After six days of beautiful sunshine, day seven of the U.S. Olympic Trials at Hayward Field gave way to more typical Eugene weather. Rain began to fall at around 4 p.m. and the temperature dipped, but the athletes were not going to let some water get in their way.
Brittany Mann represented the Oregon Ducks in the women’s shot put for the first event of the day. The freshman’s first throw was her best throw as she faulted on her other two. She placed 21st with a throw of 53 feet, three inches and failed to qualify for finals.
In final, Michelle Carter won the event and advanced to Rio with a throw of 64-3 1/3. Raven Saunders and Felisha Johnson both advanced to Rio with throws of 63-1 1/2 and 63-1 1/4, respectively.
Former Duck Jordan Hasay ran in the first round of the women’s 5,000 and qualified with a time of 15:34.50. Hasay held the second position in her heat for most of the race until the final two laps, but did not have the speed to finish strong. She finished ninth in her heat and earned the final qualifying spot.
“My confidence is a bit shaken after the 10k,” Hasay said. “I am really thankful for the opportunity to come back in the 5k and to just have some fun out there.”
She will enter the second round with the ninth fastest overall time.
Current Duck’s Alaysha Johnson and Sasha Wallace qualified for the second round of the women’s 110m hurdles. Johnson qualified with a personal best time of 12.96 seconds.
“My goal is to finish the race, have clean races, drop times… and I feel like I don’t have any pressure or anything to lose, so I just go out there,” Johnson said.
Wallace will enter the second round with the slowest qualifying time. She ran a 13.16, but if she runs close to her personal best time of 12.81, she has a good shot at qualifying for the finals.
In the first round of the men’s 200, Oregon alum Arthur Delaney tied his personal best time of 20.49 seconds. Unfortunately for Delaney, that time was not good enough to advance to the first round.
“I love this track, I love the energy,” Delaney. “I did the best I could… My plan was just to [start fast] and maintain that.”
The men’s 1500 was stacked with current and former Ducks. Mathew Centrowitz, Colby Alexander, Andrew Wheating, Jordan McNamara, Johnny Gergorek and Daniel Winn are all Oregon alum’s. Sam Prakel and Mathew Maton both currently compete at Oregon.
Winn, Gregorek, McNamara all qualified for the semi-final in the first heat, with Winn running the overall second-best time in 3:42.22.
In the second heat, former Duck Alexander qualified with a time of 3:50.01. Current Duck Parkel was right on his heels, qualifying with a time of 3:50.73.
“Tactically I thought I ran pretty well,” Alexander said. “I stayed relaxed, finished well and got to the next round.”
In the third and final heat, Centrowitz, Wheating and Maton all moved on to the Friday semifinal. Wheating exited the heat with the best time of the three at 3:42.41.
“I had a message to send that I deserved to be here,” Wheating said. “With 250 meters to go I was like, ‘I’m going to spice it up a little’, so I threw a kick in there.”
Wheating earned the final Olympic Trials spot in the field, and was not sure he would be competing until he found out on Wednesday.
Centrowitz was right behind him with a time of 3:42.48. Oregon freshman Mathew Maton ran a 3:42.51 in his first Olympic Trials race ever.
“I was always worried about pre-lims because I did not make finals at NCAA’s,” Maton said. “So coming in I was like, ‘I need to figure out what went wrong. I figured it out, but I did not even need to use that plan because we came out pretty spicy.”
The semi-finals of the men’s 1500 will take place at 4:12 p.m. Friday.
Katurah Orji took first place in the women’s triple jump final with a jump of 46-11 3/4. Christina Epps finished second with a jump of 46-6, while Andrea Geubulle was third with 45-9 3/4.
In the women’s 3k steeplechase, Emma Coburn was the first to qualify for Rio with a time of 9:17.48.
“I was trying to stay relaxed,” Coburn said. “In a steeplechase especially, there is so much risk and drama with the barriers, so I was staying relaxed and confident.”
Nike Bowerman TC teammates Courtney Freriechs and Colleen Quigley will join Coburn in Rio. Freriechs ran the second place time of 9:20.92 while Quigley ran 9:21.29.
Friday’s action begins with the women’s pole vault and men’s 110 meter hurdles.
Follow Jack Butler for trials coverage on Twitter @Butler917