Lipscomb’s Madi Talbert came up just short in the Olympic Trials for the 300m steeplechase on Monday, July 4th.

Talbert was named as one of the 35 best runners in the country and competed for a spot in the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro.

Talbert qualified for the trials by running a personal best 9:50.57 in the 2015 NCAA Division I East Region Prelims, which was the fourth best time in the nation from the East Region and West Region Prelims combined. At the Olympic Trials, she came in 29th with a time of 10:09.76. The top 14 qualified for the Olympic games.

“It’s been a crazy experience!” Talbert said.

Just a few weeks prior, Talbert competed in Eugene, Oregon, during the National Championship rounds where she qualified for the Olympic Trials shortly after, therefore she had little time to prepare and rest.

“I’ve run all the races that I want to run,” Talbert said. “Pros and collegiate athletes have very different schedules, so it was very hard to be racing at that level as a collegiate athlete at the end of my season,” she noted. “By then, you’ve been racing for months and months and months, while professionals have been racing for only a few months. So I was at my peak physically, and it was very hard to maintain my endurance. It was kind of overwhelming.”

Nevertheless, Talbert added that competing in the Olympic Trials was an incredible opportunity.

“The Olympic Trials was a completely amazing experience. I was envious of the high school athletes because they hadn’t had nationals yet, and so this was a huge deal.”

Talbert finished her senior season many months later than a typical collegiate track and field season. Her season was technically over in early May, but due to her success, she was still running in July.

“We altered the training a little bit to where it was kind of more upkeep. I was really lucky because I got to go to Washington a week and a half beforehand and train there with some of my friends. That was really nice. It was so hot in Nashville that it was getting really hard to train.”

Talbert is the second Lipscomb athlete to compete for a spot in the 2016 Olympics this season. Volleyball’s Kayla Ostrom was selected by USA Volleyball for a spot on one of five summer teams.

Talbert completed her historic Lipscomb career with four consecutive National Championship appearances, 10 ASUN titles, 20 All-Conference honors and 13 ASUN Runner of the Week nods. She will graduate in December with a degree in Education.

Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics

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