As Robert Gregory tore down the home straight inside Hayward Field Sunday night, every step brought him closer to the ultimate goal for every American track and field athlete: a place on Team USA.
With Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles, the reigning Olympic silver and bronze medalists over 200 meters, battling to the line for a national title, Gregory emerged from the pack to finish third. The NCAA runner-up for Florida last year ran a personal best of 19.80 seconds. A successful first professional season now sees Gregory make his first U.S. national team, earning a ticket to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September.
“Each year I came here when I was in college, since I came to Florida, I always came up short,” Gregory said. “This time I couldn’t let it go. I had to dig deep down for this, I put in too much work not to make it this year.”
Gregory was far from the only athlete with Gainesville ties to make an impact at the USATF Outdoor Championships, held in Eugene, Oregon, from July 31 to Aug. 3. Several former Florida stars, as well as professionals that now train in Gainesville, added national medals to their trophy cases and U.S. kits to their closets.
Anna Hall was as heavy of a favorite as there could be coming into this meet, having scored 7032 points in the heptathlon earlier in the summer. That was over 600 points more than any other American had scored in 2025 to that point, and she proved once again why she’s the best multievent athlete in the nation.
Fueled by personal bests in both the shot put (15.02 meters) and javelin (47.32 meters), Hall scored 6899 points to win her fourth-consecutive U.S. title. Despite coming into this meet with a mindset of “playing it safe,” she still won by nearly 400 points and recorded a total that only 10 other women in world history have matched.
“I like to be competing going for broke, and that’s not really what this meet is for,” Hall said. “But [I’m] super pleased with putting up a big score regardless, and I felt like we managed the heptathlon well.”
Jasmine Moore, Hall’s teammate while competing for the Gators, also successfully defended her national title, jumping 14.68 meters for the win in the women’s triple jump. The Olympic bronze medalist in this event last year, Moore won by nearly a full meter, recording the third-best jump of her career and the third-best jump in the world this year.
Two days earlier, Moore finished fifth in a long jump final that came down to the wire, jumping 6.82 meters. Claire Bryant continued her breakout campaign in her first year as a professional, finishing second with a slightly wind-aided mark of 6.97 meters. After winning the World Indoor title earlier this season in Nanjing, China, on her first senior indoor national team, Bryant now heads back across the Pacific on her first senior outdoor national team.
“Last year I didn’t even make the finals,” Bryant said. “I got 10th and was crying in the porta potty back there afterwards… To enjoy the moment and have joy is really nice.”
Like Bryant, Grace Stark is also finding immense success in her first year as a pro after trading Florida orange and blue for Adidas red. She improved upon her third-place finish over the 100-meter hurdles at last year’s Olympic Trials, running 12.31 seconds for a runner-up result this time out. In Tokyo, Stark will now look to best her fifth-place finishes from both the Olympic Games last year and World Indoors in March.
Jacory Patterson left the Gainesville training group this year and is now training under coach Alleyne Francique in his second season as a professional. His performances have taken a significant leap since returning home to South Carolina, with each of the seven fastest 400-meter times of his career coming in 2025. His ascendant season reached a peak in Hayward, where Patterson won the U.S. title in 44.16 seconds.
Laulauga Tausaga-Collins, who splits time between her home in southern California and Gainesville to train with UF throws coach Eric Werskey, finished second in the women’s discus final. Her 64.86-meter effort serves as a strong marker as she sets her sights on Tokyo, where she’ll seek to defend her World title from 2023.
“I was dealing with some imposter syndrome all through 2024,” Tausaga-Collins said. “It’s been validating to see that, ‘I’m okay. I don’t suck, I’m just not there yet’... This is the most consistent professional year I’ve ever had, and I’m excited to see what that brings leading up into this entire quad.”
After missing his first U.S. outdoor team since 2011 last year, Will Claye earned another chance to represent the red, white and blue with a third-place finish in the men’s triple jump. In the fourth round, he jumped 17.09 meters, his first time above the 17-meter barrier in legal conditions since March 18, 2022.
Jenoah McKiver had the best showing among current Gators, finishing fifth in the 400-meter final in his final race representing Florida. He ran 44.92 seconds in the semifinal, the second-fastest time of his career, before running 45.16 seconds in the final. While finishing fifth doesn’t earn a spot on the individual team, McKiver will be selected as a member of the 4x400-meter relay pool.
Grant Holloway also made Team USA in the 110-meter hurdles, but opted not to race the final because he has a wild card to Tokyo as the defending World champion. He finished second in his semifinal, crossing the line in 13.18 seconds.
The 2025 World Athletics Championships will be held in Japan National Stadium in Tokyo from Sep. 13-21.
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.
