Daniels Top HS Girl Of 2005

Triple jumper Brittany Daniels (Merrill West High, Tracy, California) won a tight voting battle to emerge as the 2005 Girls High School Athlete of the Year in the annual Track & Field News voting.

The Northern Californian totaled 175 points for a 5-point edge over super-soph sprinter-hurdler Ebony Collins (Wilson, Long Beach, California).

During the '05 prep season Daniels, now attending USC, won the elite Arcadia Invitational and the California State TJ titles before placing 4th in the U.S. National senior competition. Her season's best leap of 44-11 missed her own national High School Record from '04 by just three-quarters of an inch, and her wind-assisted bound of 45-7 1/2 is the longest prep women's triple jump ever by nearly a foot.

Daniels also long jumped a best of 20-3 1/2 during '05 and won at Arcadia and State to rate as the No. 5 All-America in that event.

Collins ranked No.1 in the 400 hurdles after winning the U.S. Youth and World Youth titles, also rated No. 3 in the 100 and ran on Wilson relay teams which led the 4 x 200 and ranked No. 2 in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400.
Following Daniels and Collins in the year's Top 10 voting: 3. Sarah Bowman (Fauquier, Warrenton, Virginia) No. 1 miler; 4. Rachel Yurkovich (Newberg, Oregon) javelin High School Record setter and unbeaten by preps; 5. Alexandria Anderson (Morgan Park, Chicago) No.1 in the 100 & 200, plus No. 5 at 400;
6. Rebekah Noble (Rogers, Spokane, Washington) No. 1 in the 800; 7. Mary Saxer (Lancaster, New York) High School Record setter in the pole vault; 8. Lauren Stewart (Brentwood, Tennessee) No. 1 in the heptathlon; 9. Stephanie Horton (Tigard, Oregon) No. 1 in the shot; 10. Aranxta King (Medford, Massachusetts) No. 1 in the long jump.