June 28, 2008
Photos - First Half 
EUGENE, Ore. -
The first day of the USATF Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Ore., occurred Friday. Several former and current Tigers were on hand to take part in the eight-day "Super Bowl" of track & field. Tiger post-collegian Christian Cantwell automatically qualified for tomorrow's final of the men's shot put with a first-round toss that went past 68 feet. In addition, Tiger post-collegian Fiona Asigbee has completed the first day's program of the women's heptathlon in seventh place with 3,589 points. Over 20,000 saw the event in the Hayward Field stadium as 6,500 watched outside in the festival venue.
Cantwell (Eldon, Mo.) was one-and-done for the day, needing to only mark 67-7 (20.60m) on one of three attempts to automatically qualify for tomorrow's finals. Just two minutes into the competition, Cantwell marked his clincher of 68-8¾ {20.82m) which was the third-best, first-round qualifier with Adam Nelson (69-0) and Reese Hoffa (68-10½) tossing their firsts just a bit better. Tomorrow's final is slated for 4:40 p.m., pacific , and will be aired live on NBC.
"There was no pressure, I've done this many times before," said Cantwell about the qualifying-round process. "My plan was to just throw it out there, and come back and do the same thing tomorrow, when it really counts. What's going to happen is going to happen. You can have a bad day or a good day, but in the end someone has to win and someone has to lose. My hand is not too shaky, and I'm just going to get back out there tomorrow."
Asigbee (Walford, Iowa) started the day with a 13.80 clocking in the hurdles to stand ninth after one event in the hepathlon. A solid clearance of 5-10 (1.78m) in the high jump pushed Asigbee to sixth overall. After a personal best of 43-2 (13.16m) in the shot put, Asigbee went ahead of her PR pace by 15 points and gained another spot on the overall field to move to fifth overall. With a 24.95 clocking at 200 meters, Asigbee lost spots in the overall standing to end day one in seventh.
Tiger senior Trisa Nickoley (Tecumseh, Kan.) took sixth in her heat and clocked a 2:05.83, just six tenths of a second from fourth and the final automatic qualifying spot. All but one of the four time qualifiers came from a very fast first heat where the top seven placers clocked sub-2:05s. The last time qualifier came from the second heat (2:05.10) from Western Michigan's Becky Horn. Nickoley's final place at the trials will be 19th of 30.
Post-collegian Neville Miller placed sixth in his heat and clocked 1:48.52 in a tightly-compact heat. Miller was in the No. 1 starting position, or, the most inside towards the rail. The sprint to the break line was between Miller and Texas' Jacob Hernandez and they split the difference at the 200-meter mark. Coming through at 53.41, the heat was still too close to call with several in the hunt. As time went along, Miller drifted from the front half of the main pack to the back half and had to fight his way around the final turn, out wide to find that he had to outsprint Oregon's Andrew Wheating for a top-four automatically-qualifying spots. Miller came a half second from a time-qualifying ticket to the semifinals and will finish 18th overall in the trials.
In the finals of the women's 10,000-meter run, former Tiger Serena Burla placed 16th in running 33:40.40.
Tomorrow, Asigbee will complete her run in the women's heptathlon with the long jump, javelin, and 800-meter run. In addition, Cantwell's final in the men's shot put will be among the day's highlights. Read the live TrialsBlog on mutigers.com for the most up-to-date info.
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