North Yarmouth native Ben True’s bid to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in two events ended unsuccessfully Friday night when he placed 11th in the men’s 10,000-meter final at the U.S. trials in Eugene, Oregon.
True, a graduate of Greely High School in Cumberland Center, ran among the leaders early in the race but fell back to finish in 29 minutes, 4.21 seconds, more than a minute behind race winner Galen Rupp (27:55.04).
Rupp sprinted past Shadrack Kipchirchir with 200 meters left to earn his ticket to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for next month’s Summer Games. Kipchirchir and third-place Leonard Korir also secured Olympic berths.
The 30-year-old True, who now lives and trains in Hanover, New Hampshire, will attempt to qualify in the 5,000-meter run beginning Monday. He will be joined in that event by Bangor High School graduate Riley Masters, the who now runs for the Seattle, Washington-based Brooks Beasts Track Club.
Among other Mainers competing in the first full day of the track and field trials at historic Hayward Field on Friday, Kate Hall of Casco and Isaiah Harris of Lewiston advanced with top finishes during first-round competition in their events.
Hall, the Lake Region High School graduate who is transferring to the University of Georgia after spending her freshman year of college at Iowa State, finished eighth in the women’s long jump prelims, with the top 12 advancing to Saturday’s finals scheduled for 2:45 p.m. Eastern time.
Hall jumped 21-5¼ on her first attempt of the prelims and bettered that with a 21-7½ on her third try.
Harris won the third of four heats in the first round of the men’s 800-meter run to qualify automatically for Saturday’s 3 p.m. semifinals.
Harris, the rising sophomore at Penn State who finished fourth in the event at the NCAA Division I championships and has a personal-best time of 1:45.76 for 800 meters, won his trials heat in 1:47.60.
The top three finishers in each heat as well as the next four fastest times qualified for the semifinals but two of the pre-meet favorites, Donovan Brazier and Duane Solomon, failed to advance.
Carsyn Koch of Wade, the Washburn District High School graduate who just finished her sophomore year at Cedarville (Ohio) University, placed fifth out of seven runners in the third of five women’s 800-meter preliminary-round heats and did not qualify for Saturday’s semifinals.
Koch, the reigning NCAA Division II champion in the 800 both indoors and outdoors, was timed in 2:05.57.
Her qualifying time entering the Trials was 2:02:39.
Koch, who won seven individual outdoor track state championships in five different events while at Washburn, ran in fifth place for much of the first lap before falling as far back as seventh. She passed one runner on the back stretch of the second lap and another during the final sprint to the finish line to finish fifth.
The winning time of Koch’s heat was 2:03.31.
The top two finishers in each heat and the next six-fastest times advanced to the semifinals.
Matthew Forgues of Boothbay earned a sixth-place finish in the first event of the track and field trials, the men’s 20-kilometer race walk held Thursday in Salem, Oregon.
Veteran John Nunn won the race, but since none of the American competitors had achieved the Olympic standard of 1 hour, 24 minutes in the event, no one will represent the U.S. in the event in Rio.
The top two finishers in the women’s 20K race walk, Maria Michta-Coffey and Miranda Melville, did qualify for the 2016 Summer Games.
Editor’s Note: Story was corrected to reflect Riley Masters’ hometown as Bangor.
