PROVO — James Corrigan finished in the top three in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Trials, capping off a strong performance to conclude his second season with BYU track and field.
But her third-place finish at the team trials in Eugene, Oregon, last week meant her spot on the U.S. team was no longer a certainty.
It took an extra week, but it seems like it was worth it now.
“Oh yeah,” Corrigan joked in an interview with Floatrac.
Corrigan completed a hastily organized 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Penn Relays Summer Showcase in 8 minutes 13.87 seconds, clearing all the boxes except for a passport for the Paris Summer Olympics, but the only thing missing was the Olympic standard.
Save your seat on the plane, BYU alum Kenneth Rooks: The Cougars’ new school record holder will also be joining them on the trip, completing Team USA’s steeplechase squad, which includes Rooks and Under Armour athlete Matt Wilkinson.
A week ago, Corrigan's post-race interview with NBC was cut short due to time constraints. Corrigan was unfazed: Only Rooks and Wilkinson were virtually guaranteed to compete in the Olympics, and Corrigan was well outside the world rankings.
So now that he has qualified for the Olympics, what does he want to say to the nation?
“I'm super excited,” he told Flowtrack after the race. “Hopefully I can inspire a lot of young people to one day pursue track and field, especially steeplechase. But right now, I'm just super excited to know I'll be representing Team USA. I'm super excited to represent my country and hopefully I can give a voice to the college athletes that I train with and let them know that they can do it too.”
After placing in the top three at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Corrigan was desperate to qualify for the Paris Olympics. With a week to go until the final World Athletics rankings were released that would decide his fate and limited options, BYU coach Ed Eyestone made belated arrangements to enter Corrigan in the Penn Relays Summer Showcase, an annual summer event held at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, a place that wasn't originally the site of steeplechase events.
But with encouragement from Eyestone and the chance to add another Olympian to the U.S. team, meet director Aaron Robison (grandson of the late BYU track and field great Clarence Robison, after whom the Cougars' track and field track was named) added the event to the lineup and elevated the meet to “challenger” status, meaning athletes could earn points toward the world rankings depending on their results.
Corrigan placed third in the heats in a time of 8 minutes 26.78 seconds and is currently 82nd in the IAAF rankings but can qualify by achieving the Olympic qualifying standard of 8 minutes 15 seconds or by bettering her season's best time of 8 minutes 21.22 seconds to move into the qualifying zone by the deadline set by IAAF on Sunday.
Competing in the final race of the Penn Relays Summer Series, Corrigan faced off against a unique training “bunny” — his training partner and BYU alumnus, Rooks, a former NCAA men's steeplechase national champion and two-time All-American who ran a personal best of 8:21.92 at the Olympic Trials and has risen to as high as 18th in the world.
The BYU runner is one of just seven people entered in the event, with dozens more aspiring Olympians chasing the final standard in races around the world.
With Rooks guiding his time and Daniel Michalski, who placed fourth at the 2021 Olympic Trials, pacing him until the final 1,000 meters or so, Corrigan got stronger with every step. His average time for each leg was just over 1:05 until the bell lap, when the rising junior stumbled slightly over the final water barrier, leapt over the final hurdle and sprinted to a final leg time of 1:03.467 with Eyestone greeting him at the finish line.
“The pressure on this young man was incredible,” Eyestone said. “To finish in the top three at the Olympic Trials and then be asked to basically run under eight minutes and 15 seconds, and out there in less than ideal weather, and perform like he did, it's incredible. He had the confidence and belief to get the job done. You could see he was tiring with two laps to go, but you could also see the signs of an Olympic spot. It was a great performance.”
Corrigan, who signed up to make the U.S. Olympic track and field team for the trip to Paris, will be joined by Rooks, BYU steeplechase star Courtney Wayment, BYU alumni Connor Mantz and Clayton Young (marathon), recent Run Elite program enrollee Grant Fisher (5,000 meters) and former Utah State University star Chari Hawkins (heptathlon).
Former BYU and Herriman High School star Rory Linkletter will also represent Canada in the Olympic marathon, and University of Utah senior Josefine Eriksen has qualified with her native Norway's 4×100-meter relay team. This is the first time Norway has fielded a relay team in an Olympic event since the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.
BYU has had six track and field athletes qualify for the Summer Olympics, including five alumni and one relatively unknown underclassman who (until recently) placed ninth at the NCAA Championships.
“It's a dream come true,” Corrigan said, “I feel a lot of pressure with the progress and how quickly things are moving forward. I think I struggled in the first round of races. … I thought I bounced back well in the trials and I'm really proud of my progress to be able to run three races in eight days. It really opens up possibilities for the future.”
Back in Eugene, BYU's school record-holding discus thrower Darin Schertz finished the Olympic Trials by throwing 59.53 meters (195 feet, 3 inches) to place 11th in the men's discus.
Competition will conclude on Sunday, with former BYU middle-distance runner Abraham Alvarado competing in the men's 800-meter final, scheduled to start at 5:51 p.m. Mountain Time.
