Cal Poly graduate student Davis Bove competed in the first round of the men’s 1,500-meter at the U.S. Olympic Trials and was just .01 seconds away from qualifying for the semifinals on Friday.
In order to advance to the semifinals, competitors needed to finish in the top seven in one of three heats or have one of the next three fastest times.
At Oregon’s Hayward Field, Bove competed in Heat No. 1, finishing in eighth with a time of 3:39.0, just one-hundredth of a second behind Nike’s Josh Thompson.
Thompson secured the final spot in the semifinals with a time of 3:38.99 to earn the top-seven finish. Bove was .97 seconds away from advancing based on time, finishing 27th overall out of the 38 first-round competitors.
The race will mark the end of Bove’s collegiate track and field career. Though the Franklin, Tenn. native is still relatively new to Cal Poly, transferring in from LSU in the summer of 2023, his performance is another highlight as a Mustang.
Bove was named Cal Poly’s male athlete of the year for his track and field and cross country achievements, being a key contributor in both teams’ Big West title wins.
Along with individual conference titles in both sports, the graduate student qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championships by placing eighth at the NCAA West Regional.
In track and field, indoors, Bove established a program record in the men’s 1,000 with a time of 2:20.97 and became the fifth Mustang ever to run a sub-four-minute mile with the second-fastest time in school history (3:58.0).
Outdoors, he earned 18 points for the Mustangs in the Big West Championship meet, with an individual title in the men’s 1,500 alongside an NCAA West Prelims bid in the 1,500 and 5,000.
Following a close finish in the NCAA West Prelims, finishing .67 seconds away from qualifying for the finals based on time, Bove set a new school record in the 1,500 at the Music City Track Carnival on June 1 with a time of 3:38.40.
He then followed that by breaking the record he just set in the 1,500, with a personal best finish of 3:37.13 at the 2024 Portland Track Festival on June 9, securing a spot in the U.S. Olympic Trials.
Though Bove’s collegiate track and field career is over, he still has one year of eligibility left in cross country.