Former USU Track & Field Athletes Involved In U.S. Olympic Trials

At least one and as many as three former Utah State track and field athletes will be competing in the United States Track & Field Olympic Trials, which gets underway Friday, June 27, and runs through Sunday, July 6 at historic Hayward Field at Eugene, Ore. James Parker will be competing in the hammer throw, while Dave Hoffman and Kathryn Duhadway-Shaerhamer’s qualification is pending in the high jump and pole vault, respectively.

Parker, a native of Layton, Utah, is a three-time USA outdoor champion as well as a member of the U.S. Olympic team for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, where he finished 20th. He was also the 2004 USA Indoor weight throw champion.

Parker won three consecutive USA hammer throw titles before finishing as the runner-up in 2006. He ended the 2004 outdoor season owning five of the top six hammer throws by an American. He captured his first national title at the 2003 USA Outdoor Championships, and ended the campaign ranked #1 nationally for the first time. Parker bettered his previous personal best on three occasions in 2003 and won the silver medal at the Pan American Games

While at Utah State, Parker earned NCAA All-American accolades nine times. He was also a seven-time Big West Conference champion, including garnering the 1995 Big West Track Athlete of the Year. Parker still holds USU records for the hammer (240-07) and discus (192-01) for outdoor as well as the weight throw (70-09.25) for indoor. He also holds the No. 4 spots in the shot put for both indoor (60-02.50) and outdoor (59-11.75).

Hoffman, a Timpview, Utah native, tied for first at last summer’s High Performance Sprint and Power Meet with a jump of 2.20m (7-02.50).

At USU, Hoffman won the 2000 Big West Conference outdoor championship and was second at the 2001 NCAA National Championships. He still is the school record holder in the high jump for both indoor and outdoor with marks of 7-03.75 indoor and 7-06.50 outdoor.

Duhadway-Shaerhamer is a native of Logan, Utah and was an NCAA Regional Championships participant in both 2006 and 2007. She earned first-team all-Western Athletic Conference honors after finishing second at the 2007 WAC Championships. Duhadway-Shaerhamer also earned academic all-WAC and USTFCCA all-academic honors.

Parker will be in action in the hammer preliminaries on Monday, June 30 with the finals set for Friday, July 4. If they compete, both Hoffman and Duhadway-Shaerhamer will be in action on Thursday, July 3.

TV coverage throughout the trials is on USA (Comcast Ch. 57 in Cache Valley) and NBC (Comcast Ch. 5). Check local listings for more details.

More information on the U.S. Olympic Trials can be found at www.usatf.org.