With the U.S. Olympic Track Trials scheduled to begin Friday at Hayward Field, we’ve got a look at the 10 South Jersey athletes who are expected to be in action over the next 10 days in Eugene … and also some others who came very close to qualifying.
At the bottom, we’ve got a list of every South Jersey athlete that’s ever won a U.S. title.
Nia Ali, Pleasantville, 100-meter hurdles
The 2016 silver medalist looks to make her 2nd trip to the Olympics after sitting out the 2021 season to have a baby. Ali is a three-time outdoor World Championship finalist and won her first world title in Doha, Qatar, in 2019, and she also won indoor Worlds in 2014 and 2016. With a win at the Trials, she’d become the first South Jersey woman to win consecutive U.S. titles since Carol Lewis won the long jump in 1985 and 1986. Ali is world No. 6 and U.S. No. 2 so far this year with her 12.44 in Gainesville in April. She showed her current form with a 12.48 win at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, on Tuesday. With her 12.30 in Monaco last July, Ali is No. 9 in world history and No. 3 all-time U.S.
First Round: 8:28 p.m., Friday, June 28
Semifinals: 8:04 p.m., Saturday, June 29
Final: 8 p.m., Sunday, June 30
Josh Awotunde, Delsea, shot put
After placing 3rd at Worlds in Eugene in 2022, Awotunde placed 2nd at U.S. Nationals last year. He’s only thrown twice this year but hit 70-7 ½ at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene late last Month in his last competition. That currently makes him No. 16 in the world and No. 6 among Americans. Awotunde PR’d at 73-1 ½ at Worlds and that’s No. 21 in world history and No. 12 on the all-time U.S. list.
First round: 9:15 p.m., Friday, June 21
Final: 6:40 p.m., Saturday, June 22
English Gardner, Eastern, 100-meter dash
Already a two-time U.S. champion, Gardner seeks a berth on her 3rd Olympic team at 32 years old. Gardner placed 7th in the 2016 Olympic final and won a gold medal on the U.S. 400-meter relay team in 2016 and a silver medal on the 2021 400-meter relay team. Gardner’s best time this year is an 11.22 when she won the Los Angeles Grand Prix in May at Drake Stadium. She’s No. 10 in world history and No. 5 in U.S. history at 10.74.
First round: 9:15 p.m., Friday, June 21
Semifinals: 9 p.m., Saturday, June 22
Final: 10:50 p.m., Saturday, June 22
Aliya Garozzo, Paul VI, 400-meter hurdles
The Sicklerville native had a breakthrough year at Penn this spring, lowering her PR from 59.76 to a Quaker school-record 56.34, which she ran when she won the Ivy League Championships at Princeton last month. This will be Garozzo’s 1st U.S. Championships or Olympic Trials, and she’s the first South Jersey woman to run the intermediates at U.S. Nationals since Winslow’s Krystal Cantey advanced to the semis in 2007 in Indianapolis. Garozzo hasn’t raced since NCAA East Prelims in Lexington, Ky., in late May, and that’s been her only race since her PR 56.34 at Ivy’s on May 5.
First round: 9:49 p.m., Thursday, June 27
Semifinals: 8:41 p.m., Saturday, June 29
Final: 8:29 p.m., Sunday, June 30
Johnnie Jackson, Cherry Hill East, hammer throw
After sitting out the entrie 2023 season, the 29-year-old Jackson bombed a lifetime-best 242-10 last month in Tucson, Ariz., in what was just his 4th meet in two years. Jackson made the podium at nationals in 2017, when he threw 235-2 in Sacramento, Calif., and placed 2nd, and he made the finals at the 2021 Trials, placing 10th with a 226-4. He placed 16th in his most recent U.S. Nationals in 2022 in Eugene with a 228-6. Jackson currently ranks 55th in the world and 10th among American men. His 242-10 ranks 43rd in U.S. history.
Semifinals: 9:30 p.m., Friday, June 28
Final: 8:15 p.m., Sunday, June 30
Erika Kemp, Rancocas Valley, 10,000-meter run
Kemp focuses mainly on the roads these days, and she’s only run one track 10,000 since the 2021 Olympic Trials, but it was a PR 31:28.69 in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., back in March, that easily qualified her for the Trials. Everyone at 32:23.95 or faster got in, so Kemp qualified by nearly a minute. This is Kemp’s 4th U.S. Nationals and 2nd Trials. She placed 21st at 5,000 meters at 2017 Nationals in Sacramento in 16:19.45 and 15th at 5,000 meters at the 2021 Trials with a 16:22.27 and tried to double back in the 10,000 five days later but DNF’d. She recorded a 16:02.88 and placed 18th at 5,000 meters at 2019 Nationals in Des Moines, Iowa. Kemp is No. 46 in the world at 10,000 meters this spring and No. 11 among U.S. women. She’s No. 40 in U.S. history with her 31:28.69 (and also No. 69 in U.S. history at 5,000 meters with her 15:10.10 in Boston in 2021).
Final: 9:09 p.m., Saturday, June 29
Elisia Lancaster, Delsea, hammer
This will be Lancaster’s 2nd trip to U.S. Nationals and her 1st Olympic Trials. She placed 16th at Nationals in 2022 in Eugene with a 212-10 after graduating from Southern Illinois. Lancaster threw a PR 220-11 last month at a meet in Rathdrum, Idaho, of all places, and that makes her No. 18 among U.S. women this year. Lancaster was a six-time JUCO national champion at Rowan College of South Jersey. She competed briefly at Towson – one indoor season – before a record-setting career at Southern Illinois, where she won a Mountain Valley hammer title and went to NCAAs in 2022 and earned All-America honors indoors in the weight throw and earned her masters in social work.
Semifinals: 2 p.m., Friday, June 21
Final: 8 p.m., Sunday, June 23
Curtis Thompson, Florence, javelin
Thompson is already one of only seven men in the 116-year history of the U.S. Championships to win three national javelin titles (and one of only three since 1955). He shoots for No. 4 following wins in in 2018 in Des Moines [249-3] and 2021 [271-7] and 2023 [265-5] in Eugene. Thompson made the U.S. Olympic team in 2021. Thompson ranks No. 4 among U.S. men this year at 267-3. He ranks 51st in world history and 3rd all-time U.S. with his 287-9 in East Stroudsburg in 2021. He has eight lifetime throws over 270 feet.
Semifinals: 6:30 p.m., Friday, June 21
Final: 9:40 p.m., Sunday, June 23
Tionna Tobias, Winslow Twp., long jump
The versatile Tobias, who recently concluded her senior year, has a few events where she’s national class. She won the Big Ten heptathlon last year with 5,640 points, which isn’t far off this year’s qualifying standard [5,913 points), but she didn’t compete in a multi this spring. And she actually could have run the 100-meter hurdles at the Trials this year if she wanted with a wind-legal 13.18 in Gainesville in March. The qualifying cutoff was 13.23. She’s run as fast as 13.11 with legal wind. But Tobias will compete in the long jump. Tobias PR’d at 21-4 ¼ (0.0 wind), also in Gainesville in March (and she also had a legal 21-0 in the same meet). That 21-4 ¼ puts her at No. 20 among U.S. women this spring.
Semifinals: 9:18 p.m., Thursday, June 27
Final: 8:20 p.m., Saturday, June 29
Jessica Woodard, Cherokee, shot put
This will be Woodard’s 12th appearance at an indoor or outdoor U.S. Nationals, and she’s finished 8th or better in each of the last eight. Woodard has made three podiums at nationals and in 2022 placed 3rd with her PR 63-7 ¾ in Eugene, earning a berth on the U.S. team at Worlds, where she placed 8th with a 61-3 ¼. This is Woodard’s 3rd Trials but 2nd since becoming an elite thrower. She made the finals in 2021, placing 7th overal at 58-9 ¾ after a 60-3 ¼ in qualifying. Woodard is 24th in the world this year and 11th among U.S. women with her 60-11 indoors in Albuquerque in February. She just threw her 2024 outdoor best of 60-4 at the USATF Grand Prix in New York last weekend. Woodard is 16th in U.S. history with that 63-7 ¾.
Semifinals: 10:15 p.m., Friday, June 28
Final: 8:50 p.m., Saturday, June 29
And here’s a look at some South Jersey near misses. These athletes were close to qualifying or did seem to qualify but for one reason or another didn’t enter or scratched. The USATF gives out very little information on this stuff – or anything else for that matter – so this is an inexact science. There could be other reasons athletes didn’t enter or shoot for a qualifying mark – injuries, retiring from the sport, not wanting to chase a qualifier in a short period of time. And it’s also possible that some of the meets where they qualified were not approved by USATF as potential qualifiers, although the standards for meets to count as qualifiers are not posted or explained anywhere on the USATF’s garbage web site. So nobody really has any clue. Mistakes, lemme know.
Jailya Ash, Eastern, 100-meter hurdles
Ash, a junior at UCOnn, ran 13.29 in a meet in Storrs in March with legal wind. The hurdles cutoff wound up at 13.23, so she was just 6-100ths of a second short.
Kevin Burr, Rancocas Valley, Javelin
Burr, who just picked up a javelin for the first time in the spring of 2023, just missed qualifying for the Trials in his 2nd year with the event and freshman year at Tennessee. Burr threw 234-6 at the NCAA East Prelims in Lexington, earning a trip to NCAAs, where he placed 11th overall and was the top freshman in the country. The last qualifier at the Trials, Cody Canard of Weber State, threw 234-8.
Marielle Hall, Haddonfield, 5,000, 10,000
Hall, an Olympian at 10,000 meters in 2016, hasn’t raced on the track since May 26, 2023, when she ran 15:35.72 in L.A. That was a few weeks before the qualifying window opened and just five seconds shy of the eventual 15:30.46 cutoff, but she never did pursue a qualifier. Hall ran sub-15:30 every year from 2014 through 2022, with the exception of 2021. She ran 31:58.88 in her last track 10,000 – in May of 2022 in Eugene – and that’s well under this year’s 32:23.95 cutoff. But Hall – 8th at Worlds in the 10,000 in Doha in 2019 – may be injured or sticking to the roads from now on.
Malachi James, Burlington, 100-meter dash
James’ 10.18 came without a wind guage but would have qualified him if it was wind-legal and USATF accepted marks from high school meets. His fastest wind-legal 100 was a 10.28, which wouldn’t have made the 10.19 cut (and came three days after the close of the qualifying window). But James has summer football at Syracuse starting soon and wouldn’t have been able to go even if he did qualify
Naylah Jones, Timber Creek, 100-meter dash
We wrote earlier this week about why Jones’s entry into the Trials was likely rejected. To read that story click here.
Gabriel Moronta, Pleasantville, 400-meter dash
Moronta ran a huge PR 45.81 on May 10 at the American Athletic Conference meet in San Antonio, which was only 8-100ths offf the qualifying cutoff. He may have gotten hurt because he was not part of South Florida’s 4-by-4 team at NCAAs and hasn’t raced since his conference meet.
Mawali Osunniyi, Mainland Regional, High Jump
In a meet at Harvard in February, Osunniyi cleared 7-1 ½ as a UConn freshman, 5 ½ inches higher than his high school PR of 6-8. Osunniyi, the indoor and outdoor Big East champ as a freshman, was very close to the high jump cutoff of 7-2 ¼. Osunniyi never competed in the high jump until his senior year at Mainland – his first lifetime meet was last year’s Bridgeton Relays.
Dennisha Page, Wilson, 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash
Page was originally entered in the 100 and 200 with her PRs of 11.10 and 22.39, both in Gainesville in May, but at some point she withdrew. She’s No. 19 among U.S. women in the 100 and No. 13 in the 200 and would have easily qualified in both sprints. Page may have gotten hurt at NCAAs, where she ran well off her season-best times in both dashes. She hasn’t raced since.
Sincere Rhea, St. Augustine, 110-meter hurdles
The qualifying window for the Trials opened on July 1, 2023, and that was soon after Rhea finished up his junior year at Miami. The cutoff in the 110-meter high hurdles was 13.70, a time Rhea has run several times, including a wind-legal 13.48 at ACCs on May 26, 2023 – about five weeks before the qualifying window opened. Rhea, who is transferring out of Miami, elected not to continue his 2023 season to try to obtain a Trials qualifier and hasn’t raced outdoors since the qualifying window opened a year ago.
Bryce Tucker, Pennsauken, 400-meter hurdles
Premier Wynn, Pennsauken, 400-meter hurdles
Tucker ran 50.61 to win the Big Ten Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., on May 12, and Wynn ran 50.72, on May 8, when he placed 2nd in the MEAC Championships in Norfolk, Va. The 400IH cutoff wound up at 50.92, but neither Tucker nor Wynn entered the Trials. Wynn did place 2nd at USATF Under-20s and will travel to Lima, Peru, in August for the World Under-20’s.
Floyd Whitaker, Highland, Triple Jump
Whitaker, who transferred from Minnesota to Oklahoma after the 2023 indoor season, PR’d with a 52-3 ¼ at the indoor Big 12 Championships in Lubbock, Texas. That appears to be good enough to get Whitaker into the Trials, where the cutoff was 51-8 ½, but he didn’t enter, possibly because of the new USATF rules that don’t allow qualifying marks from all college meets for reasons that aren’t explained anywhere on their web site.
Kenady Wilson, Willingboro, high jump
Wilson’s 6-0 ¾ in Greensboro in 2022 would have been good enough to qualify if she repeated it during the qualifying window. But she appears to have retired from competition after winning the Coastal Athletic Association Championships in Williamsburg, Va., in May of 2023 with a 5-8 ¾.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 