The prep track and field season is all wrapped up, but emerging star Zeija Moore is just getting started. Recently, the Duluth native qualified for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) National Junior Olympics as just an incoming eighth grader.

“I don’t know what I’m expecting. It’s my first time going, so I’m just looking forward to competing,” Moore said. “It feels great, starting the year off as a seventh grader running varsity track. I had no expectations starting in the year, so I’m just glad that’s how my journey turned out.”

Last month Moore won the Minnesota AAU District, and AAU Regional Championship, 100 meter and 200 meter dash events to earn her spot in the Junior Olympics. The AAU Regional 14 Championships, held at Mounds View High School at the end of June, is where Moore set new personal bests in both of her events. She ran a 12.45 in the 100 meter, and a 26.23 in the 200 meter.

Moore said it was halfway through sixth grade that she found a burst of speed.

“Sixth grade year, I was running 13s. The start of JV-Varsity, I was running 13s and then out of nowhere I just started running 12s. Training has been hard, it definitely pushes me to my best and I like that,” Moore shared.

The Lincoln Park Middle Schooler is coming off a Varsity season with Duluth Denfeld High School track & field where she made a state run, after winning the Section 7AA 100m and taking second in the 200m. At state she was the youngest Class AA competitor in the 100, and one of just two seventh graders in the 200.

At just 13 years old she will depart next Sunday for the AAU National Junior Olympics held in North Carolina. The events begin July 27, with track & field competitions running from July 29-August 3.