EUGENE, Ore. — North Yarmouth native Ben True earned a spot in the 5,000-meter final by finishing third in his heat, and Bangor native Riley Masters also earned a spot in the final at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials on Monday night.

True, who missed his first opportunity to make the Olympic team by finishing 11th in the 10,000 meters last Friday, ran a time of 13:48.11 in the first 5,000-meter heat on Monday. He finished behind William Kincaid (13:47.86) and Ryan Hill (13:47.89).

Last summer, True finished second in the 5,000 at the U.S. championships to earn a spot in the world championships, where he finished sixth in a time of 13:54.07.

Masters finished seventh in the first heat with a time of 13:49.75. The top six finishers in each heat plus the next four fastest times advance to the final. Masters had the 14th best time overall in qualifying.

Bernard Lagat won the second heat in 13:48.36. Galen Rupp, who has already won the marathon and the 10,000 in the U.S. trials, finished sixth in the second heat to qualify for the 5,000-meter finals as well.

The final for the 5,000 is 8:20 p.m. Saturday.

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Lewiston High graduate Isaiah Harris finished sixth in the 800-meter final and failed to make the Olympic team. Harris finished in 1:46.47. Clayton Murphy won the race in 1:44.76. Boris Berian (1:44.92) and Charles Jock (1:45.48) will join Murphy on the Olympic team.

Harris, who recently completed his freshman season at Penn State, qualified for the finals by finishing fourth in his semifinal heat on Saturday with a time of 1:45.95. That time was the fourth fastest in the semifinals. He advanced to the semifinals by running 1:47.6 on Friday in the prelims.

On Monday, Harris was in second place through 600 meters, before falling back in the final 200.

In the women’s 800, Alysia Montana, the runner who has been victimized more than once by a cruel, unseemly side of her sport got the worst break of all at the trials.

Cheated out of medal after medal by Russians who were later found to have been doping –including at the London Olympics four years ago – Montano saw her chance at an Olympic victory come up painfully short when she tripped over a competitor’s foot while lining up her last charge in Monday night’s final.

“It doesn’t really settle in in that moment where you’re thinking, ‘This is it,'” Montano said about the moment when she hooked shoes with Brenda Martinez, who had made contact with the leader and eventual runner-up, Ajee Wilson. “And then, you get up and they’re really far away. Your heart breaks.”

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Montano did get up. She jogged a bit, then stopped, fell to her knees and began to wail as she kicked her foot to the ground in disgust. She got up again and ran to the finish line, then collapsed to her knees, put her head on the ground, looked skyward, clutched her right hand to her heart and let out a primal wail.

“All of a sudden, they came around the corner and she wasn’t there,” said her husband, Louis, who was watching from the side with their daughter, Linnea, who turns 2 next month. “It was heartbreaking.”

Officials reviewed the tape and deemed the smash-up a result of incidental contact. They did not disqualify anyone. Asked if she would protest, Montano replied: “What good would that do me?”

She cruised into the final and, for 600 meters, everything looked fine. Boxed in on the rail in years past, she did what she’d been practicing all spring – moving out to Lane 3 to stay out of trouble and make her final push. She was vying for third place when the contact started.

“I saw tripping. Brenda start to trip and Alysia start to fall,” said Kate Grace, who picked an inside route and coasted by all the trouble for the victory.


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