The Class Of 2016: Anna Cockrell [Teaser]


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The Class of 2016 has the potential to go down as the greatest crop of track and field athletes from one graduating class ever. 

A handful of athletes from that year have already won NCAA titles, earned international medals and set new American and World records. We caught up with them as they prepared for their biggest test yet: The U.S. Olympic Trials. 

We turn next to North Carolina native Anna Cockrell, a multiple-time NCAA champion at the 400 meter hurdles who is among the United States' best performers at the distance nationally. 

A once-prolific athlete in high school at Providence Day School who is among a family of athletes, Cockrell won the 400mH at the Pan American Junior Championships as a junior in 2015 before going on to double that excellence a year later at the World U20 Championships in Poland.

Over the last four years, Cockrell has not only been one of the University of Southern California's most consistent and successful hurdlers of recent memory, but she also helped carry the Trojans to an NCAA team title in 2021, winning both the 100mH and 400mH at the NCAA Championships. 

Heading into the U.S. Olympic Trials, Cockrell is in the enviable position to potentially qualify for her first Olympic Games. 

For more on the series, visit the links below.