For an American track athlete, there is no greater meet than the one that comes around every four years.
That meet —if you do well — will allow you to represent the States and perhaps be remembered among the greats like Jesse Owens and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
That one meet, of course, is the U.S. Olympic Team Track and Field Trials. This year it was held in the storied confines of Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
The weeklong competition came to a close yesterday and the leader board featured some Sun Devil flavor.
A pair of graduated ASU athletes will be donning the red, white and blue for the Summer Games in Beijing come August.
Just weeks removed from winning her fourth consecutive NCAA Heptathlon title for ASU, Jacquelyn Johnson qualified for the Olympics by capturing a second-place finish in the Heptathlon.
The Yuma native's 6,347 points were good for second in the seven-event competition, behind Hyleas Fountain's 6,667.
Johnson was one of three Americans to qualify in the event, along with Fountain and Diana Pickler.
"I am honored and it's a dream come true," Johnson told the United States of America Track and Field official Web site, "It means a lot to qualify for the Olympics. Whether it is first, second or third, I am just honored to know that I made the Olympic team."
Her secret?
"I love Olive Garden Chicken Parmesan and that is always my favorite meal before competition," she said.
Johnson will be joined by a fellow former Sun Devil Trevell Quinley, who competed for ASU from 2001 to 2005.
Quinley earned top marks in the long jump competition, with his 27 foot, 5 1/4-inch leap in his sixth and final attempt. He took some extra satisfaction from winning the event, as he silenced some doubters that said he wouldn't even finish in the top three to make the U.S. Olympic team.
"Being predicted to take fourth, it definitely lit a fire under me," Quinley said. "I am so blessed to be able to do what I did and I love not being expected to make the team, but I did and I won."
Quinley will be joined by Brian Johnson and Miguel Pate — the runner-up and third-place finishers, respectively — to represent the USA in the long jump in Beijing.
The 2004 Olympic gold medal winner Dwight Phillips was left on the outside looking in, as he was edged out by Pate by just three quarters of an inch.
Quinley and Johnson weren't the only Sun Devils to make some noise in Eugene. A trio of ASU's most successful athletes from the past year each made it to their respective finals as well.
ASU's tag team of Jessica Pressley (seventh) and Sarah Stevens (eleventh) finished among the nation's best in the shot put competition, while Kyle Alcorn notched an eleventh-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase event.
For the select Sun Devils participating, it was a fitting end a wildly successful season for the ASU track team that won two national titles.
Reach the reporter at: alex.espinoza@asu.edu.
