The last days of summer vacation will be quite a whirlwind for pole vaulter Maggie Waites.

The St. Aloysius ninth-grader will compete in two national track and field events in a matter of five days, beginning with the U.. Track and Field Junior Olympics.

Waites will head to Wichita, Kansas, for the USTF’s Junior Olympics which starts July 29. Four days later, she will head to New Orleans to participate in the AAU National Meet that begins Aug. 2 at Tad Gormley Stadium.

“I’m really looking forward to both national meets,” Waites said. “I really love that I’ll be vaulting at Tad Gormley because I’ve nearly had a personal best twice there.”

The trip to Kansas will be her first. Waites’ mother, Stacy, knows it will be challenge for Maggie and the family.

“It’s a lot of driving to get there and once she’s done with the Junior Olympics, then we turn around and go back to New Orleans,” Stacy Waites said.

Magie Waites qualified for the Junior Olympics by matching her career best in the pole vault. Shecleared 11 feet at the USTF’s Southern Regionals Sunday at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. The clearance was good enough to finish second in a field of nine and earned her a spot at the Junior Olympics.

When Waites qualified for the AAU Nationals in June in Covington, La., she was disappointed in her performance, with a jump of 9-6. At Samford, she made a serious leap, no pun intended.

“Oh, yeah, it was definitely better,” Waites said. “I jumped 11 feet. At first, they said it was 11 feet, a quarter inch, but they have to put it in the books as 11 feet. It was the same thing they did when I cleared it at South State. It was a half inch more than 11 feet at Tylertown, but it went down as 11 feet. So now, I’ve done it twice.”

Leah Walker of New Iberia, La., won the ages 15-16 girls regional with a clearance of 12 feet. Waites said she has become quite familiar with Walker’s pole vaulting talent.

“I’ve competed against her a number of times,” Waites said of Walker. “She was actually having an off day, and I thought I might could beat her. Still, I was glad to be in the top five.”

Five qualified and Waites finished second.

Back in May, and as an eighth-grader at St. Al, Waites successfully defended her Class 1A title in the pole vault by eclipsing a Mississippi High School Activities Association overall girls record at 10-7. The mark came a week after she cleared 11 feet at the South State 1A meet in Tylertown.

As a seventh-grader, Waites took home the gold at the Class 1A state meet. Early into her eighth grade season, she cleared 10-6 to become nationally ranked.

When she topped 11 feet at South State, Waites became the top-ranked girl nationally in the eighth grade class.

Three weeks after the state meet, Waites finished sixth, but still qualified for the AAU Nationals. She bounced back later in June by clearing 10-6 at an AAU event at LSU in Baton Rouge.