Cadence McClellan 11 of Egg Harbor City , New Jersey will be competing at the AAU Track and Field Junior Olympics during the week of July 30th. Cadence competes for the Hamilton Flying Knights track club in Mays Landing, NJ under head coach Bobby Laws.
Cadence, has been inspired to run by her parents Shanita Moody and Ramone McClellan. Both were attended Atlantic City high school. Ramone, played Football and threw Shot Put and Discus for both the indoor and outdoor track teams. Cadence’s father Ramone McClellan is a Stroke survivor and is currently in recovery since having the stroke last November. Ramone’s now out of work on medical leave from the Juvenile Justice Commission of New Jersey where he worked in Juvenile corrections and served as a Senior Youth Worker and was youth worker of the year for his unit in 2019. Ramone continues to stay upbeat and encouraged by Cadence in addition to his progress though his Occupational therapy at Bacharach Outpatient center with his therapist Brett. Ramone still has a ways to go to be fit to return to duty.
Cadence was encouraged by her father to try track this outdoor season. Cadence, accepted the challenge and promised to try for a win as a birthday present to her father. Cadence in her first meet, surprisingly finished in 2nd place in the 100 meter dash in a very close race. Cadence also took 1st in the 200 meter dash! Cadence also runs the anchor leg for her 4x 100 meter relay team! Cadence enjoyed a fantastic 1st season of track in the SJTFA she finished in the Championship ranked 1st in the 200m and 8th in the 100m dash and her Relay team finished first with their best time all season of 59.42.
Cadence was impressed and encouraged by getting the opportunity to attend the 2022 Penn Relays and having a chance to see Olympians Sydney Mclaughlin (Dunellen,Nj) and Athing Mu (Trenton, NJ) run at the Relays. An awesome addition to the experience was Athing’s family reaching out to Cadence to offer encouragement and set up a potential meet and greet with the Olympian in August schedule permitting.
"Cady" as she is known by her friends and family felt the legendary energy of the Penn Relays crowd and she was inspired to learn more about Track and field. Cadence started watching YouTube videos of track athletes like Abby Steiner whom also runs the same races (100 and 200 meters) as Cadence for Kentucky University and now has since signed 2 million dollar endorsement deal with Puma after she graduated college and is set to compete in the World Track and Field Championships July 15 through July 24th.
After the SJTFA Championship, Cadence's parents decided to sign her up for an USATF and AAU membership. Cadence though relatively inexperienced has a great foundation and training regimen established by her Uncle/ Coach A. Khalil Prescott. Coach Khalil an 800 meter champion, in high school The Pleasantville High School track and field product, now personal coach for Cadence, has done extensive research in new techniques utilized by the top coaches and athletes across the world to maximize speed and reduce injury. In addition to her private coaching, Cadence also trains with the Flying Knights Girls coaching staff (Shalan Laws and Ashley Laws). However, all of her training is refined and made fun by the Legendary Tim Athill Sr. a/k/a "Coach T" a long time volunteer Coach of the "Always free" Pleasantville Track Club for over 30 years. "Coach T" is also is a volunteer coach for Pleasantville High School, and usually at some point or another has coached most of South Jersey's stand out track athletes including a few Olympians from the South Jersey area!
Cadence with all of her coaches tutelage, went into the District 2 Qualifiers at Millersville University in Millersville, PA and ran her personal bests in both the 100m Dash and 200m dash of 14.78 and 29.77 down from 15.91 and 30.51 respectively! Cadence with those times place high enough to make it to the next round at the Regional Qualifier at Widener University in Chester, PA. Cadence came through again running her personal and season’s best once again at a blazing 13.96 and 28.62 in the 100m and 200m dashes respectively! With placing in the top 6 she has qualified for the 2022 Junior Olympics to be held July 31st through August 6th in Greensboro, NC at North Carolina A&T University!
Cadence’s family and friends are being asked to help Cadence get to the Olympics as her family has been struggling due to her father being sick and all expenses has been on her mother as he recovers. To help Cady get to the junior Olympics you can donate to the GoFundMe that was created to defray the costs for this great opportunity!
All donations will be used for travel, lodging, and food to participate in the 2022 AAU Junior Olympics Games in Greensboro, North Carolina. Thank you for any support you can give, and we hope to make our South Jersey community proud.