PUYALLUP, Wash. — Emerald Ridge sophomore JaiCieonna Gero-Holt is 16 and she's already won six state titles.
This year, JaiCieonna won championships in the high jump, 100-hurdles, the javelin, and was second in the long jump.
"When the math shakes out, if we had no other Emerald Ridge athletes at the state championships, Jaiceonna would have taken fourth and taken home a team trophy by herself," said Emerald Ridge track coach Bob Frey.
The Emerald Ridge girl's track team would end up winning their first ever state team 4A title.
"For me, it just makes me excited about the future of what I'm doing now and what I could possibly be doing by the end of my high school career," says JaiCeonna Gero-Holt.
Oddly enough, Jai wasn't the biggest fan of track when she first started.
"I hated it the first year. I absolutely dreaded going to practice - every practice I would cry, I've got a headache, I'm too tired - like, I was that kid. And then I started getting good, and I was like, OK, this is fun," said JaiCeonna.
The good times would continue, especially after she started competing in the hurdles and high jump.
"I watched her as a sixth grader and a coach came up and said you are going to get this girl, she is special, OK, I said. Then, as a sixth grader, I watched her jump 5'7" in the high jump, which would have won all classifications this past weekend," said Frey.
"The motor system she has is different than any kid I've ever coached," said Hall of Fame track and field coach Mike Strong. "When I first started with her, she said, I'm going to be a high jumper and a hurdler, and I said no, you're going to be a heptathlete."
The heptathlon consists of the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200-meter, long jump, javelin, and the 800 meters.
"It's like with your children, you love all your children equally, the same, and that's how I feel with all my events, I love all my events equally," said JaiCeonna.
As a freshman at the 2022 World U20 Championships JaiCeonna placed second in the heptathlon. She scored 5401 points, which is the best ninth grade and under 16 score in American track history.
"Every time I step on the track it's like I'm falling in love again," said JaiCeonna.
"I would think as long as she could continue to progress, she's going to have a chance to be one of the best in the world, if she just keeps doing the work, and staying diligent to what she is doing," said Strong.
The US hasn't won an Olympic gold in the Heptathlon since Jackie Joyner-Kersee did it in 1992. Jai is on mission to be the next one. She dreams big about going to the Olympics.
"Oh my god, you have no idea how many times I think about that in a day, it is the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning, and that last thing I think of before I go to sleep, so it would be beyond a dream come true, " said JaiCeonna.