Team USA Minnesota Eyes Busy Weekend

On a busy weekend of track and field featuring the MSHSL State Meet and the NCAA Division I Championships, the professional runners at Team USA Minnesota find themselves competing across the continent in efforts to garner qualifying marks and sharpen for the Olympic Trails later this month.

Five Team USA Minnesota athletes will compete on the track this week at the Portland Track Festival in Oregon, the Harry Jerome Track Classic in Vancouver, British Columbia, and at the American Milers High Performance Series in Indianapolis.

Competing at the Portland Track Festival, held Friday night at Lewis and Clark College, will be Katie McGregor, Meghan Peyton and Jon Grey. McGregor will run the 5000-meters as a tune-up race for the U.S. Olympic Trials where she will compete in the 10,000-meters. She has a best in the 5000m of 15:22.

Peyton and Grey will run in the women's and men's 10,000-meter races respectively with each athlete seeking the U.S. Olympic Trials "A" standard. Peyton has run 32:59.11 in the distance and needs to run 32:45 for the "A" qualifier; Grey has posted 28:26.44 and needs to run 28:15 for the men's "A" qualifier.

Heather Kampf will travel to Vancouver to race at the 29th edition of the Harry Jerome Track Classic on Sunday. She will compete in the 800-meters and will be running to achieve the Olympic "A" standard of 1:59.90 at the distance. She has already run 2:00.41 in the 800 meters which has given her an "A" qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Traveling to Indianapolis is Chris Rombough who will compete in the American Milers High Performance Series tonight, Saturday, and on June 13. He will run the 1500-meters at each meet in an effort to obtain a qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Trials. His best in the distance is 3:44.49. An "A" qualifier for the U.S. Trials is 3:39 and a "B" is 3:43.