OXFORD, Miss. (WJTV) – Ole Miss track & field NCAA Champions McKenzie Long (women’s 200-meter dash) and Raven Saunders (women’s shot put) are both going to the Paris Olympic Games.

They both qualified on Saturday, June 29 at day eight of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Long finished third in the women’s 200-meter final at 21.91 (+0.6) to claim the last ticket to Paris, the second-fastest wind-legal 200-meter time of her career and the fastest ever by a third-place finisher at the Trials. Long is the first woman in Ole Miss history to qualify for the Olympics in a running event, and joins only Brittney Reese and Raven Saunders as the lone women in track & field program history to become an Olympian.

“I really was just smiling from ear-to-ear, honestly,” Long said. “I wanted to come into this race very confident in what I’ve done this far, and just crossing that line knowing that I’m an Olympian now, it’s so surreal. And I know my Mom is smiling, from cheek-to-cheek. I know she is beyond proud of me, and that’s all I could ever want from her.”

In the women’s shot put, Saunders only needed one throw to secure her spot on Team USA, but decided to notch a slight improvement in the final round anyway. Saunders took the lead on her first-round season-best of 19.88m/65-02.75, and was eventually overtaken by eventual champion and two-time reigning World gold medalist Chase Jackson in the fourth round at 20.10m/65-11.50. That did little to dampen Saunders’ Olympic dreams though, as she held onto the second spot and even improved in the sixth round to 19.90m/65-03.50.

This is the third Olympic berth for Saunders, who finished fifth as a 20-year-old in Rio in 2016 before winning a silver medal in Tokyo in 2021.