EUGENE, Ore. — It has been the Year of the Sycamore.
Indiana State reached the NIT championship game in men’s basketball, played in an NCAA baseball regional, swept men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor titles in Missouri Valley Conference track and field. Heck, the Larry Bird Museum opened last month in Terre Haute.
Now, the Sycamores have an Olympian — or possibly an Olympian...it’s complicated.
Erin Reese, an Indiana State graduate, climbed to third in the hammer on her final throw Sunday night at the Olympic Trials. Customarily, three make the U.S. team, but she lacks the standard and must rely on a rankings system to reach the Paris Olympics.
“I’m just going to wait and hope,” Reese said. “I’m thrilled about the moment.”
Annette Echikunwoke, who formerly represented Nigeria, finished first with a distance of 245 feet. DeAnna Price, the 2019 world champion, was second at 244.6 to make a third Olympic team.
Reese was third at 233.7. She finished ahead of three women who do have the Olympic standard.
“I wanted to be top three. That’s something I’ve always dreamt about, it’s something I always wanted to do. I envisioned a more clear path to get there," Reese said. “I’m happy. I wanted to throw far, and I did throw far, relatively. I wanted a little bit more.”
Before the final round, Reese was fourth, trailing Notre Dame graduate Rachel Tanczos. Reese added six feet to her best throw.
“I couldn’t stop shaking. I was so excited,” Reese said.
Tanczos was fourth at 232.1. Janee Kassanavoid, the 2023 world bronze medalist, was sixth at 227.11. Brooke Andersen, the 2024 world leader and 2022 world champion, fouled all three of her attempts.
Reese said she tries to compartmentalize her life, separating track and field from employment at the Hamilton Center, a not-for-profit regional behavioral health system.
Usually, the teens she works with have no idea she is a world-class athlete. At February’s USA Indoor Championships, she came within less than a foot of Price’s world record in the 20-pound weight.
She started at University of Dayton and followed her coach, Brandan Bettenhausen, to Indiana State. For the Sycamores, she was a five-time MVC champion in hammer, discus and weight. In 2019, she finished second in the NCAA behind California’s Camryn Rogers, a Canadian who became world champion in 2023.
Reese is ranked 42nd by World Athletics, and Paris entries are limited to 32. With three entries per nation, enough throwers (including five Americans) will be displaced to advance Reese, whose score will increase from the Olympic Trials. She could make it.
“It’s really cutting it close,” Reese said.
Elsewhere, Lynna Irby-Jackson’s quest to make a second Olympic team is probably over. She finished seventh in the 400 meters in 50.74 seconds.
USA Track & Field customarily takes at least six for relay pools. Irby-Jackson, 25, a 12-time state champion at Pike High School, was sixth at the 2021 trials and won two medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Another state champion, Huntington North’s Addy Wiley, was sixth in a semifinal of the 800 in 2:02.42 and eliminated. Wiley, 20, who left Huntington University to turn pro, has heats of the 1,500M Thursday.
Contact WTHR correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
