Riley Tokyo Bound

ATLANTA – Jacob Riley '12 has made the U.S. Olympic team.

An eight-time All-American at Stanford, Riley placed second in the U.S. Marathon Trials on Saturday to earn automatic qualification for the U.S. team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Riley ran a personal best 2:10:02, faster than the 2:10:36 he ran to last year to place as the top American at the Chicago Marathon. Riley caught a pack of three that trailed leader and eventual winner Galen Rupp.

After one runner was dropped, Riley, Abdi Abdirahman, and Leonard Korir fought down the stretch for the final two spots. In the end, Riley had the best kick. All three finished within four seconds of each other, but Korir was the odd man out.

Because of Achilles tendon issues, the Chicago Marathon was Riley's first since the 2016 Olympic trials, in which he placed 15th.

At Stanford, he was sixth at the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championships and teamed with Chris Derrick and Elliott Heath for a 1-2-3 Pac-10 cross country finish and team title the same season. He also finished third and fifth in the NCAA 10,000 in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

The Bellingham, Washington, is a graduate student at University of Colorado.

Stanford runners have a history in the Olympic marathon.

In 1976, Don Kardong '71 closed within steps of Belgium's Karel Lismont before finishing just short of a bronze medal in Montreal. Though, in retrospect, indications of doping from East German winner Waldemar Cierpinski suggest that Kardong indeed deserved a medal.

In 2008, Ryan Hall '05 placed 10th on the streets of Beijing, finishing second among Americans. However, his attempt to better that place in London in 2012 ended midway through the race with a hamstring injury.
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Eight Stanford alumni competed Saturday – four men and four women. Here are their results:

U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
At Centennial Park
Stanford alumni results

Men: 2, Jacob Riley 2:10:02; 14, Brendan Gregg 2:13:27; DNF, Chris Derrick; DNF, Kevin Havel.

Women: 131, Madeline Duhon 2:45:27; 335, Megan Lacy 2:57:45; DNF, Sara Hall; DNF, Teresa McWalters.