Snow Canyon Middle School athlete wins medals at AAU national indoor track championships

Written by Jeff Richards
March 20, 2022

ST. GEORGE — Amelia Nadauld, a 14-year-old athlete from St. George, recently won two first-place medals and one second-place medal at the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Indoor Track and Field Championships in Virginia.

Amelia Nadauld, 14, at the Snow Canyon High School track, St. George, Utah, March 17, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News

Nadauld, an 8th grade student at Snow Canyon Middle School, placed first in her age category in both the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter dash.

She also took second place in the long jump.

“Just by an inch, though,” Nadauld told St. George News, adding that she achieved a personal-best mark of 16 feet, 5 inches.

Amelia Nadauld’s mother Lindsay Nadauld said her daughter went into the finals of the 200-meter race as the No. 6 seed, after having run a 26.53 time in the preliminaries.

“She was a little tired from the long jump, so she came in seeded sixth,” Lindsay Nadauld said. “They did a two-heat final and she got assigned the very outside lane, so she had to be the very outside person and not see a soul the whole race.”

“Not only did she beat all the girls in her heat, she also beat the fast heat, because what they did is they put two heats of four, back-to-back,” she added. 

Nadauld’s winning time in the 200 was 25.95 seconds.

In the 60-meter dash, Nadauld’s preliminary time was 7.99 seconds. That earned her the top seed in the finals race, which she won in an almost identical time of 7.98 seconds.

Amelia Nadauld, 14, with her three medals at AAU National Indoor Championships, Virginia Beach, Virginia, March 13, 2022. Photo courtesy of Lindsay Nadauld, St. George News

“She didn’t have a great start, but luckily she pulled it out and was able to win,” said Lindsay Nadauld, who is an assistant track coach at Snow Canyon High. “It was fun to see her stay calm through all the pressure.”

Lindsay Nadauld also noted that Amelia Nadauld had entered the AAU meet ranked fourth in the 60 and fifth in the 200.

The long jump, she added, was a surprise bonus of sorts.

“We kind of thought, ‘Oh, that’s whatever, that’s just to get the wiggles out,’” Lindsay Nadauld said. “And then she goes and almost wins that one. So that was nice.”

Snow Canyon High School head track coach Justin Redfearn noted that Nadauld’s long jump mark of 16 feet, 5 inches would have beaten all 80 or so high school girls who competed at the Snow Canyon Invitational meet staged in St. George that same weekend. Sarah Spangenberg, a senior at Viewmont High, was winner of the long jump at the Snow Canyon meet with a leap measuring 16 feet, 2 inches.

Lindsay Nadauld credits fellow assistant coach James Thompson, Snow Canyon’s sprints coach, as being the “unsung hero” behind her daughter’s success.

“He really knows how to write workouts,” Nadauld said of Thompson. “He’s so smart, efficient, quick and fun. The kids are drawn to him. It’s fun to watch him in his craft.”

Amelia Nadauld is the third of five children of Lincoln and Lindsay Nadauld of St. George. Her parents said they are encouraged by her recent successes and are hoping their daughter will continue to develop and improve her athletic talents.

Lindsay Nadauld, who competed collegiately for Brigham Young University as a distance runner, said Amelia Nadauld didn’t get her running speed from her.

“She maybe has my running form but she has the fast-twitch from her dad, who was a rugby player. She definitely got some stuff that wasn’t from me, because I was never that fast.”

For complete results of the AAU meet, which was staged March 11-13 in Virginia Beach, click here.

Photo Gallery

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!