to help bring that ability along. So far, she has been impressive, and we’ll see how it goes at nationals. She will be among some very talented athletes in her age group. We’re hoping for the best that she will be triumphant.”