She was a nanny living in Broad Ripple. Now, Allie Wilson is an Olympian.
EUGENE, Ore. – A track and field season that began in a new places for Hoosier athletes Allie Wilson and Charity Hufnagel could end up taking them to a new destination: Paris.
In a couple of surprise outcomes — shocking, in fact — Wilson finished second in the 800 meters and Hufnagel won the high jump at the U.S. Olympic Trials on Monday night at Hayward Field.
Wilson is guaranteed a place at the Paris Olympics, but a technicality could block Hufnagel.
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After reigning Olympic champion Athing Mu tripped and fell, Nia Akins seized control of the 800 and finished first in 1:57.36.
Wilson was second in 1:58.32. Taking the third Olympic spot was Stanford’s Juliette Whitaker, the NCAA indoor/outdoor champion, in 1:58.45.
“Coming into this race, I kept telling myself, ‘It’s just another race, it’s just another race. Just do what you always do,’“ Wilson said. “Now, watching all the sports, it’s going to be unlike anything I’ve ever done.
“Only so few people in this world can call themselves an Olympian. And I can’t believe I can be one of them.”
Wilson, 28, a former high school soccer player who ran for smallish Monmouth University (N.J.), was coached by Andrew Begley and Amy Yoder Begley at the Atlanta Track Club. When Amy, an Indiana Olympian at 10,000 meters, relocated to Indianapolis to become USA Track & Field’s associate director of long distance programs, Wilson followed.
Consequently, she lost sponsorship. She worked as a nanny to support herself when she moved to Broad Ripple. After she won February’s U.S. indoor title, she signed a contract with Nike.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years. I’ve learned from them,” she said. “I think I applied every one of those lessons in my race today. It finally came together.”
Andrew Begley, a three-time state champion at Westview High School who later ran for Arkansas, is primary coach for Wilson. She said she has “dreamed of the day” she could join Amy as an Olympian.
“She’s played a huge part in helping me get there,” Wilson said.
Hufnagel, who transferred from Ball State to Kentucky, ended the most dominant streak in U.S. women’s high jumping. Vashti Cunningham had won 13 consecutive indoor and outdoor national titles.
Hufnagel cleared a personal best of 6 feet, 4 ¼ inches on her first attempt. Just 12 days before, she was 12th in the NCAA Championships at the same venue.
NCAA indoor champion Rachel Glenn of Arkansas was second, also at 6-4 ¼.
Cunningham, third at 6-3 ¼, was world bronze medalist in 2019 and world indoor champion in 2016. She is the daughter of former NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham.
Because Hufnagel lacks the standard of 6-5 ½ and has a low world ranking, she will not be on the Olympic team unless she jumps the standard in another meet by Sunday.
The former Charity Griffith, 23, of Rushville, called herself a “mediocre high school athlete.” She never scored in a state meet and raced from 200 to 3,200 meters.
The scene was reminiscent of the last year at Austin, Texas, where she surprisingly won an NCAA title representing Ball State.
“It definitely did remind me of Austin a little bit,” Hufnagel said. “I had injuries up to this point, and I knew all the steps were slowly starting to come back together, finding my rhythm again. Honestly, just lessons and trials over and over that God has taught me.”
At this year’s NCAAs, she finished seventh in the heptathlon. In the SEC meet, she was second in the heptathlon and fourth in the high jump.
In the Olympic Trials heptathlon, two-time NCAA indoor pentathlon champion Jadin O’Brien of Notre Dame was seventh with 6,108 points. Ball State’s Jenelle Rogers was 10th with 5,969.
Qualifying for Thursday’s final of the 3,000-meter steeplechase were NCAA runner-up Olivia Markezich of Notre Dame, third in the second semifinal in 9:26.67, and Butler graduate Angelina Ellis of Zionsville, fifth in the first semi in 9:33.11.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Allie Wilson gets 800m Olympic spot, Charity Hufnagel wins high jump
