Girls track: Uzo Okoro prepares for Brown

Updated: April 24, 2012 8:32PM

Within hours of winning both the triple and long jump at the Hinsdale Central Invitational on April 14, Uzo Okoro boarded a plane to the East Coast.

It was Okoro’s third trip in less than a year to her future college home. The Hinsdale South standout in track and basketball — a Darien resident — committed to Brown University shortly before her trip. Okoro chose the Ivy League school in Providence, R.I., shortly after receiving word that she was accepted. Okoro chose Brown over Cornell, Williams College (Mass.) and Hilldale (Mich.).

She plans on continuing her career in the jump events at Brown, and will likely pursue a degree in medicine.

“I love the coach and track,” Okoro said. “They have a good medical program. I could spend the next eight years at Brown.”

Okoro hopes to keep her winning style in place in the Wheaton Warrenville South Invitational at 4:30 p.m. Friday. For fun at Hinsdale Central, Ukoro entered the 200-meter dash at Hinsdale Central and placed fourth. She might enter the shot put and discus at Wheaton.

Okoro was the leading scorer and rebounder for Hinsdale South’s girls basketball team.

At Brown, she will become the third Chicago area athlete to join the Bears next season. Sophomore Margaret Connelly of Fenwick and junior Elaine Kuckertz of Hinsdale Central, a pair of distance runners, already compete for Brown.

At Hinsdale, Okoro won the long jump (17-1) and triple jump (36-11 1/2) while competing with a bruised heel. The Hornets placed third.

After the Hinsdale meet, Okoro traveled to Brown to attend an orientation for minority students. Okoro was born in California, but her parents Eze and Agnes are from Lagos, Nigeria. She visited Brown previously at the end of last summer and in October.

Okoro won the Class 3A state triple jump championship in March at the Illinois Prep Top Times meet in Bloomington, which is often known as the unofficial indoor state meet. She took fifth in the indoor long jump. Okoro finished in sixth place in both the triple and long jump at the state meet in 2011 and was sixth in the triple and 20th in the long jump in 2010.

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