Winger wins national title number six in Eugene...

EUGENE—Vancouver native Kara Winger (left/photo by Paul Merca) won her sixth career national javelin championship on a warm and muggy Friday evening at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.

Winger, who has been the dominant javelin thrower in the United States ever since winning the US Olympic Trials here in 2008, took care of business in round 1, getting the spear out 213-1 (64.94m), and making the competition anti-climactic, with Brittany Borman the only other thrower to throw 200 feet, with a best of 202-9 (61.80m) in round 6, after two tosses in the first three rounds of 200-5 (61.08m).

Washington alum Jeremy Taiwo (above/photo by Mike Scott) made his second straight world championship team in the decathlon, finishing second in the two day, ten event competition with a final score of 8264 points, his second highest score this season, as former world champion Trey Hardee won with a final score of 8725 points.

Taiwo began day 2 with a 14.40 clocking in the 110 hurdles, then threw 135-0 (41.15m) in the discus.

After a solid effort in the pole vault of 16-2.25 (4.95m), he threw the javelin 157-10 (48.11m), before running 4:29.27 in the 1500 meters.

In one of the biggest surprises of the meet so far, Camas’ Alexa Efraimson finished fourth in her heat of the 1500 meters in 4:15.21, and did not advance to Sunday’s finals.

Other highlights:

—Cas Loxsom of the Seattle-based Brooks Beasts ran the fastest time in the semifinals of the men’s 800, winning his heat in 1:44.92.  Teammate Nick Symmonds advanced to Sunday’s final with a season best 1:45.95 to take third in his heat.

In that heat, Mark Wieczorek of the Beasts was seventh in 1:47.16, followed by WSU alum Joe Abbott in 1:48.46.

Pac-12 champ Jesse Jorgensen of WSU was the fastest non-qualifier, as he ran a personal best 1:45.76 to take fifth in heat 1, which Loxsom won.

—In the women’s 800, Seattle’s Phoebe Wright ran 2:00.61 to advance to Sunday’s final, as she finished third in heat 1.  Seattle Pacific alum McKayla Fricker ran a personal best 2:00.81 to finish sixth in heat 2.

—The men’s 400 hurdles saw WSU alum Jeshua Anderson advance to the finals on Saturday with a third place finish in 49.42;

—In the first round of the women’s 400 hurdles, Washington’s Gianna Woodruff was sixth in her heat in a time of 60.87; 

—The first round of the women’s 100 hurdles saw Rainier Beach HS alum Ginnie Crawford advance to Saturday’s semis as a time qualifier, running 12.90 to finish fifth in heat 2; 

—Former Bellingham resident Donn Cabral had the fastest time in the semis of the men’s 3000 steeplechase, running 8:36.80;

—In the women’s triple jump, WSU alum Blessing Ufodiama was ninth with a wind-aided best of 43-5.25 (13.24m);

--The men's high jump saw Dakarai Hightower finish 12th with a best of 7-0.5 (2.15m).

In the junior competition, Brooke Feldmeier of Olympia, a freshman at Ole Miss, qualified for the finals in the 800, running 2:09.71 to take fourth in her heat to highlight a day that saw 11 athletes with Washington ties compete Friday.

Complete day 2 results from the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships are available here.

NOTE: The post was corrected to reflect that Winger has won six national titles, and not seven.  We apologize for the error.

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