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There was no sophomore slump for Angela Bizzarri.

The University of Illinois track and field athlete has had a terrific second season that has culminated in her reaching the finals of the United States Olympic Trials this week.

Bizzarri races in the 5,000-meter finals on Friday, July 4, after running a personal best of 15 minutes, 45.78 seconds in the preliminaries.

"I'm pretty excited," Bizzarri said. "Obviously, it is everyone's goal. I was kind of on the bubble for a while, I knew I just had to fight to get to the finals."

The top three finishers that meet the Olympic standard time of

15:09.00 in the finals held at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon will make the U.S. Olympic team.

It is Bizzarri's first time at the trials, which have become a learning experience.

"It's been crazy. The fans love distance running, and we've had like 20,000 here each day," Bizzarri said. "It is a lot of fun having people excited about the sport."

Prior to the Olympic Trials, Bizzarri placed second in the 5,000 at the Big Ten meet and also placed second at the NCAA outdoor championships.

"My spring went really well," Bizzarri said. "Towards the end of the season I felt I started to race how I wanted to."

She was also named and All-American in cross country, and both indoor and outdoor track, becoming the only athlete in the program's history to be an All-American in all three seasons in the same school year.

The 2006 Mason graduate also earned the Dike Eddleman Award as the University of Illinois Female Athlete of the Year.

"It was unexpected," she said. "There were a lot of great athletes and it is hard to compare sport to sport because we have so many great athletes doing great things."

Bizzarri has a 3.4 GPA in biology still carries with her what she learned with the Comets.

"All the experiences I had at Mason will always be with me," Bizzarri said. "It all builds upon itself."