>I feel like I'm biased to the old names I'm familiar with. I
>don't recognize a lot of the names at the top of the
>performance lists

Seems reasonable to me. It's not universally the case, but new names are new for a reason, and the format of the trials really seems to favor veterans. Doesn't mean rookies and newcomers won't make a bunch of waves, but veteran savvy at getting through the rounds with something left for finals is both a move that you learn and one you need to train for. Most of the NCAA kids in particular are backfooted because they just finished a national championship meet that their coaches have targeted with extreme specificity.

If this dynamic is real, and it can be real but not universally applicable, obviously. Then the ones I'm curious about are the kids like Mu and Hocker, who maybe began the season hoping to make it to the trials and maybe get a good foot in the door for 2024 but then proved by, like, January that they had a real shot of making the team. Did their coaches make some adjustments? Feels like Mu's 400m focus during the college season was part of that, but Hocker had an incredibly successful NCAA meet but still hasn't run as fast as he did in January.

>>
>>100m:
>>Women - Richardson, Sturgis, Bartoletta
>>Men - Bromell, Young, Kerley

Kerley! Love it. I couldn't bring myself to do it. That 100m field, to me, isn't eye-popping great but it is really deep. Rooting for the guy, though.

>>200m:
>>women - Pass
>>men - Lyles, Laird, Bednarek

This could be an incredible field for the US. Laird is really fun to watch, so he's one of the NCAA names I hope still has something in the tank. Love a wiry sprinter. Feels like an underdog to me.

Relatedly, I wish I could figure out what's up with Fahnbulleh. The ghouls at Letsrun.com seem to have narrowed it down to:

-missed the trials window because he had such a big breakthrough at NCAA
-he's permitted to run for Liberia and its an easier path to making the team

I hope it's the latter. He's crazy fun to watch and it would make the 200m field even wilder.

>>400m:
>>women - Hayes, Ellis, Felix
>>men - Norman, Cherry, Ross

It helps that she's been running well lately, but I'm pleased that I'm not the only member of the Allyson Felix nostalgia squad. She's really just polishing her Best-Ever credentials at this point, but you've got to think if she was still with a big shoe company that the One More Chance to See Allyson Felix Win an Olympic Medal campaign would be unstoppable. Weird to see somebody with her resume still running fast but simply ... not getting much hype. Shows how much influence Nike has on the sport.

>>800m:
>>women: Mu, Wilson, Price
>>men: Brazier, Hoppel, Crisp

Mu! And Vincent Crisp runs for a local track club here. I'd love to see him sneak a spot. I don't agree with all of these, but I like your list a lot more than mine.

>>1500m:
>>women: Simpson, St.Pierre, Osika
>>men: Centrowitz, Engels, Nuguse

I refuse to believe that Simpson and Centrowitz are done until they definitively prove it by not making a team. Too strong tactically in an event that reliably becomes about tactics.

>>400 hurdles
>>women - McLaughlin, Little, Cockrell
>>men - Benjamin, Burrell, Selmon

Love that you've got Cockrell making the team twice. She's got a chance to be a huge star. I couldn't bring myself to leave Muhammad off the team, but she's thirty and hasn't raced at her usual level this year. She'll be an interesting test case for how much COVID has forced folks to fly under the radar. McLaughlin didn't race a 400m hurdles until last week, so it seems more than plausible that Muhammad is just getting ready to pop when it matters. But that event is getting just as grimy for the women as it is for the men.