Tracy Press

West High grad earns spot on Summer Olympic track team.

Trevell Quinley takes flight in the men's long jump final at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore., Sunday, June 29, 2008. Quinley finished first with a long jump of 8.36 meters. Associated Press/Charlie Riedel

Trevell “T.J.” Quinley, 25, earned his spot on the team Sunday when he logged the best finish in the long jump at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. Quinley went into the trials with the fourth-best qualifying jump, and on his last jump of the day, he established his new personal best and the team’s best mark for the trials — 8.36 meters, or 27 feet, 5.25 inches.

Quinley had third place going into the last jump, and his jump bumped the team’s other top competitors, Brian Johnson and Miguel Pate, to second and third place. Dwight Phillips, who won the gold medal in the event in Athens in 2004 with a jump of 8.59 meters, finished in fourth place.

In a statement released on the Olympic Trials website Quinley said he didn’t feel much pressure going into the event, but the pressure picked up by the fifth jump when everyone had established their distances.

“Being predicted to take fourth, it definitely lit a fire under me,” he said. “I was relieved, and it took some of the pressure off, although I put it on myself. Whether I was ranked first or eighth, I knew I would make the team.”

Former West High track coach John Harvey said this makes Quinley the first local athlete to make it to the Summer Olympics. Harvey still is in contact with Quinley, who was headed to Europe this week for two meets and will return to the Olympic Training Center in San Diego before the team leaves for Beijing at the end of July.

“He’s done a lot of big things in track and field for the school and for the area,” Harvey said. Quinley was on the West track team for three years and graduated in 2001, the year he won the state championship in the long jump with a distance of 24-6, was a state finalist in the 300-meter hurdles and also was the Sac-Joaquin Section runner-up in the 110m hurdles. He holds the school record in the long jump, 24-7.5, and in the 300m hurdles, 38.1, and was also one of the school’s basketball standouts for two years.

He graduated from Arizona State University in 2005 and took first place in the Pac-10 Conference in the long jump his senior year after finishing as runner-up in 2002 and 2004. He went on to place fourth in the NCAA Outdoors championships that year.

Since college he has placed fourth in the USA Outdoors Championships in Indianapolis in 2006 and third in 2007.

Harvey, who coached track and field at West from 1999 to 2005 and now coaches at De La Salle High School in Concord, Quinley was just 9 when he met him. He said he’s glad to see that Quinley has been deliberate and methodical in how he progresses in his sport.

“There are some things you have to do, and some kids try to take shortcuts. T.J. did everything the right way. He finished college and got his degree. He took care of his business first, and that’s why the rewards are coming now.”

West Athletic Director Steve Thornton said it means a lot to the school to have a local graduate made the Olympic team. He noted that Quinley was also the school’s athlete of the year in 2001.

“It’s good to see good things happen for the kids who work hard,” he said.

Quinley’s younger sister, Shevell Quinley, also participated in the Olympic Trials in Eugene in the women’s heptathlon, but she did not qualify for the Olympic team. She is a 2005 West graduate and attends the University of Arizona, where she established the third best score for the heptathlon in during her freshman year in 2006.

Tracy previously has had a local athlete in the Winter Olympics. Bill Tavares of Tracy was a member of the two-man luge team in the 1992 games in Albertville, France

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written by Annie Snyder , July 01, 2008

Go Trevell! Tracy will be cheering for you! Your family must be so proud! Hard work paid off!

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written by amy , July 01, 2008

Sure looks like Tracy is full of "Stars!" Congratulations, Trevell Quinley Tracy is proud of you!!!

-amy