By Chris Chavez
July 22, 2025
Entries for the 2025 U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships are set to close at midnight on Tuesday. The national championship—which will determine Team USA for the World Championships in Tokyo—will start on July 31st.
Here is a running list of observations on the U.S. Championship entries before the deadline:
– Men’s 100/200m: Olympic champion and reigning World champion Noah Lyles, Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerley, 200m Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek, Christian Coleman, Jordan Anthony, and T'Mars McCallum are all doubling. Lyles recently went 19.88 for the win in the Monaco Diamond League 200m and then finished second to Jamaica’s Oblique Seville in the London Diamond League 100m in 10.00.
Noah Lyles | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Erriyon Knighton is entered in the 200m only. Knighton, who has not raced since two races at the University of Florida in April of this year. Last August, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Athletics Integrity Unit appealed the Disciplinary Tribunal’s decision that he was not at fault for a positive test for trenbolone—a steroid used in livestock farming—in March of 2024. His lawyer has said that he believes Knighton is “collateral damage” in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ongoing feud with USADA over how the global anti-doping agency handled the case regarding 23 Chinese swimmers who were cleared to keep competing despite testing positive for a banned heart medication.
– Women’s 100/200m: Reigning 100m World champion and Olympic silver medalist Sha’Carri Richardson, 200m Olympic champion Gabby Thomas, 100m Olympic bronze medalist Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, NCAA 200m champion JaMeesia Ford, and U.S. Olympian McKenzie Long all doubling. Aleia Hobbs is entered in the 100 only.
– Men's 400m: As of 4:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, 400m Olympic champion Quincy Hall is not entered.
– Women’s 400m: 400m hurdles Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will only run the 400m. (As a reminder, she doesn’t have a bye for the 400mH—Femke Bol is the reigning World champion in that event.)
McLaughlin-Levrone owns a season’s best of 49.43 from her win at the Prefontaine Classic, which puts her at No. 5 in the world and No. 3 among Americans on the year. Her personal best is 48.74 from her win at the 2023 U.S. Outdoor Championships—the last time she opted to pass on the 400m hurdles for the World Championships to focus on the 400m solely. That performance moved her to No. 2 on the U.S. all-time list (four hundredths shy of the American record), and heading into the last World Championships in Budapest she looked like a medal contender but had to withdraw eight days before the start of Worlds due to a knee injury. Only three women in the world have run faster than McLaughlin since that performance.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
– Men’s 800m: World Indoor champion Josh Hoey is entered in the 800m only. One year after making the U.S. Olympic team and reaching the semifinals at the Summer Games in Paris, Hobbs Kessler will not run the 800m at the U.S. Championships and instead go all-in on the 1500m. Kessler has not run an outdoor 1500m this season but split 3:33.39 en route to his 3:48.32 mile personal best at the Prefontaine Classic.
– Women’s 800m: 2021 800m Olympic champion Athing Mu has yet to enter but has spoken about her plan to race at the U.S. Championships. She ran a season’s best of 2:00.42 at the Ed Murphey Classic in Memphis on July 12th.
Sage Hurta-Klecker, who also has the World Championship qualifying standard in the 1500m via her 4:19.89 mile at last summer’s Sir Walter Miler in Raleigh, will only run the 800m. She just posted a season’s best of 1:58.89 at Sound Running’s Sunset Tour.
Sage Hurta-Klecker | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Natalie Dumas, the New Balance Nationals Outdoor champion in the 400m/400m hurdles/800m, is entered in the 800m with her 2:00.11 personal best.
– Men’s 1500m: Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse, Paris Olympics 1500m final fifth place finisher Hobbs Kessler, NCAA mile record holder Ethan Strand, and NCAA 1500m record holder Liam Murphy are entered in the 1500m only. Olympic champion Cole Hocker, Villanova standout Marco Langon, Virginia star Gary Martin, and World Indoor Championship 1500m finalist Sam Prakel are doubling with the 5000m. Hocker has been vocal about his goal of making both the 1500m and 5000m team and has the World Championship qualifying standard in both events.
Yared Nuguse | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
– Women’s 1500m: U.S. Olympians Emily MacKay and Heather MacLean are signed on to double with the 5000m as a potential back-up, if they don’t qualify for the 1500m team. Mackay has the World Championship qualifying standard in the 5000m with a 14:45.81 from this past indoor season.
– Men’s 5000m/10,000m: Drew Hunter is entered in both events but announced he intends to only run the 5000m on the COFFEE CLUB Podcast. Hunter was fourth in the 10,000m at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. He is coming off a 3:33.41 1500m personal best at the Sound Running Sunset Tour meet in California.
2024 NCAA 5000m champion Parker Wolfe and 2024 U.S. Olympian Abdihamid Nur are entered in the 5000m only. Wolfe missed the NCAA Championships to rehab an injury but returned to action at Portland Track’s Stumptown Twilight Meet this past weekend and ran 3:34.44 in the 1500m. Nur opened up his outdoor season on July 12th with a 13:34.86 win in his heat of the 5000m at the Sound Running Sunset Tour meet. He followed it up with a 3:43.24 for 1500m in Portland. Nur is working his way back from surgery for a post-tibial tendon tear at the Paris Olympics.
Grant Fisher | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher, U.S. Olympian Woody Kincaid, U.S. Olympian and outdoor 5000m record holder Nico Young, U.S. Olympian Graham Blanks and Sean McGorty are doubling.
– Women’s 5000/10,000m: Josette Andrews (the fastest American on the year with her 14:25.37 personal best), 3000m World Indoor Championship silver medalist Shelby Houlihan and American record holder Alicia Monson are entered in the 5000m only.
Josette Andrews | Photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Whittni Morgan, who made the Olympic final in the 5000m last year, will miss this year’s U.S. Championships since she is pregnant and expecting her first child.
Elise Cranny, Weini Kelati, Karissa Schweizer, Elly Henes, and Taylor Roe are doubling with the 5000m and 10,000m.
Jess McClain, who was already named to the U.S. team in the marathon, and former American marathon record holder Keira D’Amato are entered in the 10,000m only.
U.S. Olympian Parker Valby was attempting to come back from a foot injury but shared on Instagram stories that she will not be racing. She wrote:
"did everything in my power to get back to race USA's but unfortunately my foot isn't 100% healed yet. be back soon 🫶… good news is i am back running! this has not been the rookie year i imagined, but i know it's all part of the bigger picture. sometimes you have to take a few steps back to go 10 steps forward ❤️🩹"
Valby is one of five American women in the World Rankings quota for Tokyo. This leaves Kelati, Schweizer, McClain, and Roe as the only competitors entered heading into the U.S. Championships within the quota. Cranny and Emily Infeld (who is going all-in on the 10,000m) are among the athletes who could work their way into the quota with a good performance in Eugene. (A quick look at the rankings says the magic number to try and get into the quota will be bringing their World Ranking average to 1210 points.)
– Men’s 3000m Steeplechase: Benard Keter and U.S. record holder Evan Jager are entered despite not having a qualifying time. They are currently 16th and 17th on the entry list and should make the field.
– Men’s Shot Put: Yet to compete in an official meet this year, defending two-time World champ Ryan Crouser is absent from these entries. Crouser has cited elbow issues that also plagued him last year. He has the bye for Tokyo as defending champion. Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan, the NCAA Indoor champion in the shot put who finished 8th at Trials last year as a sophomore, appears to have opted to focus on the hammer for these championships, where he’s the fifth-best American this year.
– Women’s 3000m steeplechase: Krissy Gear, the U.S. road mile champion, is only entered in the steeplechase and will not run the 1500m. It appears that U.S. record holder Courtney Frerichs is only contesting the 5000m and not the steeplechase at these championships. Frerichs is in her first season back from ACL surgery last spring.
Emma Coburn shared on Instagram that she will miss this year’s U.S. Championships as she rehabs from a hamstring injury. She missed last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials due to an ankle injury.
– Women’s javelin throw: Maggie Malone-Hardin, the only American representative from Paris and three-time U.S. champion, hasn’t competed since finishing eighth on May 3 at the Shaoxing/Keqiao and isn’t listed in the entries. Neither is Madison Wiltrout, one of only two Americans who are in the World Rankings quota this year.
– Women’s shot put: After a return from a whereabouts suspension last year that saw them make the Olympic team, Raven Saunders hasn’t competed since the Lausanne Diamond League in August. They’re qualified for USAs by virtue of last season but are not entered.
– Decathlon: Garrett Scantling, a U.S. Olympian in Tokyo, is entered after completing his three-year ban for whereabouts failures.
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Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and on Feb. 15th, 2025 finally broke five minutes for the mile.
