Home cookin' - Los Angeles Times
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EUGENE, Ore. -- Local boys made good to the delight of another sellout crowd at Hayward Field Monday night.

Two Oregon Track Club members and a rising junior at the University of Oregon swept the Olympic places in the men’s 800 meters before a pulsating stadium.

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It was the highlight of the first four days of the Olympic trials, and it may wind up as the highlight of the 8-day meet.

Nick Symmonds, a Boise native who was a four-time Division III champion at Willamette University in Salem, Ore., was first, with Andrew Wheating, a Vermonter who runs for the

Ducks, second, and Kansas State grad Christian Smith, third.

‘The crowd was so loud, I couldn’t hear myself breathing, I couldn’t hear anyone next to me, I couldn’t hear feet -- the crowd pushed me through the last 100,’’ Wheating said.

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Both Symmonds and Wheating came from far back in the final 200 meters. Smith outdove Khadevis Robinson at the finish line to get third by 6/100ths of a second.

‘I had to go for it, or I would regret it forever,’’ Smith said.

Lopez Lomong, who finished fifth, just 11/100ths from third, filed a protest, which was denied, because he said Robinson grabbed him while falling.

‘I might have,’’ Robinson admitted. ‘I was so lactated I couldn’t see. I was hoping Jesus was out there so I could have grabbed him, too.’’

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Both Symmonds and Wheating looked as if they would have to barge their way to the front after lagging behind, as planned, for the first 650 meters. Symmonds slipped through a gap in the middle (‘I used an old hockey move’’), and Wheating went way outside.

‘We went out in 50 seconds, which is fast, and I was worried I wouldn’t have that wallop at the end,’’ Symmonds said. ‘I decided with 150 to go I was going to wait until the last 100 and just flip the switch. I’ve been waiting the last two rounds, holding back, holding back, and I was finally able to let it hang out. It felt so good to burn the last 100 meters.’’

It led Symmonds to a personal best time of 1 minute, 44.10 seconds and helped drag Wheating into second with a personal best 1:45.03.

‘Andrew and I run so similarly,’’ Symmonds said. ‘We were both running our own very smart races in the back. He was waiting for me to move, and I was waiting for him, and we both moved together.’’

Wheating, 20, is unusually large (6 foot, 5 inches) for a half miler. He tried track for the first time as a senior in high school. Barely two years later, he is on the Olympic team.

‘Once I got that transition year from high school to college figured out, things just started to fall into place,’’ he said.

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Just what Christian Smith was thinking.

-- Philip Hersh

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