Five Former Bears Qualified to Team USA Olympic Marathon Trials

[Pirtle, Colin]

BAYLOR ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS – Feb. 1, 2024

Five Former Bears Qualified to Team USA Olympic Marathon Trials
Former standouts lace up for 26.2 miles in Orlando on Saturday
For more information contact: Colin Pirtle; 940-564-0351, colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu<mailto:colin_pirtle1 at baylor.edu>


ORLANDO, Fla. – Five former Baylor track and field athletes are headed to Orlando to compete in the U.S. Olympic Team Marathon Trials, set to begin at 9 a.m. CT on Saturday.



Lindsey Bradley, Lauren Hagans, Maggie Montoya, Peyton Thomas and Anna West qualified to run for a ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics, with the women’s street race scheduled for August 11.



Bradley was a Baylor letterwinner from 2016 to 2019. In her collegiate career, she earned multiple all-region and all-conference honors and qualified to the NCAA Cross Country Championships in 2017. The Richland, Wash., native transferred to Baylor from Washington for the 2016-2017 season and still holds spots on the indoor 3,000-, indoor 5,000- and outdoor 10,000-meter program all-time record lists. Bradley was a member of the 2017 Big 12 Championship team and currently lives and trains in Dallas, Texas.



Running professionally with HOKA Northern Arizona Elite, Hagans lives in Flagstaff. A 2005-2008 letterwinner with the Bears, Hagans set program records in the indoor and outdoor Distance Medley relays and the 4x800-meter relay, marks that have been broken but still hold a spot in the program’s top 10. She was an NCAA All-American in cross country, joining the likes of only six other Baylor runners in program history, including West. Her 35th-place individual finish at the 2007 NCAA Cross Country Championship is the sixth highest in program history, trailing only Rachel Johnson (fifth, 2014) as the highest since 2000.



A member of the current indoor distance medley program record, Montoya was a letterwinner at Baylor in 2014-2017. She sits No. 2 in the indoor mile, indoor 3,000 meters, outdoor 3,000 meters and the outdoor DMR. Montoya is an all-conference runner in cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field. The 2015 indoor DMR All-American resides in Boulder, Colo.



Thomas was a 2017 Baylor graduate and was a member of the NCAA Championship-qualifying team in 2014 and 2016, which included fellow Olympic Trial runners Montoya and West. Thomas took top-25 placements at two consecutive NCAA regional meets in 2015 and 2016 for All-Region honors. Living in Boulder, Thomas graduated with her Ph.D. in marine biology from UNC Wilmington and is No. 7 in program history in the outdoor 3,000 meters.



West competed at Baylor, earning letters in 2016-2018, before transferring to the University of Michigan. In her time in Waco, she earned All-American honors at the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships, after qualifying to the meet with the team in 2016. She also was a multiple-time All-Conference honoree in indoor and outdoor track and field, with an individual silver medal from the 2017 Big 12 Cross Country Championship. West is on the outdoor 5,000-, indoor 3,000- and 5,000-meter program record list and was on the 10th-fastest DMR team in program history (2018).



In the dual qualification system, 50% of athletes qualify through entry standards and the remaining 50% qualify through World Rankings. The top three runners from both the men’s and women’s races will join Team USA in France.

The 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials will start and finish in the heart of downtown Orlando, near Lake Eola Park. Athletes will run one 2.2-mile loop through the streets of Orlando’s downtown business district, then shift to three 8-mile loops to the Milk District and back.

Fans wanting to keep track of these former Bears can watch real-time race tracking provided by RTRT.me<https://www.orlando2024trials.com/athletes/track-an-athlete/>. The marathon will stream live on Peacock at 9 a.m. CT and will be broadcast (taped delay) on NBC at 11 a.m.


For the latest news on the Baylor track and field team all year long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorTrack.



- BaylorBears.com -

_________________________________________
Colin Pirtle | Associate Director of Athletics Communications (T&F/XC, MTEN, FB)
Department of Athletics | Baylor University
C: 940-564-0351

[signature_2230589939]<http://baylorbears.com/>

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