My nephew, Hunter, an amazing young man. I watched him throughout his childhood. Through baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse and some summer track, he played it all.
After graduating high school he was offered and accepted a full ride scholarship at Lafayette College for football. We were so proud and excited.
He is a man of great morals and faith. When he decided after a semester at Lafayette that the football environment wasn't where he wanted to be and left to come back to Colorado, we were a little shocked but supported him in doing what he felt was best.
He came back to Colorado and started up at Colorado state university in fort Collins. He talked to the track coach about trying out, who replied somewhere along the lines of "sorry kid, tryouts were last week."..
Hunter persisted, passing along some of his past track results.
The coach relented and Hunter began running track at CSU competing in the decathlon.
His all around athletic abilities served him well and he ended up setting the record for highest decathlon point total in CSU's history.
He was competing in the nationals in Eugene, OR when a gust of wind sent him backwards at the apex of a pole vault. He landed awkwardly, dislocating his ankle 90 degrees, dislocated his shoulder and tearing his hamstring away from its insertion. I still remember breaking down as I got the call that he was being rushed to the hospital from the field for surgery.
His track and field career appeared over..
While he was at CSU he met Mary Beth. She had been a track and field standout in Oregon before injuries had derailed her path. She left Oregon, moved back to Colorado and resumed school at CSU.
At CSU they met and began training together as they started dating and eventually married.
She went on to resume her career in track at CSU.
As Hunter recovered from his injuries, Mary Beth was on track for the 2020 Olympics, competing in Germany and France and was headed to China for a meet when Covid shut the world down...
Hunter recovered and through covid began training, running in a park by the house, practicing hurdles on the street in front of his house with hurdles he built himself from PVC pipe and using a rubber coated shot put that my mom, his grandma, got for him as a present this last Christmas.
He competed in his first event in two years just a few months ago and did well.
In an event just a month ago he took first, scored 8035 points, beating the Olympic standard and qualifying for the Olympic trials this weekend back in Eugene at the site of his injuries.
His wife, my niece, competed at an event at the end of May, also qualifying for the women's 100 meter Olympic trials.
So this weekend my nephew and his wife will both be competing in the trials for a shot at this year's Olympics.
Keep an eye out for these two, they are an incredible, amazing, beautiful couple who have overcome injuries and many obstacles in their pursuit of the Olympic dream.
And no matter the outcome, I couldn't be more proud.
No matter what, can tell that they are
Will definitely be keeping an eye