Georgetown alumna Rachel Schneider made the U.S. Olympic team Monday after finishing third in the 5,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. Chantilly alumnus Sean McGorty, who has the Olympic standard in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, had to stop to twice try to put his shoe back on Monday during the first of two preliminary heats. He caught back up to finish ninth and advanced on time.
The family she babysat for didn’t need her. The cost of living, with no job, in Westchester, N.Y. was crushing. Her team’s funding was gone. So Katy Kunc came home.
With the pandemic squeezing her out of everything else, she ran the same roads and trails where she discovered her talent for running while at Lake Braddock.
Robert Brandt was eyeing graduate school programs in real estate development because he likes being a part of building something.
He already has some experience doing it with the latest Georgetown track team, accounting for two of the men’s team’s four All-American finishes last week in Eugene, Ore. Brandt finished fourth in the 10,000 meters and fifth in the 5,000, while junior Jack Salisbury finished sixth in the 1,500 meters (3:40.06) and freshman Parker Stokes finished eighth in the 3,000 meter steeplechase (8:33.44). Sophomore Sami Corman was an honorable mention for the women’s team, and among local natives, Diego Zarate (Virginia Tech) from Northwest High School, was seventh in the 1,500, Tuscaorara’s Derek Johnson (Virginia) was seventh in the steeplechase and Robinson’s Lauren Berman (Virginia Tech) was 11th in the 1500.
Fitsum Seyoum didn’t last long during freshman tryouts for the Tuscarora track team.
“Most of track season is pretty warm, but tryouts were early in the year, so it was pretty cold and wet,” former Tuscarora coach Troy Harry said. “He didn’t stick with it.”
Taylor Knibb had already gone an entire year without competing in a triathlon, so what was a few more months?
Possibly the difference between making the U.S. Olympic Team and staying home.
Georgetown alumnus Jon Green, who coaches Olympic Marathon Trials runner-up Molly Seidel, tells the story of how he got into this situation.
Alex Taylor crossed the finish line of the 2018 California International Marathon just a few seconds too late.
Finishing with a gun time of 2:19:12, he missed an Olympic Team Trials marathon qualifying time by 12 seconds.
Cross country at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology wasn’t a glamorous sport, but Jonathan Phillips didn’t care.
“Basically it’s a bunch of nerds doing the nerdiest sport,” he said. “I loved it, that’s what kept me on the team.”
After three eight-mile loops of downtown Atlanta, Nick Golebiowski was approaching the end of the Olympic Marathon Trials feeling no worse for the wear. Sure, the hills were rough and he was well off of his PR, but the race experience had been pretty good. And then…
“Wow, those last couple of miles were brutal,” he said. “A few wind gusts pushed me sideways.”
Three runners with D.C. area ties finished in the top 20 of the Olympic Marathon Trials on a brutally hilly and windy course in Atlanta.