USTFCCCA News & Notes
By The Numbers: Collegiate T&F Stars at the Rio Olympics
NEW ORLEANS – After a week of spectacular track & field action, the 2016 Rio Olympics have finally drawn to a close.
Now that the dust has settled, we take a look at how 2015-16 collegians fared on the world stage against the planet’s best athletes, by the numbers.
(Hint: They did pretty well).
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Olympic Record Set By A Collegian
Ryan Crouser of Texas – the 2016 NCAA Indoor shot put champion – threw 22.52m (73-10.75) to win the Olympic shot put title. Any of his four best throws would have won the Olympic Gold – which, incidentally, was the lone individual-event Gold won by collegians in Rio. |
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2016 Bowerman Finalists Who Finished Top-Five
Courtney Okolo of Texas claimed a Gold as the lead-off leg for the victorious Team USA 4×400 relay; Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas finished fourth in the long jump; Keturah Orji of Georgia broke her own American Record twice in a fourth-place triple jump finish; and Raven Saunders of Mississippi took fifth in the shot put final. |
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Collegians Who Won Medals in Rio (Individual and Relays)
Crouser and Clayton Murphy of Akron (men’s 800) won individual medals. Murphy’s bronze was the best finish by an American since 1992. On the relay side Okolo, Arman Hall of Florida, Fitzroy Dunkley of LSU and Brendon Rodney of LIU-Brooklyn all claimed medals by running in their event finals. Hall won Gold on Team USA in the 4×400, Dunkley won silver in the men’s 4×400 for Jamaica and Rodney ran a leg of the third-place 4×100 relay for Canada. Four more collegians earned medals by running legs in the prelims: Morolake Akinosun of Texas (Gold 4×100, USA), Taylor Ellis-Watson of Arkansas (Gold 4×400, USA), Chrisann Gordon of Texas (Silver 4×400, Jamaica) and Mobolade Ajomale of Academy of Art (Bronze 4×100, Canada). |
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Collegians Who Were Finalists (or Finished Top-20 in an Event Without Qualifying Rounds)
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