Mason sophomore Kate Ziegler made her first Olympic appearance in Beijing this summer. She was named to the 2008 U.S. Olympic swim team after finishing second in the 400-meter and the 800-meter freestyle events at the Olympic trials in Omaha, Nebraska.
Ziegler, who struck gold in the 2007 World Championships in the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle in Melbourne, Australia, is a professional athlete, which makes her ineligible to swim for Mason. She does, however, serve as a volunteer assistant coach for and trains with the university’s swim team.
Three former Mason track and field standouts also traveled to Beijing in August. Richard Phillips, BS Information Technology ’06, Maurice Wignall, BA Psychology ’01, and Cydonie Mothersill competed in the final round.
Wignall and Phillips, competing for their native Jamaica, finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the men’s 110-meter hurdles. Mothersill competed for her home country of the Cayman Islands in the women’s 200-meter dash.
Phillips holds Mason’s school record in the indoor 60-meter hurdles (7.68, 2005) and the outdoor 110-meter hurdles (13.48, 2004).
Wignall holds claim to one of Mason’s men’s track and field national titles with his win of the indoor long jump with a distance of 26-feet, 1.5-inches (7.96 m) in 1999. Wignall holds the Jamaican national record of 13.17 in the 110-meter hurdles, set at the Athens Olympics.
Mothersill was named an All-American twice at Mason. She holds the indoor and outdoor school records in the 200-meter dash.
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