ADDISEN Wills qualified Saturday for the Junior Olympics in the 800-meter run.By Pilar Martin

HALSTEAD—Nine-year-old Addisen Wills of Halstead is a consummate athlete. She swims, plays basketball soccer, softball, volleyball and runs. She runs every day with her step-dad, David Albers at the high school track.

Addisen’s mom, Suzanne Albers talked to Addisen about competing in track competitions this summer.  Addisen has been to track meets in Kansas, Texas and Missouri.

This past weekend she competed in the USA Track and Field Hershey National Junior Olympics event in Joplin, Missouri.

“I told her it would be a really hard meet and asked her if she was sure she wanted to do it,” Suzanne said. And Addisen said yes.

The USATF competition only takes the top five runners in each event to the championship games. Addisen ran the 400-meter and qualified for the finals. In the finals she ran 1:14.81 and took eighth place.

She then competed in the 800 meters and took fourth overall, automatically qualifying her for the championship games. Her time was 2:49.97.

Addisen will continue to run and train before she competes in the championships in Lawrence, July 24-30.