Boerne Champion student is the only high schooler in 5K women’s race at trials
Boerne Champion’s Elizabeth Leachman will race at this year’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials scheduled for June 21-30 in Eugene, Oregon.
The 16-year-old, who just completed her sophomore season at Champion, runs Friday, June 21, at 8:22 p.m., in the preliminaries of the women’s 5K race.
If Leachman qualifies for the finals, she’ll race Monday, June 24, at 9:09 p.m.
The top three finishers will represent the United States at this year’s Olympics scheduled for July 26 – Aug. 11 in Paris, France.
Leachman will race in one of the heats in the 5K where 30 total runners are entered and is the only high school runner in the field.
Her performance at the Texas Relays in Austin in late March is what got her into the trials.
The minimum qualifying time for the trials is 15:40 and Leachman ran a 15:25.27 in Austin to set a national high school record while she beat a field of college athletes in the event.
After the race in Austin, others still had a chance to qualify before the June 9 cutoff date but her time held up.
Leachman was a guest on the Boerne Brew a few weeks back, a podcast that aired the weekend of May 11-12 on the Boerne Star and Boerne Radio.
At that time, Leachman wasn’t sure if her time would get her into the Olympic trials but said it would be a great experience if it happened.
“It would be amazing but I try not to get too set on that,” she said at the time. “It’s never been what we’ve had in mind but if the opportunity presents itself that would be great.”
Leachman’s personal coach Jenny Breuer said it’ll be a great experience for the 16-year-old runner.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for her to be running against professional athletes,” said Breuer, who is flying out to Oregon this weekend to be with Leachman. “It’s pretty special and she’ll have these memories forever.”
Of the 30 qualifiers, Leachman’s time was 30th, so she barely made it in and the odds of making the team are long, but Breuer said they’re looking at the bigger picture.
“There’s not a lot of pressure in terms of expectations,” she said. “It’s more about getting the experience and racing against world-class athletes.”
The USA Track and Field Olympic Trials are scheduled to be shown on one of the NBC networks – NBC, CNBC and Peacock – along with the USA network.
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