Paralympians set the tone as trials open in Miramar

Experience led the way as the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials – Track & Field opened with the first of three days of competition at the Ansin Sports Complex in Miramar, Fla. Paralympians looking to earn slots on another Games roster won 10 events on the day.

The qualification process for Team USA is based on a factored system that takes an athlete’s time or distance in an event and compares it to the National A Team standard for that event. The percentages gathered from those results form a ranking list from which the Paralympic Team is selected. Full selection procedures can be found at https://www.usparatf.org/selection-procedures.

Paralympic champions Daniel Romanchuk (Mount Airy, Md.) and Susannah Scaroni (Tekoa, Wash.) shone with wins in the men’s and women’s 5000-meter T53 and T54, respectively. Romanchuk also cruised to victory in the men’s 400-meter open wheelchair race.

Both Romanchuk and Scaroni have already secured roster spots for the Paralympic Games Paris 2024 via the marathon alongside teammates Aaron Pike (Grand Rapids, Minn.) and Tatyana McFadden (Baltimore, Md.). Pike finished second behind Romanchuk in the 5000-meter, while Paralympian Brian Siemann (Champaign, Ill.) was the top T53 finisher.

For Scaroni, a guaranteed roster spot in Paris means an opportunity to focus on mentoring some of her younger teammates.

“It was a weird spring for me, I had to pull out of some marathons, but I feel healthy and am feeling good,” Scaroni said. “My focus has just shifted to trying to be there for my training partners. I do have that [Paris] position, so it’s kind of nice being able to be that veteran athlete and help others where I can.”

Paralympian Hannah Dederick (Mead, Wash.) set a personal best by six-tenths of a second in the women’s 400-meter T54, finishing first in 53.71.

Dederick, who nearly won her first Paralympic medal in Tokyo with a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter T54, said her confidence has grown since her Paralympic debut. Following her 2021 campaign, the 21-year-old moved to Champaign, Ill., to train and study at the University of Illinois alongside some of the best wheelchair racers in the country.

“I feel really strong going into trials,” Dederick said. “My confidence as a racer has really bumped up and I’m excited to see the result that’s coming from that confidence. This a great opportunity with the heat and potential rain and other weather to play around with equipment heading into Paris.”

Paralympian Yen Hoang (Vancouver, Wash.), who also competed at the University of Illinois, was the top women’s 400-meter T53 finisher. Hoang is seeking her second Paralympic berth after debuting in Tokyo.

In the long jump pit, two-time Paralympic silver medalist Jaleen Roberts (Kent, Wash.) made a strong bid for her second Paralympic Team nomination by winning the women’s T37 competition with a best jump of 4.80 meters. Roberts missed the 2024 world championships due to injury, but earned silver in both long jump and the 100-meter at world championships in 2023. Two-time Parapan American Games silver medalist Catarina Guimaraes (Cranford, N.J.) put together a 4.73-meter jump to win the women’s T38 event.

In the men’s long jump T13 competition, world champion Isaac Jean-Paul (Evanston, Ill.) hit a mark of 7.07 meters – well over the National A standard – in his second attempt en route to a win. Jean-Paul, the 2023 world champion in the event, chose to forego the rest of his jumps in favor of rest.

“When they said the distance, I realized I was past my A standard, and was like ‘We can either have fun, or we can just reserve ourselves,’” Jean-Paul said. “It’s been a long season, and I decided to reserve [myself] and put the rest of what I have into Paris.”

Standing out in the ambulatory running competitions was 2020 Paralympic silver medalist Liza Corso (Newmarket, N.H.), who finished the women’s 1500-meter T13 in 4:22.05, followed by Kaitlin Bounds (Russelville, Ark.), who won the 1500-meter T20 event.

As he seeks his first Paralympic Team berth since 2012, two-time Paralympic medalist Blake Leeper (Kingsport, Tenn.) opened his 2024 trials meet with a win in the men’s 200-meter open event, besting competitors in a variety of classifications to earn the victory in 22.29 seconds.

Leeper, who just missed a worlds medal in Kobe, said he and his coach reevaluated his training plan to reinvigorate him for trials and what he hopes will be the 2024 Games.

“I’ve really been training hard, not pulling off the brakes and trusting my training,” he said. “I came off a fourth-place finish in Kobe and wasn’t as happy as I wanted to be, but it was a great learning experience. Where we’re at now with Paralympic sport, nothing is guaranteed. The goal was to bounce back from that and make the team and hop back on the podium at the Paralympic Games.”

Coming off a world championships debut that saw her win two silver medals in T37 sprint events, Taylor Swanson (Spokane, Wash.) was the women’s 200-meter open champion, edging T44 athlete Annie Carey (Boise, Idaho) by .67 seconds to open her trials.

Highlighting the day’s throwing events were a pair of 2023 Parapan American Games silver medalists. Beth Grauer (Palm Bay, Fla.) set an American Record in the women’s shot put F34 en route to a win in her best event, while Christy Gardner (Lewiston, Maine) was the top finisher in the women’s shot put F57.

Competition resumes Saturday morning at 8 a.m. EST with the penultimate day of team trials. All sessions will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock, and live results can be found at http://live.halfmiletiming.com/meets/692/events. The 2024 U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Team will be announced in a public naming ceremony on Sunday. Follow U.S. Paralympics Track & Field on Facebook, Instagram and X for updates and results from the weekend.

Gold Medalists – Day 1
Jaleen Roberts (Women’s long jump T37)
Catarina Guimaraes (Women’s long jump T38)
Blake Leeper (Men’s 200-meter open)
Taylor Swanson (Women’s 200-meter open)
Daniel Romanchuk (Men’s 400-meter open wheelchair)
Hannah Dederick (Women’s 400-meter open wheelchair)
Shahrad Nasajpour (Men’s discus F37)
Jackson Schroeder (Men’s shot put F56)
Dennis Ogbe (Men’s shot put F57)
Samuel Winter (Men’s shot put F36)
Ben Brandt (Men’s shot put F37)
Peyton Manigo (Women’s club throw F32)
Daniel Romanchuk (Men’s 5000-meter T54)
Brian Siemann (Men’s 5000-meter T53)
Isaac Jean-Paul (Men’s long jump T13)
Peyton Manigo (Women’s shot put F32)
Beth Grauer (Women’s shot put F34)
Christy Gardner (Women’s shot put F57)
Delaney Nolin (Women’s shot put F35)
Kasey Nickel (Women’s shot put F37)
Sophia Zagorski (Women’s shot put F40)
Susannah Scaroni (Women’s 5000-meter T54)
Noah Scherf (Men’s 5000-meter T13)
Kaitlin Bounds (Women’s 1500-meter T20)
Liza Corso (Women’s 1500-meter T13).

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