National Scholastic Athletics Foundation

The “View from the U” is a periodic column/blog by NSAF Media and Public Relations Director Steve Underwood, with editorial perspectives on news, events and issues in the world of prep track and field, and sometimes beyond.

Team USA at NSAF – Jim Spier’s list of the 129 Olympians, listed by event, high school and college, with NSAF credentials.

The mission of the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation – “to inspire youth to live healthy and active lifestyles, and to prepare them for success” – manifests itself in our work with high school track and field in several ways.  There are our New Balance Nationals Indoor and Outdoor championships, and Great American XC Festival, drawing thousands each year.  There’s the experiences provided annually in taking teams of athletes to our Caribbean Scholastic Invitational in Cuba and Iron Wood Throws in Idaho.  There’s also the training and competition created for our athletes in our Project Javelin Gold and Project Triple Jump endeavors.  And finally, there’s the Foundation’s support of athletes aspiring to make Team USAs for the World Youth, World Junior and Pan American Junior championships.

Certainly we hope a cumulative outcome of these efforts is success by these athletes at the highest level of track and field competition: the IAAF (Senior) World Championships and the Olympic Games.  So, naturally, we are very interested in how our NBN, Project, CSI, Iron Wood and GACC “alumni” fare when it comes to making to the Games and getting up on the podium.

Over the last 25 years, 50 to 60 percent of Team USA athletes for Worlds and the Olympics have participated in our events – and 2016 is no exception.  Of the 129 American athletes competing in Rio, 70 have competed in one or more of our events, including more than 30 who won national championships and nearly as many more who were All-Americans.
 

Here’s Jim Spier’s list of the 129 Olympians, listed by event, high school and college, with NSAF credentials, in case you missed it above. 

And, here are five of the most intriguing athletes, events and storylines involving NSAF alumni!
 

1. TJ’er Orji debuts as first NSAF Project athlete at Games

Triple jumper Keturah Orji (U. of Georgia/Mt. Olive, NJ ’14) is the first NSAF Project Triple Jump or Project Javelin athlete to make a U.S. Olympic team.  As remarkable as she was as a prep after she joined the Project – four NBN indoor and outdoor titles on top of World Youth silver and bronze performances in ’13 – she’s been even more outstanding as a collegian.  Having just finished her soph year, she’s already won 3 NCAA titles (after a runner-up finish at ’15 NCAA indoor), ascended to 4th in the IAAF World Indoors this past March, then at NCAA outdoors two months ago broke Tiombe Hurd’s American record with her 47-8.  At the Trials, she confirmed her status as the nation’s best with her 46-11.75 triumph.  Team USA has never had a medalist in this event; the best-ever finish is just 10th by Sheila Hudson in 1996 (1st year event contested at Games).  Keturah has the 9th best entry mark (2016), so making the final is very doable and battling for a medal a possibility.

2. McLaughlin, youngest Team USA trackster in 40 years, joins Muhammad in 400H

Sydney McLaughlin (Union Catholic, NJ junior) captured the attention of even the mainstream media when she took 3rd in the Olympic Trials 400H to become the youngest Team USA track and field Olympian in 40 years – and about the equal youngest American in any sport this year.  Of course, prep track fans know her well from her 9 NBN individual and relay titles, indoors and out.  Those titles include three consecutive 400H crowns – the last of which, with a high school record 54.46 in June, really got her season going – as well as a national indoor 51.84 flat 400 record in March.  She lowered that 400H HSR to 54.15 at the Trials and fans can’t wait to see what she’ll do here.  And if that wasn’t reason enough to watch the 400H, Team USA also includes Trials champ Dalilah Muhammad, considered the gold medal fave after her world-leading 52.88 at the Trials.  She was our outdoor nationals 400H champ in ’07 while a junior at Benjamin Cardozo HS (NY), then won the World Youth title at the same distance.  Her progress was somewhat up and down at USC and beyond, but she’s reached a career peak this year.  Muhammad has a good chance to win gold, and McLaughlin – if she can deal with Rio as well as she did the Trials – could make the final and possibly contend for a medal.

3. Rising star Saunders teams with Carter in shot put

NSAF legends old and new make up 2/3 of Team USA women’s shot put trio.  Michelle Carter – the daughter of boys’ shot HSR-holder Michael Carter – captured three NSAF indoor and outdoor titles as a Red Oak HS (TX) prep in ’02-’03, crushing national records indoors (54-9.5) and out (54-10.75).   She has since gone on to be the top American putter for most of the last decade, holds the American indoor (66-3.75) and outdoor (66-4.75) records, and is now a 3-time Olympian, having taken 15th in ’08 and 5th in ’12.  Carter also won bronze in the ’15 Worlds and then gold at World Indoor this past March.  Until 2014, Carter’s prep records seemed almost untouchable.  Then Raven Saunders came along, mastering the spin to the point of smashing both indoor and outdoor HSRs (56-7.5 and 56-8.5), then winning World Junior silver in Eugene.  Her progression as a collegian (Southern Illinois, then Ole Miss) has been no less impressive, with three NCAA titles, a collegiate outdoor record 63-5, and then a runner-up finish behind Carter at the Trials.  Carter is primed for a medal in Rio and while it may be a little too soon for Saunders, she is unquestionably the future for multiple Games to come.

4. Centro, Jager lead memorable ’07 2M trio in distances

Few who watched it will ever forget the 2-mile race at the NSAF’s 2007 outdoor nationals (then NON), with Matt Centrowitz outkicking Craig Forys for a meet record 8:41.55 (#4 all-time at the time) as six ran 8:52 or better.  Nine years later, three of the top five from that race – Centrowitz, Evan Jager (3rd) and Hassan Mead (5th) – are members of Team USA for Rio, with the first two being solid medal contenders.  Centro’s extensive Team USA experience in the 1,500 includes a 4th in the ’12 Olympics, silver and bronze medal performances in the ’13 and ’11 World Champs, and a World Indoor gold this year.  Jager – the American 3k steeplechase record-holder at 8:00.45 – was 6th in the ’12 Games, and was 5th and 6th in the past two World Champs.  This is Mead’s first Olympics, as he took 2nd in the 5,000 at the Trials.  He made the Worlds team last year in the 10k and took 15th in Beijing.  Given both their past Team USA efforts and current form, Centro and Jager should be right in the medal hunt, even if gold seems unlikely at this point.

5. NSAF all-timer Williams keeps rising toward the top

With 8 NBN individual titles and 10 more All-American performances (combined in/out), Kendell Williams (Kell HS (GA) ’13) might be the most decorated NSAF nationals athlete ever.  Those triumphs encompassed hurdles and jumps, but most prominently, the multis.  Williams has continued to excel in three years at U. of Georgia, improving her heptathlon from her HS-record-setting 5,578 point-total in ’12 to the 6,402 that earned her a Team USA spot last month.  She’ll be an underdog at this level, and not considered a medal contender, but it will be interesting to see how high she can climb into the top 10 and set herself up for the podium in the future.