Sarah Porter of Western Washington second in 10000; Tyler Fischer 8th in hammer at NCAA D2s...

CHARLOTTE, NC--Passing two runners in the last 600 meters, Western Washington University's Sarah Porter (left/photo courtesy Western Washington University) placed second by less than three seconds in the women's 10,000 meters Thursday at the 2010 NCAA Division II National Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Porter was clocked in 34:49.60, trailing only Tanya Zeferjahn from Queens NC, who crossed the finish line in 34:46.59.

"She is one tough young lady," said Western coach Pee Wee Halsell of Porter. "She led most of the middle portion of the race and then got passed by Zeferjahn. But she battled to stay with the top group and passed one runner with about 600 meters to go and another while sprinting the last 100 meters and closing on Zeferjahn."

Meanwhile, Central Washington senior Tyler Fischer, who entered the meet seeded 16th in the men's hammer, unleashed a school-record throw of 58.88 meters (193 feet, 2 inches) on his final throw of the preliminaries to advance to the event finals. He finished eighth in the event to become a track and field All-American for the second time in his career. Fischer, out of Cashmere, had previously been a Division II All-American in the discus during the 2008 season.

Michael Hoffman from Western placed tenth with a mark of 189-0 (57.61 meters).

In the men's 10000 meter finals, Western's Jordan Welling placed 11th in 31:21.70 and Bennett Grimes was 14th in 31:37.57.

Western junior Alex Harrison currently stands eleventh in the decathlon with a first-day score of 3,280 points. The leader at 3,865 is Darius Walker from Central Missouri.

"Alex didn't have a great first day, but it wasn't a bad day," said Halsell. "But his second day is always his best, so he will definitely be moving up."

Harrison tied a personal best in the 100 meters with a time of 11.55 (742) and had a personal record of 51.60 (742) in the 400. The Great Northwest Athletic Conference decathlon champion leaped 20-6 1/4 (641) in the long jump, posted a mark of 40-6 in the shot put (627) and cleared 5-6 (528) in the high jump.

In preliminary action, Jessica Pixler took the first step toward yet another NCAA championship winning her heat of the 1,500 meters.

The Seattle Pacific senior, leading by approximately 20 meters for most of the way, came across the line in 4 minutes, 28.68 seconds. That was 2 1/2 seconds in front of second-place Monica Kinney of Grand Valley State, who clocked 4:31.18.

The Vikings' Courtney Olsen qualified for Saturday's final in the women's 3,000 steeplechase. She was one of 12 to accomplish that, placing sixth in her heat with a time of 10:49.85.

Complete results from the NCAA Division II championships are available here.

NOTE: The sports information offices of Western Washington, Seattle Pacific, and Central Washington University contributed to this report.