Spartans Well-Represented at 2022 USATF Championships

EAST LANSING, Mich. – There will be five current or former Michigan State track and field athletes competing at this weekend’s 2022 Toyota USATF Outdoor Championships and USATF U20 Outdoor Championships, being held at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
 
Departing seniors Morgan Beadlescomb, Sophia Franklin and Jenna Magness will all make the trek out to Eugene for the second time in three weeks after earning First Team All-American status earlier this month at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, as the trio will be joined by former Spartan and 2020 Olympian Tori Franklin at the senior championships from June 23-26. Also competing at Hayward Field this weekend is rising redshirt freshman Opal Jackson, who is slated to compete in the U20 championships meet from June 23-25
 
Sophia Franklin will open the USATF Championships in the Green & White on Friday, June 24 at 5:55 p.m. PT, where she is one of 18 entrants in the women’s pole vault. The MSU indoor and outdoor record holder capped off her collegiate career by reaching the podium for the second-straight spring with a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
 
On Saturday, June 25, Tori Franklin starts the women’s triple jump at 12:30 p.m. PT in the second of two flights. Franklin placed second at last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials and will look to qualify for her third World Championships (2017, 2019).
 
Jackson will also compete Saturday, with the junior women’s shot put event slated for 4:45 p.m. PT. Jackson redshirted this past season for the Spartans after transferring from Central Michigan, but posted a 15.37m personal best while competing unattached at the 2022 Spartan Invite in April.
 
Both Beadlescomb and Magness will race on Sunday, June 26, with both running their respective 5000m races.
 
Magness will race against 24 other competitors in the women’s 5000m final at 1:18 p.m. PT. She is the reigning back-to-back Big Ten outdoor 5000m champion and the 2022 NCAA 10,000m bronze medalist, also having finished fourth in the 5000m at the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships and holding the school records for both the indoor and outdoor 5000m.
 
For Beadlescomb, the 2022 NCAA outdoor 5000m runner-up is slated to run amongst a 24-man field in the men’s 5000m race at 2:03 p.m. PT. A three-time First Team All-American in the outdoor 5000m, Beadlescomb…