Red Bank High School graduate and former University of Tennessee star Phoebe Wright qualified Saturday for the women’s 800-meter final Monday at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at Eugene, Ore. Wright, who went from walk-on to multiple All-America honors at Tennessee, won the 2010 NCAA indoors and outdoors and USA Indoors 800 championships and also won the national 800 at the 2013 Prefontaine Classic, and she finished fifth in the 2012 Olympic trials. The top three make the national team. Nike runner Wright was the eighth of eight qualifiers Saturday, but her time of 2 minutes, 1.39 seconds was only 2.15 seconds behind top qualifier Brenda Martinez. The 800 finals will be part of the television coverage at 7 p.m. Monday on NBCSN.
Swimming
* Eleventh-place showings in the men’s 100-meter backstroke by former Dalton High School standout Taylor Dale, now at Georgia, and in the 1500 freestyle by former McCallie School and Michigan star Sean Ryan were the best for area athletes in the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials at Omaha, Neb., this past week. Baylor School products Sam McHugh, Luke Kaliszak and Trey Freeman also had top-20 preliminary finishes – McHugh (Tennessee) 17th in the 400 individual medley, Kaliszak (Alabama) 18th in the 100 back and 16-year-old Freeman 19th in the 400 freestyle. Ryan (see page C1) is qualified for the games in Brazil in the 10-kilometer open-water swim.
Fencing
* Baylor School Latin teacher and fencing coach Kristin Vines won the Veteran 50-59 women’s foil competition Friday at the United States Fencing Association Summer Nationals in Dallas and earned a place on the USA veteran world championship team for the fourth time. Vines entered the Summer Nationals seeded sixth out of 31 participants and was seeded seventh after pool competition but won three direct-elimination bouts by scores of 10-9, 10-7 and 10-7 and dominated the gold-medal bout 10-4. The world championships will be held in October in Stralsund, Germany.