EUGENE, Oregon — Maine runners Riley Masters and Ben True are 12½ laps away from a spot on the U.S. Olympic team and a trip to the Rio Games in August.
Bangor native Masters and North Yarmouth native True will compete in the 5,000-meter final in the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at 8:20 p.m. Saturday at Hayward Field. The top three finishers in the 16-man field earn spots on the U.S. Olympic team.
The race will be broadcast by NBC-TV.
True and Masters competed in the same semifinal heat on Monday night to earn their spots in the final. True finished third with a time of 13 minutes, 48.11 seconds and Masters placed seventh in 13:49.75.
The top six in each semifinal qualified for the final. Four positions also were awarded to the four fastest times outside of the top six in each heat, and Masters advanced with the second fastest time of those four.
Another Mainer, Rachel Schneider of Sanford, narrowly missed qualifying for the 1,500-meter final Friday night when she finished sixth in her semifinal heat with a time of 4:13.43 and 17th overall. The top five in each semifinal and the next two fastest times advance to the Sunday final.
Masters and True face a talented field with University of Portland senior William Kincaid turning in the top qualifying time of 13:47.86 while Ryan Hill, last year’s USATF outdoor champion in the 5,000, had the second best time in 13:47.89.
Bernard Lagat, a seven-time USATF outdoor champ in the 5,000, will also be competing along with Galen Rupp, a silver medalist at the 2012 London Games in the 10,000-meter run. Rupp has already qualified in the 10,000 and marathon for the 2016 Rio Games.
The rest of Saturday’s field includes Jeff See, Lopez Lomong, Shadrack Kipchirchir, Eric Jenkins, Diego Estrada, Hassan Mead, Paul Chelimo, Brian Shrader, Garrett Heath and Sean McGorty.
Masters is a former Bangor High running star who then went to the University of Maine where he was a two-time All-American in the indoor mile as well as a two-time America East cross-country champion.
He transferred to the University of Oklahoma in January 2012 and went on to earn All-American status for the Sooners in the distance medley relay as well as win the Big 12 1,500-meter championship and go on to set a school record for that distance of 3:37.19.
That led him to the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials where he missed qualifying for the 1,500 final by 0.16 seconds.
True, who was a running standout at Greely High in Cumberland, is a former Dartmouth College running and Nordic skiing All-American who now lives and trains in Hanover, New Hampshire.
He failed in his attempt to make the Olympic team in the 10,000-meter run when he finished 11th in that event last Friday night.
True told r unnersworld.com that his poor opening performance was due to dehydration and he said it was his worst race.
“There have been many terrible races in my career, but I think Friday topped them all in terms of how terrible I felt and how out of it I was,” he said in the report, adding that he focused more on hydrating in the days between the 10,000 and 5,000.
“It’s good to have a little bit of redemption after Friday’s disaster,” he said in the report. “I consciously tried to make sure I was taking in a lot of fluids.”
True was also buoyed by the support of his wife, Sarah, who was in the stands for Monday’s race. She has qualified for the Olympics in the triathlon.