Paige Blackburn, a 2008 graduate of Soldotna High School, saw her Olympic dream come up short Friday at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.
Competing in the discus, the Air Force captain finished 21st in the preliminaries with a throw of 172 feet, 11 inches.
Blackburn needed to be in the top 12 to qualify for Saturday’s finals.
Blackburn came into the trials with the seventh-best throw by a U.S. woman this year. That throw was 200—8 and came in March in Los Angeles.
