The best runners, jumpers and throwers in the United States will once again descend upon Eugene, Oregon, next week for the 2025 USATF Outdoor Track and Field Championships. From July 31 to Aug. 3, athletes will not just be fighting for national glory, but also a coveted spot on Team USA for the World Athletics Championships, held in Tokyo from Sep. 13-21.
Gators both past and present, as well as professionals that come to train in Gainesville under Florida’s coaching staff, have long been a staple of this meet. This edition will be no different, as 16 Gainesville-based athletes, three of whom were on the team for the 2024-25 season, will make the journey to the Pacific Northwest, as well as three former Florida athletes.
Sprints
Regardless of event or training group, Erriyon Knighton’s championships might just be one of the most interesting storylines of the meet. Knighton burst onto the scene in 2021, setting the world under-18 record over 200m at 19.84 seconds, and then running the world under-20 record the next year in 19.49 seconds. At only 21 years old, he already has two World Championship medals and a pair of fourth-place finishes at the Olympics. However, he’s been embroiled in a murky doping controversy since last spring.
Knighton, who has been training at UF for most of his professional career, tested positive for trenbolone in March of last year, but it was later determined that his positive was “more likely than not” a result of eating contaminated oxtail. With that ruling he was cleared to compete at the Olympic Trials and eventually in Paris, but the case is still hanging over his head. He was in court against the World Anti-Doping Association and the Athletics Integrity Unit last month and is awaiting a decision, but he will be able to compete at the U.S. Championships.
“If people want to cast aspersions upon me and aspersions upon Erriyon, then that’s on them,” said Florida head coach Mike Holloway. “Erriyon’s a young guy, he’s faced some difficulties in his life over the last year-and-a-half, and we’re dealing with that. But at the end of the day, if Erriyon wants to make the team, he’s gotta put his blocks down and go be one of the top three guys in the race.”
Like last year, Knighton will be running his first 200-meter race of the season in Eugene. That was no problem for him last year, as he ran 19.77 seconds in the final to finish third and earn a trip to Paris.
While Knighton will be aiming to make his fifth straight national team, a pair of former Florida teammates, Pjai Austin and Robert Gregory, will both be looking to make their first.
Austin was a first-team All-American in both the 60- and 100-meter dashes in his senior season for the Gators in 2023, with his personal best of 9.89 seconds situating him as one of the seven fastest men in collegiate history. He’s been eliminated in the semifinals on the national stage each of the past two years over 100 meters, and his form this year hasn’t quite shown signs of that tide changing. His season’s best of 10.07 seconds is tied for No. 22 among Americans this year.
Gregory has made the U.S. final over 200 meters each of the past two years, finishing fifth in 2023 and seventh in 2024. His most recent race was a fourth-place finish in 20.04 second at the Prefontaine Classic on July 5. In his first season as a pro, Gregory has set himself up to make some noise in the half-lap scene.
McKenzie Long is another first-year pro that is transitioning seamlessly into post-collegiate life, even though she moved training groups after graduating. The winner of the 100-, 200- and 4x100-meter relay at NCAA Outdoor last year while at Ole Miss, Long followed her coach, Holland Sherrer, to Gainesville after he took a position as an assistant under Holloway. Her 21.93-second season’s best from the Ed Murphey Classic, the second-fastest time in the world this year, is a sign that she could have her eyes set on something much better than the seventh-place finish she earned at the Olympics last year.
The 400 meters has long been Florida’s bread and butter among the sprints, and that legacy continues this year on the national level with Jenoah McKiver, Jacory Patterson and Talitha Diggs.
McKiver’s final season as a Gator was derailed due to injury after a promising start, but he enters the championships with a full head of steam after running 45.06 at a small meet in Georgia on July 19. That’s the second-fastest time of McKiver’s career and the closest he’s come to breaking 45 seconds since 2022. Considering that he’s a proven championship performer, running the two fastest times of his 2024 at the Olympic Trials, it’s especially encouraging as to what he’ll manage in Eugene.
After spending their collegiate and the starts of their professional careers in Gainesville, both Patterson and Diggs have moved to different training groups. Patterson has been one of the feel-good stories of the 2025 season, as impressive showings throughout the indoor season and a breakthrough 43.98-second personal best in Miramar on May 3 have skyrocketed his international profile and earned him a professional contract with Nike last month.
It marks a huge turnaround for an athlete who was working nights loading UPS trucks earlier in the season. Diggs is in her first season working with coach Gary Evans in Orlando, but her season’s best of 51.49 seconds is her slowest since 2020, when she was only 18 years old. She has also been a step behind even that form in her most recent races, running 53.16 on June 2 in Italy and 52.42 on July 12 in Memphis.
Hurdles
Grant Holloway’s last three seasons have been nearly flawless, winning World titles in 2022 and 2023 and Olympic gold last summer. He has redefined consistency and excellence over the 110-meter hurdles, recording the most sub-13 second runs in history. However, there are a few more question marks surrounding Holloway than there typically are, as he took two months off racing earlier in the season and has yet to win an outdoor final. Despite the slow start to the season, he has an automatic qualifying spot through to the World Championships as a result of his World gold from 2023.
“People out there were panicking, ‘Oh Grant lost a race, Grant must be hurt, Grant must be this,” Mike Holloway said. “Grant still has seven weeks before he has to be ready ready. The biggest thing is anytime we get on the track, it’s about execution.”
It’s worth noting that in 2022 and 2023, years where Holloway also had a BYE as defending World champion, he opted to race the first two rounds at U.S. Championships before scratching the final.
On the opposite end of the experience spectrum from Holloway is Demaris Waters, who just finished his junior year at UF and is now racing in his first senior national championship. Waters transferred from San Jose State in the offseason and had a strong first season in Gainesville. He ran 13.21 seconds to win at Florida Relays, the second-fastest time in school history, but dealt with a bout of COVID after the race and false started in the semifinals at NCAA Outdoors.
“It’s a moment in time and you can’t live in that moment,” Holloway said. “He was upset and I said to him, ‘What are you upset about? You did it. Nobody took that from you, you gave it away.’ Let’s move on, we’ll be back here a year from now and be better.”
The Gators will also be represented well in the women’s high hurdles, as 2024 NCAA champion Grace Stark will be aiming to make another U.S. team in her first professional season. Stark has excelled all across the globe this year, winning Diamond League 100-meter hurdles races in China, Sweden and France. At the Paris Diamond League, she won in 12.21 seconds, equalling her as the fifth-fastest athlete in world history.
“She’s just been stable, she’s been able to train consistently,” Holloway said. “What we’re seeing out of Grace Stark is just who Grace Stark is.”
Despite Stark’s success this year, it won’t be easy to finish inside the top three and earn her U.S. kit, as six of the ten fastest women in the world this year are American.
Trevor Bassitt has emerged from the Division II ranks at Ashland University and blossomed into one of the best 400-meter hurdlers in the world over the past four seasons, winning a World bronze medal in 2022. Now in his third season training in Gainesville, Bassitt has overcome early-season injuries and is in the midst of the best regular season of his career. Each of his last four 400-meter hurdles finishes have been 48.50 seconds or faster, but his season’s best of 48.14 seconds is still only the fifth-best time by an American this year. In order to make his third consecutive World Championship team, he’ll need to find another gear over the barriers.
Jumps
Florida has earned the moniker of “JumpsU” over the years, and the excellence that earns a nickname like that extends to the professional group as well.
Fresh off winning the NCAA Outdoor title in his final collegiate meet at this very venue, Malcolm Clemons makes his return to Hayward Field with another national team on his mind, but his path forward isn’t as linear as it was last summer. A heel injury during the indoor season has impacted his marks this year, meaning that he hasn’t managed to accrue enough World Rankings points to qualify to Tokyo. However, the qualifying window runs until Aug. 24, so if Clemons were to finish inside the top three in Eugene, he’d have nearly a month to either attempt to make it in on points or chase the 8.27-meter automatic standard.
One of the competitors Clemons will be butting heads with on the long jump runway is Marquis Dendy, the 2015 winner of The Bowerman who’s still one of the nation’s best after a decade as a pro. His most recent competition was his best of the year, jumping an impressive 8.18 meters at a meet in Memphis. That represents the best mark by any American this year, meaning Dendy stands a great chance at making his 10th Team USA this week.
The women’s long jump competition will feature two Gators as two of the favorites, with training partners Jasmine Moore and Claire Bryant going head-to-head. Both women enter the competition with recent international success under their belts, as Moore won bronze in this event at the Paris Olympics in August and Bryant claimed the World Indoor title in March. Moore has made three straight U.S. outdoor teams in the long jump, while Bryant will be seeking her first. This looks to be one of the most competitive events of the entire meet, with Moore and Bryant going up against the likes of Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall, NCAA Indoor champion Alexis Brown, and Olympic finalist Monae’ Nichols for three tickets to Tokyo.
Moore will be doubling back for the triple jump as well, a discipline in which she also won bronze in Paris. This event will be far less contentious, as Moore is the only American woman over 14 meters this year and 61 centimeters ahead of her next closest competitor.
The men’s triple jump features a pair of athletes with Gainesville ties, but in opposite ways. Will Claye was a four-time All-American in 2011, his only season competing for UF, but has since moved away and is now on the tailend of one of the best careers the sport has ever seen. Donald Scott, on the other hand, competed collegiately at Eastern Michigan before heading down south to train. He’s made each of the last six U.S. outdoor teams in this event, but it could be tough sledding for Scott to extend that streak to seven thanks to an extremely talented young crop of Americans.
Throws
Laulauga Tausaga-Collins is a new addition to the Gainesville pro group this season. An alum of the University of Iowa, she won the 2019 NCAA discus title under throws coach Eric Werskey, who joined the UF staff prior to the 2022 season. After a 2024 campaign that saw her foul out of the Olympic Trials, Tausaga-Collins opted to recommence her partnership with Werskey, and that decision has paid dividends.
Just like Holloway, Tausaga-Collins already has her spot on the U.S. team for Tokyo secured by merit of her world title from Budapest. Regardless, she’s still been the second-best thrower in the nation all year. On April 12, she set a personal best of 70.72 meters in Ramona, Oklahoma, and has had numerous competitions over 64 meters this season. Most importantly, she’s eliminated the foul problems that ruined her Olympic year.
Multievents
After injuries derailed her season in both 2023 and 2024, Anna Hall is fully healthy this year and has cemented her spot as one of the very best athletes in the world, bar none. A finalist for The Bowerman and NCAA champion in both the pentathlon and heptathlon in her lone season competing for the Gators, Hall moved up to second on the world all-time list in the heptathlon on June 1 in Götzis, Austria. Her score of 7032 points has only ever been bettered by the legendary Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
“The best part of this year has been watching Anna be happy and enjoying herself again,” Holloway said. “It’s hard to go to the line when you know you’re not at your best… It’s been fun watching her be healthy again and go out and train hard every day and not have to worry about the minor injuries.”
Hall has medaled at each of the past two World Championships, earning silver in 2023 and bronze in 2022. Earning her spot on the plane to Tokyo is as close a foregone conclusion as it can be, as she is over 600 points ahead of the next closest American this season and would need to finish fourth or worse to miss her ticket to Worlds. In Tokyo, Hall will be poised for an enticing battle with the defending Olympic champion, Belgium’s Nafi Thiam, and World champion, Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
The 2025 USATF Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held from July 31 to Aug. 3 in Eugene, Oregon.
Contact Paul Hof-Mahoney at phof-mahoney@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @phofmahoney
Paul is a junior sports journalism major who is covering the track and field beat in his first semester with the Alligator. In his free time, he enjoys watching commentary Youtube channels and consuming every medium of track and field content imaginable.
