Despite coming up short of a spot on the Olympic Team, former Florida Gator Cory McGee ran the best 1,500-meter race of her career Sunday at the Olympic Trials.
Track and field can be a brutal sport. Only the best of the best get to advance to the world stage, and a new personal best for former Florida Gator Cory McGee, 32, in the 1500-meter race was somehow not enough to finish inside the top three and qualify for the Olympic Team.
The top six times broke the previous Trials record, set by third-place finisher Elle St. Pierre. Nikki Hiltz established the new record of 3:55.33, followed by Emily Mackay at 3:55.90 and St. Pierre at 3:55.99.
McGee finished in fifth with a 3:57.44, smashing her previous best by almost three full seconds.
“I just saw my coach and I said ‘How can I be upset?’ Obviously, mid-race, all I’m thinking is ‘win, top-3, I want to make the team,’ but I didn’t look at the time once. And when I finished, I waited and waited and waited and saw 3:57. As many people know, breaking four has been quite a conquest for me for some time and I did it today.
“But, for it to take 3:55 to make the team. All I can say is that the point is to send the strongest team to bring home medals and obviously that’s what the women’s 1,500 is doing right now.”
Of course, there is a level of disappointment after failing to make the podium, but McGee should be as encouraged as ever. She’s only getting faster in major events.
Cory McGee as a Florida Gator
It’s been a decade since McGee ran cross country for the Orange and Blue and claimed a 2013 SEC Championship in the 3000-meter race and DMR indoors and the 1,500-meter outdoor race. She was the NCAA runner-up in the 1,500 outdoors. Her best 1,500-time in college was 4:09.85 in a qualifying race for the 14th IAAF World Championships.
Since then, McGee has been a consistent presence in the international scene representing America. She’s laid the foundation for this level of competition in the event.
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Former Florida Gators high jumper Corvell Tate placed fifth at the US Olympic Trials on Sunday.
Former Florida Gator Corvell Todd placed fifth in the high jump at the US Olympic Trials on Sunday night.
Todd was one of four jumpers to fail in the third progression at 2.24 meters (7 feet 4 1/4 inches), but he had the edge over the other three after clearing the 2.21-meter bar on his first try.
Alabama alumnus Shelby McEwen won the event as the only jumper to clear the 2.30-meter bar. He’s headed to the Paris Olympics, but the other spot on the national team is in question after a rough performance from JuVaughn Harrison, the only American to have met the Olympic Standard.
Harrison finished fourth after failing all three attempts at 2.27 meters and taking a second jump at 2.24 meters. It simply wasn’t his best day, and now he must wait to find out if he’s an Olympian or not.
Todd only needed one clearance to make it to the event finals. On his first attempt, he cleared the opening bar set at 2.14 meters, placing him in the top 12. Todd’s personal best is .01 meters higher than the 2.21 he jumped.
Corvell Todd at Florida
Todd joined Florida for the 2023 season after attending Southern Mississippi. He holds the No. 8 spot on the UF All-Time Top 10 List for the outdoor high jump with 2.21 meters — the same height he jumped at Trials — at the Pepsi Florida Relays.
Todd is an excellent example of persistence and resiliency in sports. A Byahlia High (Miss.) graduate in 2018, Todd blossomed at Hinds Community College and began jumping over 7 feet in 2019. He won the 2019 and 2020 NJCAA indoor national titles, while also claiming the and the 2019 outdoor title.
His success continued into Division I competition, winning two CUSA Championships with Southern Mississippi and being named the 2022 Conference USA Men’s Field Athlete of the Year.
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A pair of Florida gymnasts have made early exits at the US Olympic Trials following injury.
Three Florida Gators made it to the US Olympic Trials in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but [autotag]Leanne Wong[/autotag] is the only one still standing (literally) after one day of competition.
Incoming freshmen [autotag]Skye Blakely[/autotag] and [autotag]Kayla DiCello[/autotag] are done due to Achilles injuries. Blakely went down during floor exercises on Wednesday and DiCello was helped off the floor shortly during the opening event.
“Thank you so much for all your love and support,” DiCello wrote in a letter on social media Saturday. Unfortunately, I ruptured my Achilles on the opening event at Olympic Trials. While this is not the result I envisioned, there’s so much to be proud of.
“… As I begin my healing journey, I’m thankful for your prayers and good wishes. This is not the end of my story.”
DiCello was a reserve for the Tokyo Olympic Games. She has since been a “stalwart of the U.S. squad,” medaling at the 2021 World Championships and winning the 2023 U.S. World Championships as an alternate.
Last season, she earned All-American second-team honors and was named the 2023 SEC Freshman of the Year at Florida.
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After silver medaling in Tokyo three years ago, Gators legend Grant Holloway is headed back to the Olympics with eyes on gold in the 110-meter hurdle.
Florida track and field legend Grant Holloway punched his ticket to the Paris Olympics on Friday night with a 12.86-second 110-meter hurdle to claim his second national championship.
The number is also good for fourth all-time, giving him two of the top four spots on that list. Holloway’s best performance came in June 2021 at the same event. He won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics and is chasing gold this time around. He is the current world leader for the season.
In the first round of the U.S. Trials on Monday, Holloway clocked a 12.92-second finish, good for first place by .15 seconds. He was a hair slower in the semis on Tuesday with a time of 12.96 seconds, but he still claimed first overall on the day.
— Gators Track and Field & Cross Country (@GatorsTF) June 29, 2024
Before the final, Holloway was the only man to run a sub-13-second 110-meter hurdle this year. Freddie Crittenden (12.93) and Daniel Roberts (12.96) both joined that list and are headed to Paris on the Olympic team after medaling in Eugene.
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Quincy Wilson broke the 45-second mark again in the 400m but finished six in the finals, falling just shy of qualifying for the Olympics.
Sixteen-year-old track and field star Quincy Wilson beat the 45-second mark in the 400-meter race for the third run in a row during these Olympic Trials, but his time of 44.94 wasn’t quite fast enough to etch himself in the history books by qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Wilson finished in sixth place, ending a run in which he wowed the world by breaking a 42-year-old record twice.
“I can’t go back and be disappointed. At the end of the day, I’m 16 running grown-man times,” he said to reporters after the race.
Wilson, an incoming junior at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, ran times of 44.84 and 44.59 in the preliminary round and semifinals prior to the run on Monday evening.
🗣️ “I can’t be disappointed. I’m 16 years old running…grown man times.”
Quincy Wilson still in high spirits after finishing 6th at the U.S. Olympic Trials 400m final. Could get the call for the 4x400m relay pool. pic.twitter.com/Qh2Nwsm2B1
Quincy Hall, 25, won the 400m with a time of 44.17 seconds. Michael Norman, 26, placed second at 44.41 seconds and Chris Bailey, 24, finished third at 44.42 seconds, according to the Register Guard.
Despite falling shy in the 400m, Wilson still has a chance to become the youngest American man ever to compete in a track and field event in the Olympics. USA Track & Field can choose two more runners for the 4×400 relay team, according to the Washington Post, and with his performances both in the Trials and runs at his high school, Wilson has proven his talent.
The current mark has been in place for 124 years, when, in 1900, 17-year-and-166-day athlete Arthur Newton ran the 2,500-meter steeplechase, per the WaPo.
Former Oregon Ducks star Cole Hocker sets a meet record in his 1500 win at the Olympic Trials, securing his spot on the US Olympic Team.
Once a Duck, always a Duck. And now, twice an Olympian.
Former Oregon Ducks track star Cole Hocker made history on Monday night at the US Track and Field Olympic Trials, setting a meet record in the 1500 meters with his trials victory.
Hocker ran a personal best 3:39.50, with an impressive kick in the final 400 meters to secure his spot on the Olympic Team for the second time in his career.
Hocker won the 1500m in the 2020 Olympic Trials but finished sixth in the Tokyo Games.
A pair of other former Oregon runners were also in the event, with current Duck Elliott Cook placing 8th with a personal best of 3:33.84, while former Duck Cooper Teare finished 10th in 3:35.17.
Two days after breaking the world U18 and American high school records in the 400m in the Olympic Trials, Quincy Wilson broke both records again.
On Friday, Quincy Wilson announced he’s racing with the “big dogs” after breaking the world U18 and American high school records in the 400-meter dash in the Olympic Trials.
On Sunday, the 16-year-old broke his own record.
Wilson, competing in the semifinals, ran a 44.59 in the 400m, eclipsing his previous mark of 44.84 seconds. In doing so, he qualified for the finals in Eugene, Oregon, and is now one race away from reaching the Olympics before he reaches his junior year of high school.
The Bullis School (Potomac, Md.) star finished third in the semifinal race, putting on a burst at the end to do so. His finish helped him secure a spot in the finals.
16 YEAR OLD Quincy Wilson just broke his own U18 World Record and High School record in the 400m with a 44.59. WHAT??!?! 2 World Records by Quincy in 2 days.
If Wilson can reach the Paris Olympics, he’ll be an Olympian before getting his driver’s license. He told reporters that he recently turned 16 and, because he needs to take a three-week class to learn to drive, joked that he wouldn’t be able to complete it any time if he qualifies for the Games.
The men’s 400-meter final is scheduled for Monday at 9:59 p.m. Eastern Time and will be aired on NBC.
“I don’t I’m gonna get my driver’s license at this point.” – 16-year-old Quincy Wilson after his 44.59 to advance to the U.S. Olympic Trials 400m final 😂 pic.twitter.com/0wNx60GHwR
Quincy Wilson, a 16-year-old Maryland high school track phenom, set an 18U world record and American high school record in the 400m at the Olympic Trials.
After putting the high school track and field scene on notice as a freshman and sophomore as he thundered to first-place finishes in dozens of events, Quincy Wilson set his sights on the Olympics.
The 16-year-old has a legitimate chance to reach Paris after his 400-meter dash at the Olympic Trials on Friday.
Wilson, entering his junior year at Bullis High School (Potomac, Md.), set world U18 and American high school records in the trials in Eugene, Oregon, running his 400-meter heat in 44.66 seconds.
He broke the world record of 44.84 seconds that had been set five years ago and a U.S. high school record that had stood for 42 years by 0.03 seconds, according to the Washington Post. In clearing the 45-second mark, he set a new standard for himself.
“It’s a different game,” Wilson said to reporters. “I’m not running high school anymore. I’m running with the big dogs.”
🗣️ “I’m not running high school anymore. I’m running with the big dogs.”
Quincy Wilson after breaking the U.S. high school record in the 400m + the U18 WORLD RECORD
Wilson has dominated at the high school level with highlights including nearly breaking the 45-second mark in the 4x400m as a freshman, winning the New Balance Nationals in both indoor and outdoor in the 400m and 4×400 as a sophomore, and taking first place in the East Coast Elite – Meet of Champions and Distance Carnival @ Stevenson University in both the 100- and 200-meters.
The Washington Post asked him to rank his nerves on a scale of one to 10.
“Probably like a 2,” Wilson said. “I’m racing against bigger people that got brands and things like that. To me, everybody puts their spikes on the same way I do. I train just as hard as they do. It’s just the best of the best going at each other.”
Monikered SwimCity, USA, the 106,000-person city of Carmel, Indiana has 14 swimmers competing in the Olympic qualifiers this week.
Welcome to Carmel, Indiana, AKA SwimCity, USA, where more swimmers will compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Qualifiers over the next week than there are traffic lights on the roads.
The 50-square-mile, 106,000-person city is home to 14 swimmers who are taking part in 46 events in the trials from June 15-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Seven athletes are high schoolers, one of whom just finished eighth grade and another just graduated. The girls high school team has won 38 state championships in a row — a national record for any sport in any state — and the boys have won 13 of the last 15, with head coach Chris Plumb overseeing both teams for 18 of those years.
The tradition, history and dominance of this sport in Carmel is what is allowing a full percentage point of the 1,000 swimmers competing in the qualifiers to be from this relatively small midwest city that Mayor Sue Finkam has led the rebranded moniker of SwimCity, USA.
“Mayors really have two opportunities: That’s to convene people around important conversations and to promote the community. This does both,” she said. “It convenes us around a topic of excellence and swinging for the fences, which Carmel has done a lot of and been successful at, and also allows us to promote the heck out of an incredible community.”
Convening the community around Carmel High School
The swimming community of Carmel is funneled through neighborhood meets and the Carmel Swim Club, which has nearly 500 athletes on the competitive team and another 1,700 on the noncompetitive arm, the Carmel Swim Academy, up to Carmel High School, the only high school in the city.
Around 2008, city leaders discussed opening a second high school. As populations grow, most communities do so to create a more manageable ecosystem for thousands of teenage learners.
Carmel decided not to, and that has made all the difference for the city.
“Carmel made a decision really for the arts to have all this money pooled into one high school … which allows us to have the facilities and to support the athletics,” said Plumb.
With a student population of 5,300, Carmel High School has a TV and radio station, an automotive shop that is actively under expansion, clubs including robotics, jewelry, engineering, and a construction club that teaches students how to build tiny homes.
“They have incredible resources there for kids who are college-bound or trade-bound, and the realization was if they had two high schools, they’d have to choose who gets [which club],” Finkam said.
The city has been known for unique action plans in the past, most notably the decision to transition away from traffic lights to roundabouts. In 2023, the Wall Street Journal highlighted how former mayor Jim Brainard, who served seven straight terms, led the updating of zoning codes and tax increment financing to build mixed-use developments, the city center, walkable trails, and a network of more than 150 roundabouts to help ease traffic, decrease car accidents, and lower carbon emissions.
Photo courtesy of Carmel
Today, there are only 10 intersections under the city’s jurisdiction with traffic lights, four of which will be converted into roundabouts in 2025.
“We had stable leaders on city council, we didn’t have a lot of turnover, so we had a buy-in to the vision that lasted for a couple of decades,” said Finkam, who served on the city council for 10 years.
The city’s brand celebrates what makes the area distinct with community support and quick, decisive action from the local government, leveraging unique opportunities like the upcoming trials.
2024 Olympic Qualifiers
The people of the city take pride in their swimmers. After the 30th championship, the national record, Carmel hosted a parade for the high school swimmers. In the town square, there’s a television on which trials from the past have been aired. The city celebrated a send-off for the group of qualifier competitors in May with another parade before the swimmers left to train.
“The people of the community understand how unique that success is,” Plumb said.
The athletes competing in the qualifiers and their events are as follows:
Since 1988, there have only been two years without any swimming competitors from Carmel. Over that time, there were 51 different swimmers, and in 2012, there was a record 17 for the city. In 2021, Carmel had two swimmers qualify for the Olympics for the first time in the city’s swimming history.
“One of the things that everyone always asks me — ‘How come we don’t have more Olympians from Carmel, we have this rich swimming history?'” Plumb said. “There are more starting NFL QBs than there will be men on the swim team — every four years. It is extremely hard to have an Olympian.”
There’s promise for this 2024 group to build upon the legacy. On Saturday, University of Texas swimmer Aaron Shackell qualified for the Olympics after winning the 400-meter freestyle. Drew Kibler and Jake Mitchell, the 2021 Olympians, are back in the trial, and half the competitors are high schoolers with dominant track records.
Lynsey Bowen, committed to Florida as a member of the class of 2025, won two state championships this season in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyles — repeating her 2023 title in both.
Ellie Clarke is just 14, yet with wins in the Indiana SC Championships, Indiana CSC Winter Invitational, Speedo Junior National Championships, and more, she has proven she is qualified to compete against athletes a decade her senior. Clarke was a finalist in four events at the Speedo Sectionals, finishing second in the 200-meter backstroke.
Kayla Han was the youngest qualifier in 2021 when she was just 13, but she now has another three years of experience and represented the United States in the 2024 World Championships. She won four freestyle events at the Speedo Sectionals in March, setting records in two of them, and set three freestyle records in a dominant Speedo Winter Junior Championship East performance in December.
Gregg Enoch just graduated and, after winning the state championship in the 500-yard freestyle this year, is set to attend Louisville. He finished second in a pair of state championship events as a junior and set a record in his 500-yard freestyle victory at the Speedo Winter Junior Championship East as a senior.
Molly Sweeney has won four state championships over the last two school years, going back-to-back in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke. She also set a record in the 200-yard breaststroke in the Speedo Winter Junior Championship East. She and Han are tied as the No. 2-ranked swimmer in the Swimcloud’s class of 2026 rankings.
Twins Alex and Andrew Shackell plan to carry on the family swimming legacy, with elder Aaron already qualifying. Andrew, ranked as the No. 2 boys swimmer in Indiana, placed third in both the 50– and 100-yard freestyles in the state championships this season after winning both events in the sectionals.
Alex’s Swimcloud page is littered with first-place finishes and Indiana records, having set state records in the 100- and 200-meter fly in March at the Speedo Sections, winning four state championships between the last two seasons, and dominating the Speedo Winter Junior Championships. In the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, she won silver alongside Katie Ledecky.
Plumb told a story about the World Aquatics team, where each player received a poker chip from the U.S. team coach to represent going “all-in” in this tournament. “Katie Ledecky gave hers to Alex right before they swam on the relay together,” Plumb said.
Entering the Olympic qualifiers, athletes will swim alongside elite athletes who demonstrate “what excellence really looks like, the amount time and commitment and, to me, the level of focus that it takes,” Plumb said.
They’re doing it together, as a unit that has swam alongside each other for the majority of their lives.
“The support they have for each other is just unbelievable … They know that they need each other,” Plumb said. “That, to me, is the best part: the camaraderie and the willingness to do more for their teammates, and the amount of support it takes to be on this level.”
The list of athletes with ties to the Oregon Ducks heading to the Tokyo Olympics grew on Sunday night.
With the final day of the Olympic Trials coming to a close, a trio of Eugene legends secured their spot on the team, with Raevyn Rogers, Cole Hocker, and Matthew Centrowitz all giving fans a show at the new Hayward Field.
The night started out for the Ducks with Rogers gritting it down the back stretch of the 800m final, finishing second behind 19-year-old phenom, Athing Mu, who ran a world-leading 1:56.07. Rogers time of 1:57.66 was good enough to guarantee her a spot on her second Olympic team.
The biggest fireworks of the night came in the men’s 1,500m final, when Centrowitz and Hocker battled down the stretch and provided a thrilling ending. Centrowitz led going into the final 200 meters, but Hocker mounted a huge kick and crossed the line in 3:35.28 to take first place and win the final. Centrowitz crossed in 3:36.34 to take second place and earn a trip to defend his title at the Olympics.
Technically, Hocker does not have the Olympic standard time of 3:35.00, but his world ranking is high enough to qualify him for the games in Tokyo.
UPDATE: Cole Hocker is extremely likely to qualify via his world ranking. His ranking is now the highest among non-standard athletes (1,232pts) https://t.co/QikzYDKsfM
Unfortunately, the Olympic dreams for long-jumper Demarcus Simpson, Colby Alexander, Sam Prakel, and Kyree King ended on Sunday night, as they failed to finish in the top 3 of their respective events.
