IUPUI grad qualifies for Olympic Trials marathon; Futsum Zienasellassie sets Indiana half-marathon record

IUPUI graduate Robert Murphy qualified for the U.S. Olympic marathon trials, and Futsum Zienasellassie set an Indiana state record in the half-marathon on Sunday morning in Houston.

Murphy, of Warsaw, met the cutoff by two seconds. The Feb. 29 trials at Atlanta will select three marathoners to the U.S. team for the Tokyo Olympics.

Murphy finished 20th overall, and 13th among Americans, in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 58 seconds. The trials standard is 2:19.

He was at 32:27 through 10 kilometers at 1:08.42 at the half-marathon. So he kept a steady pace over 26.2 miles, running the second half in 1:10:16 and finishing with at an average of 5:19 per mile.

Murphy, 25, was diagnosed with autism when he was 3.

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 At IUPUI, he became the Jaguars’ first to qualify for the NCAA Track and Field Championships, making it in the steeplechase in 2017. He won the Mel Garland Distinguished Student-Athlete Award, the highest honor given by the university to an athlete.

Zienasellassie finished 14th in the half-marathon, and fourth among Americans, in 1:01:44. Previous record by an Indiana high school alum was 1:01:48, set by Indianapolis’ Noah Droddy, an International School graduate.

Droddy qualified for the Olympic Trials marathon but recently posted on Twitter that he is injured and out of that race.

Zienasellassie was a seven-time state champion at North Central High School after emigrating from Eritrea. He is aiming to make the U.S. team in the 10,000 meters rather than the marathon.

He was at 14:31 through 5 kilometers, 29:06 at 10K and 58:38 at 20K.

In the women’s half-marathon, Notre Dame alumnae Molly Huddle and Molly Seidel finished 12th and 13th in 1:09:34 and 1:09:35. That was 5:19 mile pace.

They were second and third Americans behind Sarah Hall, 1:08:58.

Huddle, 35, who made Olympic teams at 5,000 meters in 2012 and 10,000 meters in 2016, is trying for the marathon in 2020.

Contact IndyStar reporter David Woods at david.woods@indystar.com or call 317-444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.