NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Perhaps the thing Falon Spearman loved most about track when she gave up gymnastics to focus on running was controlling her own destiny. It didn’t matter what she looked like getting over the hurdles. There were no judges. If she got to the finish line first, she won. It was uncomplicated and fulfilling. Track rewarded what she put into it.
Most of the time.
There was nothing particularly simple or satisfying about why Spearman didn’t qualify for the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Running in the East Regional in Lexington, Kentucky, she recorded successive personal bests in the 100-meter hurdles. In the quarterfinals, the final regional race from which 12 runners would advance to the NCAA Championships, she ran the 12th-fastest time—one-thousandth of a second slower than the 11th-fastest runner. That runner advanced. Through a quirk of the format, Spearman went home.
The quarterfinals split runners into three heats. The top three finishers in each heat advance to the NCAA Championships, as do the runners with the next three fastest times across all heats. Running in a different heat, another competitor ran a slower time than Spearman but finished third in the heat—advancing automatically and bumping Spearman.
“What was so devastating for me was the thought that I have to do all of this over again next year,” Spearman said of that moment in Lexington. “All of that training and hard work and literally blood, sweat and tears to get to that moment. I bawled because I knew I had to do it all over again–and maybe to get the same outcome the next year. That terrified me.”
She did it all over again as a junior, but the outcome wasn’t the same. Along with teammate Allyria McBride, who qualified in the 400-meter hurdles, Spearman will represent Vanderbilt in this week’s NCAA Championships at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. In addition to advancing to compete on the biggest stage in collegiate track and field, Spearman broke Vanderbilt’s school record in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.03 seconds in the opening round of regionals in Jacksonville, Florida.
- Watch Falon Spearman and Allyria McBride compete in the NCAA Championships on Thursday, 6 p.m. CT, ESPN.
There was more hard work, more blood, sweat and tears (you try smacking into a hurdle while moving at a speed most folks need a bicycle to reach). There was also someone there to remind her what was possible,…