EUGENE, Ore. – When Erin Reese began learning to throw a hammer — an 8-pound, 13-ounce metal ball attached to a wire — she just wasn’t getting it. She was so bad, her college coach told the throws coach to quit wasting time on her.
Besides, the event looked “terrifying,” he said.
Nine years later, Erin Reese is an Olympian. Or possibly an Olympian. More on that in a minute.
“I’m just going to wait and hope,” she said. “I’m thrilled about the moment.”
US Track and Field Olympic Trials:Here are Indiana athletes to watch.
Reese, an Indiana State graduate employed as a mental health case worker, 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 byzantine rankings system to reach the Paris Olympics.
It was a tumultuous competition in which Reese finished ahead of three women who do have the standard.
“I wanted to be top three. That’s something I’ve always dreamt about, it’s something I always wanted to do,” said Reese, 28, a native of Mount Prospect, Ill. “I envisioned a more clear path to get there.
“I’m happy. I wanted to throw far, and I did throw far, relatively. I wanted a little bit more.”
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.
Before the final round, Reese was fourth, trailing Notre Dame graduate Rachel Tanczos. Reese added six feet to her best throw, hitting 233-7.
“I couldn’t stop shaking. I was so excited,” Reese said.
Tanczos was fourth at 232-10. 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 tried not to think about what was at stake on her last throw.
“There’s nothing to lose, nothing else to do except execute what I’ve been doing in practice,” she said. “And my coach told me, ‘Believe in yourself, believe in the training, believe in what we’re doing.’
“And it just came together on that throw.”
She tries to compartmentalize her life, separating track and field from work at the Hamilton Center, a not-for-profit regional behavioral health system. Usually, the teens have no idea she is a world-class athlete.
“I’m excited to go home and tell them all,” Reese said. “I was telling them a little bit going into it. I was like, ‘This is what I’m doing. Who knows what will happen?’ They don’t really get it yet.”
Reese doesn’t always get it, either. She said the hammer can be a mystery. At February’s USA Indoor Championships, she came within less than a foot of Price’s world record in the 20-pound weight. Success doesn’t always translate to the hammer, though.
She started at University of Dayton and followed her throws coach, Brandan Bettenhausen, to Indiana State. For the Sycamores, she was a five-time Missouri Valley Conference 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.
Paradoxically, USA Track & Field impaired her ranking because she was not accepted by USATF into meets at Los Angeles and New York that could have increased her points. With three entries per nation, some throwers (including five Americans) will be displaced to advance Reese, whose score will increase from the Olympic Trials. She could yet make it.
“It’s really cutting it close,” she said.
She does not plan to throw in a last chance meet to reach the standard of 242-9.
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.
She was first at 100 meters in 11.84 and fourth at 200 in 23.88. She was fifth at 300 but had the second-slowest last 100 meters, 14.27, out of nine finalists.
USATF 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 1,500 Thursday.
In a final Monday night, Cathedral High graduate Cole Hocker and Notre Dame grad Yared Nuguse will try to make their second Olympic teams in the 1,500. Rushville’s Charity Hufnagel, who won an NCAA title for Ball State last year, is in the high jump final.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
