MONTEGO BAY, St James-

Former Mt Alvernia High track and field teammates Rashida Allen and Jodiann Walker left the island within a few days of each other earlier this week for Missouri State University (MSU) in Springfield, Missouri where they will take up full athletic scholarships.

Eighteen-year-old Allen and 17-year-old Walker, who graduated from the Montego Bay all-girls school in 2006, were scheduled to go to the United States in December, but were delayed due to incomplete paperwork.

They then enrolled in the Montego Bay Community College where they spent one term.

Their arrival at Missouri State will take the total number of former Mt Alvernia high students to five as they will join twin high jumpers Mareneika and Zaleika Goffe and 200/400m runner Yeneika Malcolm.

Interestingly, Malcolm is the only one of the five girls who did not attend Howard Cooke Primary, in Montego Bay.

Allen, who is from Glendevon, is expecting to compete in the 100m, 200m, 110m hurdles and the triple jump while competing for the Missouri State ‘Bears’ who will contest the Missouri Valley Conference.

Allen, who missed most of last season, has personal best times of 12.2 seconds in the 100m, 24.3 in the 200m and just over 14 seconds in the sprint hurdles and a best measurement of 11.47m in her favourite event the triple jump.

While she says she “likes the 100m because of its sudden burst of energy”, she says the triple jump came naturally to her as it reminds her of “jumping around as a child”.

“I am looking forward to going there and getting a great education and also looking forward to getting involved in the wide range of extra-curricular activities offered such as archery, swimming, horse-back riding and belly dancing,” she said.

Allen, who plans to major in Mass Communication while concentrating on filmmaking with a minor in theatre, has a Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score of just over 1,500, eight subjects including a distinction in GCE history as well as five credits and two passes in the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC).

Walker, who is from Lilliputt, hopes to add the 400m to her regular events, the 100m/200m double, while at MSU.

She had her best season in 2005 when she ran her personal best 12.21 seconds in the 100m and 24.36 seconds in the 200m set at the STETHS Invitational as well as 5.36m in the long jump, also at STETHS.

Walker says, however, the event she likes best is the 4x100m relay as it involves team effort.

Walker scored 1430 in the SATs and also got eight CXCs – Maths, English, Integrated Science, Information Technology, Food and Nutrition, Accounts, Principles of Business and Social Studies – and will major in accounting in college.

She said she was relieved when she finally got the approval to go to Missouri as she said she was getting frustrated. “I was disappointed when we did not get through in December as I really wanted to start school but the twins (Goffes) encouraged me and coach Boyce was also calling to tell us to be patient,” she said.