St. Michael's Hosts USA Track & Field Olympic Qualifying Event (By Laura Duggan, Director of Marketing & Communication)

Under a cloak of secrecy due to COVID restrictions and the need to discourage spectators, few people knew that St. Michael’s was chosen to host the USA Track & Field (USATF) Olympic qualifying trials last weekend, a two-night track meet on February 26 and 27.

The organization selected St. Michael's for its event at Crusader Stadium, citing that we were the “best school in the area with the best facilities,” as they searched for a discreet location around Austin’s city limits.

According to MileSplit writer Cory Mull, Trials of Miles, The Texas Qualifier, evolved out of the idea that "professional and elite athletes could vie for a chance to secure U.S. Olympic Trial and Olympic standard performances ahead of the Olympics in Tokyo this summer.”
Media representatives from dozens of outlets camped out at the track for the event featuring 400 athletes from as many as 10 different countries. There are usually dozens of such trials each year; however, athletes really didn't have many due to COVID-19. “They were very grateful to have the opportunity to race against elite talent,” spokesperson Mark Pinales said.

Aside from a 10K media-grabbing performance by 24-year-old Konstanze Klosterhalfen, who set a new German national record of 31 minutes, 1.71 seconds, “we saw the four fastest races on Texas soil ever run for 1500, 800, 5k, and 10k. On top of that we had a couple of people qualify for the Olympic and Olympic trials standards,” Pinales said.
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