The Herron-Jonap family should be quite proud of their daughter Jadyn who runs cross country for Casteel high school. Not because she just took 4th overall at the Titan Invitational on Friday morning. Not that she was a strong number-two runner for Casteel behind freshman phenom Kyah Zurek. No, they should be proud because of the sportsmanship she showed Thursday morning against her fellow competitor, Clara Jones, who is a freshman from Campo Verde.
With about 600 to 800 meters to go before the finish line, Jadyn and Clara were neck-and-neck working hard to stay in contact with the other for the final sprint to come. As they turned the corner on the upper field, Jadyn accidentally tripped Clara and Clara fell to the ground. Accidents happen in races especially when competitors are running so close together, but what was refreshing to see was Jadyn seemingly instinctually stop go back for the fallen Clara and give her a hand to get up.
It happened so quickly, if you weren't watching these two at that exact 3-second window you would have missed it - luckily, I did not.
The two continued on to the finish and Jadyn just outlasted Clara with a 19:09 to Clara's 19:10 5K.
With all the craziness, stress, selfishness, and negativity that we see daily going on in the world, it's easy for one to start thinking is there really any hope for humanity; after watching this truly altruistic act by Ms. Herron-Jonap, I would say our humanity is most assuredly intact.
