Sam Kendricks Wins US Title, Makes Third Straight Olympic Team in the Pole Vault

Ole Miss Track & Field alum Sam Kendricks has secured his third career Olympic qualifying berth, winning his 11th career national title in the pole vault to book passage to Paris at the third day of the 2024 US Olympic Trials on Sunday.

Kendricks breezed through an arduous qualifying round on Friday, and was equally as efficient in Sunday’s final, maintaining a clean sheet all the way up to his eventual winning height of 5.92m/19-5 – which he hit on his second attempt for the victory. That mark breaks his own US Olympic Trials record of 5.91m/19-04.75 set in 2016, and he was the lone competitor in the field to clear that height today.

This is the third career Olympic bid for Kendricks, who was the bronze medalist in the pole vault in 2016. He is only the third athlete in US history to qualify three times in the men’s pole vault alongside Bob Richards (1948, 1952, 1956) and Earl Bell (1976, 1984, 1988), and in Ole Miss history, he now only ranks behind men’s tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi’s five Olympiads for India (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012), and fellow track star Brittney Reese’s four trips for Team USA (2008, 2012, 2016, 2021).

Kendricks enters the Paris Summer Games in medal contention once again, currently ranked third on the World Athletics list at his season-best 5.95m/19-06.25 from the US Indoor Championships this past February. Overall in his professional career, Kendricks is a two-time World Champion, five-time World medalist and 11-time US Champion. In his brief but brilliant Ole Miss career, Kendricks was a two-time NCAA Champion, five-time All-American, and two-time SEC Champion.

Ole Miss was also represented in the women’s hammer final on Sunday evening via All-American Rebel greats Janeah Stewart and Jasmine Mitchell. The early rounds of the final saw mass carnage, with 14 total fouls in the first three rounds alone and a foul-out by the current world leader, Brooke Andersen.

Stewart—the 2018 NCAA champion in the hammer—was able to hold on to the eighth qualifying spot for the final at 66.92m/219-7, and then improved both in the fifth (68.02m/223-2) and sixth (70.34m/230-9) rounds. Originally that moved her up to fourth, but Erin Reese’s final attempt of 71.21m/233-7 leapfrogged both Stewart and Rachel Tanczos for the third and final spot on Team USA (pending World Athletics ranking evaluations).

This marks the third career top-8 US finish for Stewart in the hammer, who ended her Rebel career with a school-record 10 All-America awards, 25 NCAA points, three SEC titles, 10 SEC medals and 80 SEC points.

Mitchell took 11th overall in the final, topping out on her third attempt of 59.74m/196-0.

Ole Miss athletes will be in competition on Monday as well, with recent Rebel senior Ahmad Young Jr. in the first round of the men’s 110-meter hurdles at 7:05 pm CT, as well as All-American Craig Engels in his seventh career US 1500-meter final at 7:47 pm CT.

DAY THREE RESULTS

Men’s Pole Vault – Final

1. Sam Kendricks – 5.92m/19-5 – Team USA – Meet Record

Women’s Hammer – Final

5. Janeah Stewart – 70.34m/230-9

11. Jasmine Mitchell – 59.74m/196-0

—–

DAY TWO RESULTS

Women’s 100-Meter Dash – Semifinals

12. McKenzie Long – 11.15 (+0.0)

24. Shannon Ray – 11.37 (+0.4)

Men’s 1500-Meter – Semifinals