LUT WILLIAMS, BCSP Editor
EUGENE, OR – Four track & field athletes with black college roots made it to U. S. Olympic Trials finals over the weekend but none will represent the nation at the Paris Summer Games.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff senior high jumper Caleb Snowden, Alabama State senior sprinter Jamarion Stubbs, former North Carolina A&T hurdler Michael Dickson and former Howard and N. C. A&T 400 meter hurdler Sydni Townsend all made the finals in their respective events but could not post marks to earn a trip to the 2024 Games.
Caleb Snowden – High Jump
Snowden, the 2024 SWAC indoor and outdoor high jump champion who holds school and conference records, matched his career-best height of 2.27 meters (7 feet, five 1/4 inches) to take second place in the high jump final during Sunday’s closing day at the week-long Trials.
He and event winner Shelby McEwen of NIKE were the only athletes to clear 2.27 meters in the competition.
Although Snowden finished second, that alone did not guarantee himan Olympic berthas he has not cleared the Olympic standard of 2.33 meters. McEwen, ranked among the top ten high jumpers in the world, entered the competition already having cleared the Olympic standard.
Snowden made three attempts to match McEwen’s 2.30 winning height in the competition but was not successful.
“As a whole, I feel I’m satisfied with it,” Snowden said to FloTrack after the competition. “Just coming out getting a personal best and second place, that’s not too bad.
“I want to keep jumping, even after college. So that’s the future right now.”
McEwen cleared the height in his first and only attempt to take the gold medal. Nebraska’s Tyus Wilson had fewer misses at 2.24 meters (7 feet, 4 1/4 inches) to beat out JuVaughn Harrison, the 3rd-ranked high jumper in the world, for third. Wilson has also not cleared the Olympic standard. Had Harrison finished third he would have earned a trip to Paris as he had cleared the standard.
McEwen made three unsuccessful attempts to clear 2.36 meters (7 feet, 8 3/4 in.).
Snowden, one of 12 athletes to reach the finals, entered the competition with the sixth best clearance of 2.26 meters. He surpassed that in his third and final attempt at 2.27m Sunday. Snowden along with nine others cleared 2.19 meters Thursday to advance to the high jump final. Two others reached the finals with clearances at 2.14 meters.
Snowden made history earlier this year at the NCAA Indoor Championships by becoming the first student-athlete in UAPB history to be named an All-American since joining the NCAA. He finished second there.
Additionally, Snowden achieved another milestone as the first high jumper from a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to secure a top-three position in both the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships in the same year. He finished third outdoors.
Officials at UAPB told Pine Bluff, Arkansas’s daily Commercial newspaper it was still possible Snowden could make the Olympic team.
Jamarion Stubbs – 200 meters
Stubbs, the 2024 SWAC 100 and 200 meter outdoorchampion,earnedtheninthandlastspot in the men’s 200 meter finals by posting a time of 20.31 seconds in Friday’s semifinals.
He could not better that mark in Saturday’s last event as he ran 20.60 in the 200 final to finish ninth.
Noah Lyles won the 200 in 19.53, well off Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.19 run in the 2009 World Championships. Kenny Bednarek, who finished second to Lyles in the 100 meters, grabbed another runners-up finish in the 200 in 19.59. Twenty-year old Erryon Knight was third in 19.77.
Stubbs’ 20.31 time was fourth in Heat 2 of Friday’s semifinals to Bednarek (19.96). He advanced to the finals on time.
Former North Carolina A&T long jumper Brandon Hicklin, who transferred to LSU and focused on sprints, ran 20.46 in Friday’s Heat 1 semifinal won by Knighton (19.93). Hicklin tied for the 13th fastest time and missed out on the final.
Michael Dickson – 110-Meter Hurdles
Dickson, who now runs for More Sports
MG, posted the fourth-best time of 13.19 seconds in Thursday’s semifinal to earn one of the nine spots in Friday’s final. It was Dickson’s career-best time. He was second in that semifinal heat to Daniel Roberts (13.11).
He finished seventh in the finals in 13.21. World champion Grant Holloway won the event in 12.86 seconds. Freddie Crittenden was second in 12.93 with Roberts third in 12.96.
Dylan Beard, who finished his collegiate career running for David Oliver at Howard after stints at Hampton and Wagner, ran 13.38 to finish fifth in Thursday’s first semifinal heat and not make the final. Beard ran 13.19 in the opening round to advance to the semis.
Sydni Townsend – 400-Meter Hurdles
Townsend, who finished her collegiate career at Houston, was part of the 400 meter hurdles final Sunday evening that closed out the Trials. She earned the eighth spot in the finals with a 55.26 clocking in Saturday’s semifinals.
Townsend was ninth in the finals in 55.47 seconds as world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone set a new world mark blazing to a time of 50.65 seconds, three hundreds of a second better than her previous mark. She won the race by two seconds. It is her ninth time breaking the world record in the event. McLaughlin-Levrone is the only woman in the history of the event to run sub-51 seconds.
Anna Cockrell (52.64) and Jasmine Jones (52.77) ran personal bests to finish behind McLaughlin-Levrone.
