Chloe Thomas Leads UConn Contingent Competing at Olympic Trials

STORRS, Conn. – A contingent of both current and former UConn track & field stars competed this past week looking for a chance to qualify to the upcoming Paris Olympic games.  UConn rising senior Chloe Thomas turned in the best performance of the week in both the 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters at the Canadian Olympic Trials.

Thomas capped off an amazing year with a pair of fifth place finishes running for her home country.  On Thursday night at Montreal at the Complexe Sportif Claude-Robillard and came home with a tremendous showing, taking fifth in the field. Thomas crossed the line with a time of 15:37.28.

She followed it up this weekend with a spot in the finals of the 1500.  Thomas ran a prelim time of 4:16.84 on Saturday and came back on Sunday and finished fifth in the field with a time of 4:16.33.

Thomas had a stellar junior year for UConn, starting it off by qualifying for the NCAA Championship during cross country and ending with a second team All-American performance in the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championship.

Senior Terrel Williams ran in the Trinidad and Tobago National Championship meet over the weekend an came away with a first-place finish in the 110- meter hurdles, clocking a 13.73 seconds

In the long jump, A'liyah Thomas met the standard to compete in the U.S. Olympic trials in the long jump.  She ended up in 22^nd place in the prelims of the event on Thursday with a jump of 6.05 meters.

Some former Huskies competed as well with Eric Van Der Els '22 running his way to the finals of the 5,000 meters at the U.S. Trials. Van Der Els clocked a prelim time of 13:26.47.  He will run in the finals on Sunday night.

Former Husky Tayler Anderson '19 met the qualifying standard for 100 meters at the U.S. Trials.  She made it out of the first round with a time of 11.19 seconds but did not get out of the semis, finishing with a time of 11.43 seconds.

At the Canadian Olympic Trial meet, former Husky Amy Piccolo '21 came up short of a qualifying spot in the finals of the 800 meters with a 10^th place prelim finish at 2:06.62.  In the hammer, Channell Botsis '21 was sixth in the field with a throw of 57.60 meters.