JaiCieonna Gero-Holt becomes the number two American high school sophomore heptathlete

Photo by Maggie Troxell

By Maddie Lang

Heptathlete JaiCieonna Gero-Holt studies film of herself and 2022 World Athletics Championships bronze medalist Anna Hall to prepare for her events. When she watches, she asks herself the question, “What do we need to do to get here?” 

Gero-Holt looks up to Hall and all she has accomplished. She uses Hall’s events from when she was on the same stage to improve in her events. 

“When Anna Hall was doing the pentathlon at Nike Nationals, I sound really stalkerish when I say this, but I filmed everything that she did,” she said. “Occasionally I’ll look back at that.”Gero-Holt won the heptathlon at the Nike Outdoor Nationals on Saturday at Hayward Field and became the No. 2 American high school heptathlete Saturday afternoon. Her final score of 5,481, a record for sophomores, puts her behind only Hall’s 2019 record of 5,847.

On Friday, she competed in four events.

She was runner-up in the 100-meter hurdles, one of her favorite events, with a time of 14.72, and scored 879 points. Ahead of her was Catherine Littlewood from Arizona with a time of 14.39. 

“Hurdles were kind of in a little, you could say, bump,” she said.

In the high jump, her other favorite event, Gero-Holt set a new personal best of 1.84 meters, scoring 1,029 points. Her runner up was Rylee Lydon from Illinois with a jump of 1.72 meters. 

“I’m happy because I do want to up that,” Gero-Holt said. “But it does feel good because it just shows how much more capable I am to go higher in that event.”

Gero-Holt also won the shot put with a throw of 13.20 meters, scoring 741 points. Right behind her was Littlewood once again with a throw of 10.85 meters. And she finished fourth in the  200-meter dash in 25.82, which was good for another 813 points. Valerie Jirak of Wyoming won the event with a time of 25.08.

At the end of her first day of competition, Gero-Holt sat comfortably in first with 2,649 points. 

She didn’t stick around to watch or hang out. She left immediately to rest and rejuvenate herself for her next day of events. 

“You’ll notice a lot of people will linger around after the first day,” she said. “But for me, I left right away. I went to get food, I stretched right after, I iced and I went to bed early and got some good sleep.”

During the day, between events, she puts in her headphones and listens to music to help rest her mind. 

“One thing people don’t know, and I feel like they’ll skip out on, is resting your mind,” she said. “It’s not just about the body. It’s not just about the physical. It’s about the internal.”

Gero-Holt started the second day with the long jump, where she took third with a jump of 5.54 meters and scored 712 points. Heidi Hudson from Minnesota won with a jump of 5.61 meters.

Next up for Gero-Holt was the javelin throw, which she won with a throw of 39.04 meters, scoring 649 points. The runner-up, Madilyn Todorovich of Montana, threw for 35.85 meters.

Gero-Holt placed 12th in the final event, the 800-meter run, with a time of 2:32.80, scoring 658 points. Lydon won the event in a time of 2:12.63. 

With two more heptathlon meets in her season, Gero-Holt remains hopeful that she’ll be able to accomplish even more. For her, her biggest critic is herself.

“Nobody is going to know the athlete better than the athlete themselves,” she said. “The coaches can coach, but for as long as I have been doing this, as long as Anna Hall or Kendall or whoever is doing it, you are not going to find anybody better to critique their own selves than the athlete.”

Gero-Holt will be between her junior and senior years of high school during the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, but she still wants to take a shot at making the team. 

“If that doesn’t happen, that is just God telling me that it’s not my time and he has bigger and better plans,” she said. “I won’t be too upset because the next time that comes around, I’ll still be 21. So I’ll still be young. I’ll be better. I’ll be stronger. I’ll be faster.”