Next month Rifle High School senior Jolene Brownson will be representing her country, state, and town in Queensland, Australia as she competes against some of world’s best in track and field. Brownson will be one of ten students representing Colorado on the 2017 Colorado Mountain Conference Track and Field Team in the week-long competition dubbed Down Under Sports.

“I’ve never been to Australia so I get to cross something off the bucket-list,” she explained. “I hadn’t heard of the competition before being nominated, but it’s really cool to go and represent America and my hometown.”

Each participant had to raise to cover the cost of the nine-day Australia Tournament Package.

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“Fundraising is an important step to achieve the goal of competing on the international stage,” the press release states.

For her trip Brownson raised $6,299 through fundraising, such as by holding bake sales at City Market.

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Brownson will be one of 300 American athletes competing in Australia. She is set to depart on Sunday, July 2, 2017.

“Rifle is such a small town, you just wouldn’t think that anyone would go, but I’m really glad about this opportunity,” she added.

While the competition encompasses all track and field, Brownson will be competing in discus, shot put, high jump, and the 4×400 relay, not normally something that she competes in.

“I would like to go on and run track and field in college, it’s my favorite sport,” she said. “I just missed state by 10 feet, and now I’m representing America. I look forward to the momentum this will bring me for the 2017 track season.”

Brownson hopes to continue her track career past the Australia competition and her final season with the Rifle High School team.

“During the past twenty-seven years, Down Under Sports has had the opportunity to share the land down under with tens of thousands of individuals from across the United States,” the press release states.

The 2016 Down Under Sports program will include competition in wrestling, football, cross country, golf, track and field, basketball and volleyball.

The goal of Down Under Sports is to provide athletes the opportunity to experience the culture, beauty and grandeur of the land down under within the framework of spirited and intense competition.

Down Under Sports Recruitment Coordinator Daniel Carolan said that Brownson was selected for the competition solely based on her track and field honors and statistics from her sophomore season.