May 18, 2007 By Dave Stofcheck 4 min read

WHITEHALL – Please forgive Breehana Jacobs for blowing away the competition. While you’re at it, cut her some slack for making it look so easy.

The Laurel Highlands senior capped her WPIAL career in grand fashion, winning three gold medals at the Class AAA WPIAL Individual Track & Field Championships Thursday afternoon at Baldwin High School.

Jacobs captured her fourth WPIAL gold medal in the 100 meters, her second in the 200 and her first in the 400. Her mark of 55.21 in the 400 was two-and-a-half seconds better than the second-place finisher – North Allegheny’s Kelly Langhans – and it also broke the event’s one-year old record set by Norwin’s Megan Duncan.

The golden trifecta placed Jacobs in an elite group. Only two other females – Blackhawk’s Tonja Stevens and Washington’s Laila Brock – had previously won the 100, 200 and 400 in the same year.

“My ankle had been sore for about two days earlier this week, but today the pain was gone,” Jacobs said. “I felt really good out there. I focused, and I ran my hardest.”

Jacobs now owns the WPIAL record in all three events, and she has already set her sights on next week’s PIAA championships, held at Shippensburg University.

There, Jacobs is a two-time defending champion in the 100, and also is the state’s reigning 200-meter champion.

“I’m already looking forward to next week,” Jacobs said. “I’m extremely excited to be running the 400 at the states. That might be a little bit of a challenge, but I feel I’m up for it.”

It would be hard to find anyone willing to disagree, especially after Jacobs’ dominating performance Thursday. She won her first gold medal after posting a time of 11.85 in the 100, over a half-second faster than teammate Aleesha Washington (12.56).

Washington just edged Woodland Hills’ Cambry Jones for the silver medal, after Jones came in at 12.57.

Jacobs then went out and crushed the field in the 400, with Langhans a distant second at 57.69.

Before her senior season began, Jacobs decided to give the 400 a shot. It didn’t take her long to find a winning form.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be running the 400 in college or not, but I just decided I wanted to try to run it this year,” Jacobs said. “I was doing it at first to build up my endurance, and then I decided I liked it.”

In her final event, the 200, Jacobs got off to her characteristic great start, and breezed past the field to finish with a time of 24.78.

Jones was second, at 25.57, and perhaps felt a bit of frustration after receiving her silver medal.

“I try to go in thinking I’m going to finish first in every race,” Jones said. “I’ve done better. I think it might have been the cold weather. If there would have been 10 more meters, I would have got her (Jacobs).”

Jacobs will continue her academic and athletic careers at the University of South Carolina, where she received a full scholarship to run track.

She also dreams of one day competing in the Olympics, but her next mission is closer to home.

At next week’s PIAA finals, Jacobs will try to become only the seventh girl to win the 100 three times. But it gets better. No female has ever won the 100, 200 and 400 in the same year at the state level.

“I feel a lot of pressure, but this is my senior year so I try to have a lot of fun with it,” Jacobs said. “I’ll be working hard all this week.

“I want to break the records at the state meet as well. Everybody loves to have a medal hanging somewhere, but times are what’s most important. It’s always about the clock. If you win first place and don’t have a good time, then it really doesn’t mean that much.”