Chula Vista Meet Qualified 7 of Them for Olympic Trials — So How Did They Do in Oregon?

USAT, the governing body for the sport, is a bit like America, with state and local leadership. But instead of states, USATF has associations.

Fifty-six of them.

One of them is the San Diego-Imperial Association, which held its annual outdoor championships June 8 at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center.

Much like the American system, USATF associations pave the way for elite athletes. Some make it to the Olympic trials. Others become Olympians.

How did San Diego-Imperial perform this year?

Rick Reaser, the meet director and events coordinator at San Diego State University, was the director of the June 8 meet and tallied the entries with ambitions for Paris. (The event was also on the World Athletics global calendar, so the athletes’ scores counted toward the world rankings.)

In a report to local association president Paul Greer, Reaser counted four men and three women who qualified for the trials in Eugene, Oregon, based on their scores at Chula Vista.

He noted that the meet came one day before the “deadline for qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials, making it a huge draw as a ‘last chance’ meet for elites and professionals.”

In addition to former SDSU track star Danae Dyer running a personal best 12.98 in the 100-meter hurdles to qualify for the Oregon meet, which we’re reporting on here, these athletes also met the standards for the trials in Chula Vista:

Penn pole vaulters Trevor Stephenson, Jacob Englar and Scott Toney and triple jumpers Imani Oliver, Jaimie Robinson and Timothy White.

How did they do at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon?

Stephenson, 24, cleared 5.67 meters in Chula Vista. In Eugene, he missed the opening height of 5.40 meters three times (17-8 1/2).

Englar, 24, threw 18.62 feet — 18-5 1/4 — in Chula Vista but only 17-8 1/2 in Eugene, reaching that height on the second attempt before missing three times at 18-0 1/2.

Toney, 22, also ran a 5.62 at Chula Vista but only ran a 5.50 in Eugene before taking a shot at 5.60 (18-4 1/2) before improving to 5.65 (18-6 1/2) where he missed twice and finished tied for 18th overall.

In the women’s triple jump, Oliver, 31, of Tracksmith, clocked 13.93 (45-8 1/2) in Chula Vista and 13.70 (44-11 1/2) in Eugene, where she finished fourth overall.

(If she had done 13.93 in Eugene, she would be in the top 3 — but would not go to Paris, due to lack of qualifying distance or ranking in the world’s top 32.)

Robinson, 25, ran 13.53 (44-4 3/4) in Chula Vista but only 12.97 (42-6 3/4) in Eugene, finishing 18th in the women’s qualifying round and not advancing to the final.

And White, 29, clocked a slightly over-the-wind limit of 16.44 (53-11 1/4) in the men’s triple jump at Chula Vista but did not start in Eugene.

In 2016, Arizona State wide receiver White finished 18th in qualifying at the Eugene Trials and didn’t advance to the finals. But in 2021, White finished fifth in the finals, with a time of 16.59 (54-5 1/4) — just 5 inches away from making the Tokyo Olympic team.

On top of that, Olympic silver medalist Sandi Morris vaulted 4.75 (15-7) in the June 8 competition, attempting to set a new world record for the season. (She failed.) In Eugene, she surprised the experts by taking fourth place (without the Paris team) with a best of 4.68 (15-4¼).

In addition to jumper Morris, Reaser counted 26 athletes who competed in Chula Vista and were also at the trials based on scores from other meets:

• Hailey Fune — Women’s 100 Meter Hurdles
• Samuel Hartman — Men’s 400 Meter Hurdles
• Brian Matthews — Men’s 400 Meter Hurdles
• Ka’leila Abrille — Women’s Pole Vault
• Mackenzie Beukes — Women’s Pole Vault
• Olen Oates — Men’s Pole Vault
• Nathan Richartz — Men’s Pole Vault
• Cole Walsh — Men’s Pole Vault
• Monae Nichols — Women’s Long Jump
• Tiffany Flynn — Women’s Long Jump
• Madisen Richards — Women’s Long Jump
• Jasmine Todd — Women’s Long Jump
• Kiana Davis — Women’s Long Jump
• Isaac Grimes — Men’s Long Jump
• Rayvon Grey — Men’s Long Jump
• Tori Franklin — Women’s Triple Jump (Paris Team)
• Danylle Kurywchak — Women’s Triple Jump
• Alexis Ellis — Women’s Triple Jump
• Isaiah Griffith — Men’s Triple Jump
• Anthony Applequist — Men’s Triple Jump
• Chari Hawkins – Heptathlon (Made Paris team)
• Nick Christie — Men’s 20km Run
• Emmanuel Corvera — 20 km walk men
• Michael Mannozzi — 20 km walk men
• Miranda Melville – Women’s 20km Run
• Celina Lepe — 20 km women’s walk

Not all athletes with ties to San Diego competed in Chula Vista last month.

Nia Akins, 25, a Rancho Bernardo High School graduate, won the 800 meters at the Olympic trials in 1:57.36 — and is now a medal favorite in Paris.

But 2023 world discus champion Lagi Tausaga of Spring Valley had three fouls in qualifying and didn’t advance to the final. And 2022 world hammer champion Brooke Andersen (a graduate of Rancho Buena Vista High School in Vista) had three fouls in the final and finished 12th.

In the heptathlon, Tokyo Olympic medalist Annie Kunz of North Park was injured warming up for the opening event – the 100-meter hurdles – and barely finished that race, hopping on one leg afterward and dropping out of the event.

Mark Zeigler of the Union-Tribune reported that two weeks before her tryout race, she felt a pinch in her plantar fascia and then felt it tear during warmups in Eugene.

“I’m still trying to process everything,” Kunz, 31, said on social media. “I’m not sure what’s next for me. Right now, I’m just focused on healing myself physically and emotionally.”

In the running race, Tokyo Olympic competitor Nick Christie, 32, of El Cajon, won the 20-kilometer race in nearby Springfield, Oregon, but his time was not fast enough to qualify for Paris.

The same goes for Miranda Melville, 35, of Chula Vista, a 20K finalist who competed at the 2016 Rio Games but did not meet the qualifying or ranking criteria for Paris.

But as a team, Christie and Melville rank 30th in the world in the new Olympic mixed race walk relay event. Only the top 25 qualify. There is very little chance that the five teams ahead of them will choose not to compete.

This will be known on July 7.

At least two other former SDSU track and field stars are hoping to compete in Paris: Jamaican triple jumper Shanieka Ricketts and Armenian sprinter/hurdler Allison Halverson.

At the Jamaican Olympic trials last week in Kingston, Ricketts clocked 14.50 (47-7) to win her event. She is currently ranked second in the world, behind Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas.

But Rojas, the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder, will not compete in Paris. She announced in April that she had injured her Achilles tendon in training.

That leaves only Halverson, a former Aztec heptathlete who changed her national affiliation from American to Armenian (her mother has Armenian ancestry) in hopes of being named to the Eastern European nation’s Olympic team in either the 400-meter hurdles or the 100 meters.

On June 1, Halverson announced that she had set an Armenian national record with a personal best of 53.37 in the 400 meters.

She also expects to know on July 7 whether she has a ticket to Paris.

Among those interested is his father, Rick Reaser, the organizer of the Chula Vista meeting.