WITH FOUR AMERICANS having met the OG entry standard of 8460, attention focused on which three would get through to make the tough U.S. team.
An unfortunate injury to Kyle Garland prior to the pole vault made the group a trio with reigning U.S. champ Harrison Williams, two-time Olympian Zach Ziemek and promising Heath Baldwin left to sort their order.
Here’s how it went down.
100 Meters: Ziemek led everyone at 10.46, lowering his PR by 0.09. Among the contenders, Garland was next with a solid 10.64, but Williams (10.74) and Baldwin (10.85) were down compared to their PR scores.
Long Jump: Ziemek’s lead grew from 12 to 43 points, even with an average-for-him 24-6¼ (7.47). He was 57 up on the nearest of the “Big 4,” Garland, with Williams and Baldwin 71 and 93 points back, respectively.
Shot: A PR by Ziemek of 51-11¼ (15.83) grew his lead to 51 points as Baldwin moved into the runner-up position with an even larger PR at 54-2½ (16.52) to lead all putters. Garland (50-3½/15.33) and Williams (48-7¼/14.81) were not near their PRs, and a separation from Ziemek/Baldwin to Garland/Williams appeared to develop among the Big 4.
High Jump: The big news here was the sub-par 6-1¼ (1.86) by Williams, who did 6-6¼/1.99 in his PR score to win last year. It now looked like Garland — co-leader with a solid 6-11¾ (2.13) — had the leg up on the apparent race for 3rd. Baldwin matched Garland at 6-11¾ (with no misses) while Ziemek was next with a good 6-10¾ (2.10) as his lead over Baldwin shrank to 22 points.
400 Meters: Baldwin took the overall lead at 4508 with his second PR of the meet, 48.58, as Ziemek was now the runner-up overall, 31 points behind after running a solid 49.72. Garland was in 3rd (-52 points) after a solid 48.91. Fastest in the field was Williams, but his 46.51 was still slower than the 46.35 from his winning score last year as he finished Day 1 in 7th, 230 points down. Baldwin was 39 points up on his 8470 PR pace and Ziemek was 8 points ahead of his 8676 PR, while Williams (-187 to his 8630) and Garland (-204 to his 8720) were both way down.
110 Hurdles: Baldwin increased his lead with a near-PR 13.77 to lead the field. Garland was just behind at 13.78 — down for him, but enough to move into 2nd, now 53 points behind. Ziemek was very sub-par at 14.81 and dropped another place in the…
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