Andrew Wheating is Beijing-bound.
The Oregon sophomore completed his meteoric rise from seventh-best in the Pacific-10 Conference as a freshman to Olympian in one year with his trademark kick to take the second spot behind Nick Symmonds of the Oregon Track Club Elite. Christian Smith made it a Eugene-sweep by diving past four-time U.S. champion Khadevis Robinson at the line to sneak into third, leaving a Hayward Field-record crowd of 20,949 anything but speechless.
“I couldn’t have been happier for Oregon,” Wheating said. “We earned those three spots. There’s gonna be great representation in Beijing.”
The three runners sat through the back of the pack as Robinson pushed the pace hard, going through 400 meters in, according to Symmonds, just under 50 seconds.
“It was the fastest opening lap I’ve ever run,” he said.
As the second lap developed, they started to move up, Wheating along the outside, Symmonds on the inside.
“Andrew and I run so similarly,” Symmonds said. “He said he was waiting for me to move and I was waiting for him to move and we kinda just moved together and it’s a beautiful thing.”
With 200 meters to go, Symmonds was stuck behind a wall of runners, looking for the one opportunity he knew he’d get.
“I was seriously boxed in,” he said. When Jonathan Johnson moved “one step to the right,” Symmonds shot through, using “a little hockey move I picked up back in high school,” he said. “I knew once I got through that I’d win the race.”
At the same time, Wheating was sprinting wide of the pack, picking off runners as the crowd roared louder and louder.
He was in sixth place with 100 meters to go and moved into second place halfway down the homestretch. He wasn’t pushed after that and a look of disbelief grew on his face as he approached the line.
“When I started catching up to the rest of the field and they all started coming next to me, I couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t hear myself breathing, the crowd was screaming so loud, I lost it,” he said. “My face lit way up over that last 30 meters, I was so surprised. They really pushed me through that last 100…all I heard was the crowd. I believe Oregon was 1-2-3 because of this crowd.”
Both Symmonds and Wheating ran lifetime bests. Symmonds, blazing down the homestretch, finished in 1:44.10, while Wheating crossed the line in 1:45.03. Wheating’s time moved him into second-place all-time at Oregon, behind only 1984 Olympic gold medalist Joaquim Cruz.
Wheating also became the first Oregon Duck to make an Olympic team with eligibility remaining since Matt Centrowitz made the 1976 team in the 1,500m.
Meanwhile, behind Symmonds and Wheating, Robinson was hanging on for dear life as a mass of runners, including Smith, were coming up strong.
Smith, sneaking by Robinson on the inside, won the desperate lunge that left both runners sprawled out on the track.
“I saw Khadevis and I knew he was the guy I had to get,” he said. “I just took the lean and dove. I don’t think a lean would be enough.”
Symmonds didn’t know until about a minute after the race that his teammate had made the team. He said that Wheating had told him that he was on, but it wasn’t until he looked up at the scoreboard that he saw that Smith had stuck into third.
“I knew he was capable of it,” Symmonds said. “I just didn’t know if he believed he was capable of it, but he sure does now. That just shows what a competitor Christian is.”
Going in, Smith didn’t have a time under the Olympic ‘A’ standard of 1:46.00, but he finished in 1:45.47, earning him an Olympic berth.
Even though he was surprised Robinson didn’t make the team, Symmonds said he still has a lot of respect for him as a competitor.
“I would have loved to have been up there in Beijing with him because I love racing with him, but if I had to have my pick I want my two Oregon boys out there,” he said.

Lagat grabs 5,000m crown

Bernard Lagat pulled away over the last 200 meters of the men’s 5,000m, the final race of the night, to win his second consecutive U.S. championship in a time of 13:27.47.
“The atmosphere was amazing,” he said. “The fans here are incredible. You could hear them as you crossed the finish line, and we just had so much support tonight. After the 800, the crowd was already excited and the energy was so good that I knew we would keep that excitement up for our race.”
As the pace picked up over the last half-mile, a pack of five – Lagat, Matt Tegenkamp, Ian Dobson, Bolota Asmerom and Chris Solinsky – pulled away from the rest. When Lagat made his move, the other four were all still in position to battle for the final two spots.
Tegenkamp, who had the fastest qualifying time in the field, managed to grab second in 13:29.68, while Dobson, a native of Klamath Falls, found a late burst to claim third in 13:29.76.
Asmerom, running for Oregon Track Club Elite, and Solinsky were unable to catch them.
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