Prep Stars Step Onto America's Biggest Stage At The Trials

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

DyeStat photos by John Nepolitan, Becky Holbrook

The Olympic dream always has a beginning. Sometimes, it’s as early as high school.

It may be a small sample size every Olympic cycle for high school athletes to earn opportunities to compete at the trials, but sometimes the timing lines up just right and the athletes that do make an early appearance here gain valuable experience that they can build upon for next time.

Here’s a look at this year’s prep stars set to compete at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Elise Cooper - Women's 200m 

Silver medalist at the Pan Am U20 Championships last summer in Puerto Rico, Elise Cooper's 200-meter time of 22.80 seconds was good enough to make the cut this year for the Olympic Trials. 

The junior from McDonogh School of Maryland has already locked up another U.S. team assignment. She won the USATF U20 Championships women's 200 meters last week at Hayward Field in 23.02 seconds. That will give her the opportunity to represent the country at the World Athletics U20 Championships in late August in Lima, Peru. 

Cooper is poised to be one of the top sprinters in the high school ranks next year in both the 100 and 200. 

Sadie Engelhardt – Women’s 1500m

From the moment she set foot onto the track as a freshman, Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura CA has been a generational talent to watch the past three years. Even before that, she was running times beyond her years in middle school.

And because of what Engelhardt has been able to accomplish, her hard work has earned her a spot to compete at this year’s Olympic Trials.

The junior has had a year to remember on the track with record-breaking performances in the mile.

Engelhardt has not only broken the high school girls outdoor mile record once, but twice with her recent effort at the HOKA Festival of Miles in 4:28.46 to finish second overall in the professional field.

With a 4:08.86 time in the 1,500 under her belt this season, Engelhardt still has a ways to go to hit the Olympic qualifying standard of 4:02, but racing at the Trials will be a good test to see if she can take down Mary Cain’s all-time prep record of 4:04.62.

JaiCieonna Gero-Holt – Women’s High Jump

Of all the prep athletes competing this week, no one has more experience at the senior championship level than JaiCieonna Gero-Holt.

This will be the Emerald Ridge WA standout's third U.S. senior championship, but it’ll be her first outdoor and Olympic Trials.

With a U20 title already achieved in the heptathlon, Gero-Holt will compete in the high jump, bringing in a personal best jump of 6-2.25 (1.89m) from the indoor season when she placed second overall at the U.S. Championships in February at Albuquerque, N.M.

Only Rachel Glenn (2.00m) and Vashti Cunningham (1.97m) have reached the Olympic standard of 1.97m this year.

In order for Gero-Holt to actually make the Olympic team, it would require she also break the high school national record of 6-5 (1.96m) by Cunningham in 2015.

Elizabeth Leachman – Women’s 5000m

This year has included a meteoric rise for Elizabeth Leachman and the 16-year-old from Boerne Champion TX will have one more lasting impression to close off her historic sophomore campaign.

Leachman has broken national records three times this season, with one coming in the indoor season in the 5,000 (15:28.90) and two this outdoor season in the 3,200 meters (9:43.74) and 5,000 meters (15:25.27). 

With another strong field assembled for this year’s 5,000 race at the trials, the opportunity for Leachman to lower her own national record is possible. But she has also raced several strong efforts in the past 10 days, so she may not be as fresh as she was earlier in the season.

Still, an amazing achievement to make the starting line in a distance event that usually requires many more years of callousing, altitude training and professional coaching.

Christian Miller – Men’s 100m/200m

Ever since he ran 9.93 seconds in the 100-meters back in late-April, the track world turned its attention towards Christian Miller.

But you’d have go back to last year’s USATF U20 Championships when Miller swept both the 100 and 200 races, including setting the junior class national record in the 100 in 10.06, to see where this began. That’s when he really started to take off.

As a senior this season, Miller was atop the world rankings list for the 100 for a few weeks with his time of 9.93, but has since dropped to No. 6 in the world, just right behind fellow countrymen Noah Lyles, who happens to be the reigning world champion, at No. 3.

Among Americans, Miller is currently No. 2 to Lyles and is ahead of reigning 60 world champion Christian Coleman, who will head to Eugene with a season-best 9.95 from the Prefontaine Classic.

At the Trials, there's more to it than running fast. It's a three-round competition. The ability to perform, repeatedly, and faster, is not easy.

Miller would be the second high school male athlete to have qualified for the Olympics within the last two Olympics if he finishes in within the top three of the 100, joining Erriyon Knighton, who qualified for the Tokyo games in 2021 in the 200.

Miller will also contest in the 200, bringing in a personal best time of 20.51.

Vance Nilsson – Men’s 400m Hurdles

While it’s one of the hardest teams to make on the men’s side, Vance Nilsson will be able to take away plenty of lessons in the 400 hurdles when he races at the trials.

Nilsson brings in a personal best time of 50.23 in the event from winning the U20 title at Hayward Field last week, but his biggest accomplishment this season belongs in the 300 hurdles.

At the Arizona state championships, the Gilbert senior became the first prep athlete in history to dip under 35 seconds in the 300 hurdles, running 34.83 seconds, taking down the previous national record of 35.02 by Reggie Wyatt in 2009.

With athletes like Rai Benjamin, Trevor Bassitt, CJ Allen and Caleb Dean among top level entries in the 400 hurdles, Nilsson will be looking to be pulled along to not only a personal best but also a national record in the event.

Kenneth Ferguson’s national record time of 49.38 has stood since 2002.

Skylynn Townsend – Women’s Triple Jump

Skylynn Townsend’s plate has been full of competition as of lately, but the senior from Rock Hill TX will give it one last go in the triple jump before heading off to Georgia in the fall.

Coming off two nationals at both the U20 Championships and Nike Outdoor Nationals, Townsend will make her senior championship debut against the likes of Keturah Orji, Jasmine Moore and Tori Franklin. 

With a personal best jump of 44-2.50, which was into a headwind at the U20 Championships, Townsend moved herself into a tie for 11th on the all-time outdoor prep list and is an inch away from cracking the top 10.

Scottie Vines – Men’s High Jump

The bar’s been high for Scottie Vines in 2024, both literally and figuratively.

Jumping six inches higher than he did in his junior year, Vines has taken his high jumping abilities to another level in his senior season with a clearance of 7 feet, 4.25 inches (2.24m) in two separate meets, and three other competitions where he soared over seven feet.

The De Beque CO standout, who graduated with four other people in his high school class, won both the U20 and Nike Outdoor Nationals titles last week in preparation for this week’s trials. 

Only seven boys have ever cleared 7-5 at the prep level in history, with three clearing 7-6 and only one at 7-7: Andra Manson in 2002.

The Olympic standard is 2.33m this year and only two Americana have reached that, Ju’Vaughn Harrison (2.34m) and Shelby McEwen (2.33m).

In order for Vines to make the team, regardless of winning or finishing in the top three, it would take a national record for him to reach Paris.

Quincy Wilson – Men’s 400m

It may seem far-fetched that Quincy Wilson, a 10th grader at Bullis School of Maryland, could make this year’s Olympic team but given the inconsistency of Americans in the 400 the last few years, it isn’t out of the question either.

Wilson would need to race hard all three rounds to punch his ticket to Paris, given his lifetime best is 45.13 from just this past weekend at New Balance Nationals Outdoor in Philadelphia.

But the reason Wilson makes his case to be in contention for the 4x400 relay pool was his ability to run a 44.37 split at the Penn Relays in April.

If Wilson could ran that fast in an open 400, it would rank No. 2 in the U.S. right behind Olympic champion Michael Norman at 44.21.

Last year, Wilson ran in the U20 Championships as a freshman but fell short of the podium stand, finishing fourth in 46.12 in the 400 final. 

Since then, Wilson has been a different sprinter. He always seems to show up and deliver and his courage and determination to go for it is off the charts.