Matt Freed, Post-Gazette photos
	Laurel Higlands senior Breehana Jacobs has the WPIAL's top times this season in the 100, 200 and 400. At Thursday's WPIAL Class AAA championships, she could become only the third female to win all three sprinting events in any classification.

By Mike White
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For Breehana Jacobs, her preteen years were anything but a ball. She watched other girls her age kick, throw or shoot a ball, changing sports from season to season.

In the fast lane
Laurel Highlands' Breehana Jacobs is among the top sprinters in WPIAL history in three different events. Here is where she fits in among the all-time best times.
100 meters	School	Time	Yr.
1. Marla Puryear	Thomas Jefferson	11.2	1989
2. Lauryn Williams	Rochester	11.4	1999
3. Breehana Jacobs	Laurel Highlands	11.47	2006
200 meters	School	Time	Yr.
1. Nellie Bullock*	Aliquippa	23.72	1978
2. Lauryn Williams	Rochester	23.85	2001
2. Breehana Jacobs	Laurel Highlands	23.85	2006
400 meters	School	Time	Yr.
1. Candy Young	Beaver Falls	55.07	1980
2. Breehana Jacobs	Laurel Highlands	55.33	2007
3. Laila Brock	Washington	55.50	1996
* Time converted from yardage.

But Jacobs' athletic career has been only about getting on track. And she knows nothing but life in the fast lane.

Jacobs never tried a sport until eighth grade when she decided to try track. She was an immediate hit. Four years later, she's a senior at Laurel Highlands High School and virtually running alongside the greatest female sprinters in WPIAL history.

Take a look at the best times in the history of the league, and you'll see Rochester's Lauryn Williams, who went on to win an Olympic silver medal in 2004. You'll see Beaver Falls' Candy Young, who also made the U.S. Olympic team decades ago.

But the only name you'll see in the top five in all three sprint events is Jacobs.

The tiny, 5-foot-2 girl from Fayette County is bringing attention to herself and a school on the far edge of the WPIAL map. She has carved a niche as one of Western Pennsylvania's all-time bests in track.

"Lauryn Williams' times in high school are about where I am now," Jacobs said. "But, as soon as she went to college, her times dropped drastically and she got even better. I'm thinking about what I can [do] in the future."

Jacobs has a scholarship to attend the University of South Carolina, and she chose the Gamecocks over Miami, Williams' alma mater. Coincidentally, when Jacobs made an official visit to Miami, she went to dinner with Williams.

Jacobs has the WPIAL's top times this season in the 100, 200 and 400. At the WPIAL Class AAA championships Thursday, she could become the third female to win all three sprints in any classification. The others were Blackhawk's Tonja Stevens (Class AAA in 1982) and Washington's Laila Brock (Class AA in '96).

"I actually didn't know that," Jacobs said. "I guess I'd love to make history."

Jacobs will be trying to win the WPIAL 100 for the fourth year in a row and the 200 for the second consecutive year.

But there is more history at stake. At the PIAA championships May 25-26, she will try to become only the seventh girl to win the 100 three times. That might only be part of one of the greatest Pennsylvania track stories.

Jacobs started running the 400 this season. It is practically unheard of for a high school athlete to try to run the 100, 200 and 400 at the PIAA level, but Jacobs is thinking about it. No female has won the trifecta at the PIAA level.

So while she attempts to move into high school sports history, it's hard to fathom she never tried any sport until eighth grade. She ran in a three-school track meet once in fifth grade and showed plenty of potential, running faster than most of the boys. But she never ran competitively again until three years later.

Jacobs had no interest in sports at a younger age, despite her father playing football and basketball at Clairton High School in the late 1980s and then football at Slippery Rock University. She also has three brothers who are athletes.

"We didn't push it whatsoever," said her father, Corey Brown.

Jacobs said: "I tried track a little in seventh grade, but I had to quit to concentrate on my grades and I thought the coach was a little mean. I guess I never really wanted to play any sports. I tried playing basketball a few times with my friends. Defensive-wise, I was pretty good. But I'd double dribble every time I got the ball."

But when Jacobs started running seriously in eighth grade, the talent and potential was obvious. As a freshman at Uniontown High School, she opened eyes by winning the WPIAL 100. She transferred to neighboring Laurel Highlands as a sophomore.

While Jacobs runs for Laurel Highlands, her father handles much of her training, especially in the offseason.

"I had a family growing up, but I had no one who could teach and train me in aspects of sports," Brown said. "I didn't have anyone to tell me things like 'no pain, no gain.' I had to find out everything by trial and error.

"She has a lot of God-given ability, and I want to make sure she has every opportunity to capitalize on that ability."

Jacobs is a well-spoken girl who likes to sing and dance, sings in the church choir and attends church every Sunday. At South Carolina, she will run for a coach (Curtis Frye) who was an assistant on the 2004 U.S. Olympic team and who has sent nine athletes to the Olympics.

Jacobs doesn't want to get ahead of herself, saying "college is a whole different level of training. I'll be running against girls just as good, or better than me."

But then again, it's OK to dream.

"Sometimes, I look at the list of top 25 times in the history of the WPIAL," Jacobs said. "I see a few of the names on there who made it to the Olympics. It makes me look forward to my future even more."