MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama’s Lindsay Schwartz has been accepted to compete amongst the nation’s elite at the 2012 United States Olympic Trials this weekend at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., qualifying 19^th in the heptathlon.
 
Schwartz’s qualifying mark of 5,606 points, set in a 10^th-place second team All-American performance at the NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, earlier this month, topped the Olympic qualifying “B” standard by six tallies. If Schwartz can manage an “A” standard of 6,150 points and at least a top-three finish amongst the field of 20 competitors, she will be invited to join Team USA at the quadrennial Games to be hosted by London, England, this year in early August.
 
“This is an absolute honor,” she said, after her plane landed mid-afternoon in Portland on Wednesday. “I definitely felt the nerves kicking in when I got off the plane, but I’m looking forward to competing against the best athletes in the U.S., seeing how they train and, hopefully, doing well for myself so I can be back here again.”
 
Accompanying the Watertown, Wisc., native to the trials are head track and field coach Paul Brueske and Schwartz’s event coach, associate head coach Randy Flach, who both cited their student-athlete’s “persistence and ‘coachability’” as primary catalysts for her acceptance into the trials – in which she is the first South Alabama American in program history to qualify.
 
Former Jag standouts Ajoke Odumosu and Oluwagbenga Awoleye represented their home country of Nigeria at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, with the former helping her 4x400-meter relay team to a seventh-place finish after she bowed out in the 400-flat semis at seventh and the latter serving as an alternate for the Nigerian men’s 4x400m.
 
“When Lindsay first started competing, we saw a great amount of potential,” said Brueske. “But she has gotten here because she has put the work in. She trains as hard as she can; she’s a great role model and most of all she’s easy to coach. Our athletes are seeing what she’s doing and believing her philosophy can take them places also.”
 
Said Flach, “The Olympics only come around every four years, so it’s already a highly anticipated event, but to be a part of it is truly special. Lindsay has earned this opportunity and we look forward to seeing her do well this weekend.”
 
The women’s heptathlon will be contested on Friday and Saturday and will consist of four events on the first day and three on the second, beginning with the 100-meter hurdles at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
 
Results from the 2012 Olympic Trials at the University of Oregon will be posted to the Jaguar athletics webpage immediately following each day’s events. Live results can be found here, under the "Multi-Events" tab.
 
Local station WMPI TV-15 will air track and field Olympic Trial coverage at 8 p.m. on Saturday night. Fans can follow the trials more closely by accessing the event's official site, Tracktown USA.
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).