14 Buffaloes Competing In USATF Olympic Trials

EUGENE – Colorado track and field will have fourteen current and former members of the program compete at the 2021 USATF Olympic Trials that begin Friday June 18 and conclude Sunday June 27, including four current members that will run in the black and gold.
 
The four current student-athletes are Sage Hurta in the women's 800, Eduardo Herrera in the men's 5,000, Madie Boreman in the women's steeplechase and Micaela Degenero in the women's 1,500. The former athletes are Dani Jones in the women's 1,500, Jenny Simpson in the women's 1,500 and 5,000, Emma Coburn in the women's steeplechase, Val Constien in the women's steeplechase, Sara Vaughn in the women's steeplechase, Joe Klecker in the men's 5,000 and 10,000, Maddie Alm in the women's 5,000, Carrie Verdon in the women's 5,000 and 10,000, Laura Thweatt in the women's 10,000 and Makena Morley in the women's 10,000.
 
The Buffs have two athletes ranked in the top-3 in their respected events, Olympians Jenny Simpson in the 1,500 and Emma Coburn in the steeplechase. Coburn is the top-ranked American in the steeplechase at 9:02.35. Simpson is second in the 1,500 with a personal-best of 3:57.22.
 
Colorado has seven total marks inside the top-10 in the US heading to the trials. After the two top-three marks, Val Constien is fourth in the steeplechase, Klecker is seventh in the 5,000 and 10,000, Simpson is eighth in the 5,000 and Jones is 10th in the 1,500.
 
The first event for Colorado will be the women's 1,500 first round where the three CU women will look to finish top-six in their heats of 10 or have one of the six next fastest times. Simpson owns the fastest mark in her heat while Jones is third and Degenero is ninth. The second round will consist of the top-five in each heat of 12 advancing to finals with the next two fastest times for the women's final where the top-three will represent the US at the Olympics if they have gone under the Olympic Standard mark.
 
The men's 10,000 is the first final on the track for CU where 25 men will battle for three spots. Klecker has the fifth-best 10,000 for an American this year but is ranked seventh heading into the final based on personal bests.
 
Events will be live streamed and televised on NBC and NBCSN. A few events for Buffs are not scheduled to be streamed and those include the women's steeplechase first round, all of the rounds of the men's 5,000 and the women's 800 first two rounds. Live results including heat sheets released the day before and a schedule of events are available at https://trialsresults.usatf.org/.