By Mike MacAdam | The Daily Gazette, Schenectady, N.Y. (TNS)
Former Saratoga Springs High School and Syracuse University star Aidan Tooker competed in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase on Friday in Eugene, Oregon, but had any chance of reaching the final compromised by a fall on the first lap.
Running in the second of two heats, Tooker took a tumble over the second hurdle, and although he was able to recover enough to regain contact with the other 14 runners, he finished last in 8:59.54.
Kenneth Rooks, well known in steeplechase circles for having won the 2023 U.S. national championship despite taking a fall in the middle of the race, won the heat at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon on Friday in 8:26.90.
Matthew Wilkinson won the other heat in 8:20.61.
The top five from each heat, plus the four next fastest runners from either heat qualified for Sunday’s final.
Tooker, who was inducted to the Greater Capital Region Track, Field and Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2022, is one of three Capital Region runners ever to break the four-minute mile. He accomplished that with a 3:59.39 at the Terrier Classic in Boston in 2019.
He was a 13-time Section II champ at Saratoga, a two-time state indoor champ and a state Federation champ in cross country.
At Syracuse, Tooker was an NCAA First Team All-American in the steeplechase in 2018.
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