DETROIT (12/5/2022) -- Detroit Mercy track and field and cross country alum Ben Kendell '18 has earned bid to the United States Olympic Marathon trials, which will be held on Feb. 3, 2024, in Orlando, Florida. 

Kendell earned the opportunity to participate in the qualifier following a time of 2:15:49 for 15th at the California International Marathon on Dec. 4.

He will be the fifth male Titan to compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials, following William Daly '36 (1936), Wally Gruber '49 (1948), current Director of Cross Country & Track and Field Guy Murray '89 (2000) and Colin Cashner '15 (2016). 

The Titan harrier had an outstanding collegiate career for Detroit Mercy from 2014-2019 in cross country and track and field, earning Detroit Mercy's President's Award for the top senior student-athlete and the Horizon League's  Coleman Medal of Honor, presented annually to the league's top male and female student-athletes who best exemplify the dignity and high purpose of the league and its membership, in 2019. 

In cross country, he was All-Horizon League First Team in all four years, winning the individual conference title in 2018 as a senior, while finishing runner-up twice and fifth as a freshman. That fifth-place finish helped the Titans win the Horizon League Championship in 2014, and he was also selected the HL Outdoor Athlete of the Year following his victorious run as a graduate senior. He ended his cross country career in style, taking silver at the 2018 NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championship — the highest place in a regional run by a Titan in school history and the best HL finish since 2008 — and placing 95th at the NCAA DI National Championship with a school 10k record.

His name is all over the Detroit Mercy record books as he owns the school mark in the 4-mile (19:39 at 2018 Running Fit-Detroit Mercy Titan Invitational), 8K (23:54 at 2018 Great Louisville Classic) and 10K (30:35 at 2018 NCAA GLR) with six career wins and five more runner-up performances.

In track, he was a four-time Horizon League champion winning the indoor 3000-meters in 2017 and 2018 as well as the outdoor 5,000m in 2019 and the 10,000m in 2015 and was runner-up in the 10,000m in 2016 and 2018. He was also chosen the Horizon League Male Outdoor Athlete of the Year in 2019 as he broke the Horizon League record in the 5,000m with a time of 14:23.94.

Kendall qualified for the 10,000m at the NCAA East Preliminary Championship in 2018 and 2019, taking 20th in 2018 and 21st in 2019 with a time of 30:06 in both years.

More information on the trials will be released as the time gets closer.