Michael Berry runs sub-45 split in 4 x 400 semis; Flanagan & Goethals end Husky track career side by side...

Megan Goethals and Lindsay Flanagan
of the University of Washington (Paul Merca photo)

EUGENE--Oregon senior Michael Berry ran the fastest split of the third heat of the men's 4 x 400 meter relay as the Ducks finished second in 3:03.80 to apparently qualify for the finals of Saturday's race.

After Foss HS alum Marcus Chambers opened the relay for the Ducks, Berry, the Rainier Beach HS alum split 44.99 on the anchor to get the Ducks a second place finish behind winner LSU.

However, Oregon was disqualified for a lane violation by second leg Arthur Delaney, moving third place Arizona State into second and the auto qualifier.

As of this writing, the results of the race remain under protest, and this story will be updated.

UPDATE (10:40 pm):  According to Ken Goe of the Oregonian, Arizona State filed the protest stating that Delaney stepped inside the lane. The meet referee upheld the protest, and a decision was supposed to happen in the morning after the NCAA had access to ESPN's video, but the NCAA changed its mind.

In the women's 10000 meters, University of Washington seniors Lindsay Flanagan (hip 23) and Megan Goethals (hip 1) finished their track & field careers with a 14th and 15th place finish.

After the first 2000, Goethals and Flanagan were back in the second half of the field but still attached to the main pack as the field started to string out. After another five laps, the pace increased again, and the duo lost contact with the main group, and began running side by side for lap after lap. After dropping back into the last third of the field, the two began to battle back and start to work back through the field, picking off a few runners, and taking turns pushing the other forward.

In the final 400, the duo got themselves back to 12th & 13th, but were caught by Katy Moen of Iowa State and Sheree Shea of Loyola Marymount.

In the men's 1500 semis, UW redshirt frosh Nick Harris finished 12th in a time of 3:53.63, while fellow Husky Izaic Yorks was 11th in his semifinal in a time of 3:49.51.

2012 NCAA 1500 champ Katie Flood took the lead for the first two laps of the second semifinal but dropped to fifth entering the bell and finished eighth in 4:20.43 and was the odd woman out of the finals, as both of the time qualifiers for Saturday's finals came from her heat.

In the men's 3000 steeplechase semis, Washington State senior Andrew Gonzales finished a disappointing 12th in a time of 9:05.24, well off his personal best of 8:47.14 set two weeks ago to qualify for the national championship meet.

Eastern Washington's Jordan Arakawa struggled with two early fouls before getting a mark of 181-7 (55.36m) to finish 23rd.

Looking ahead to Friday action, Michael Berry will attempt to win his first NCAA outdoor 400 title at 5:50 pm.  The Huskies will look to pick up some points as Diamara Planell Cruz goes in the pole vault at 3:15 p.m., Derrick Daigre runs in the 800-meter final at 5:15 p.m., and then Liberty Miller runs in the women’s steeplechase final at 5:35 p.m.

Complete day 2 results from the NCAA championships are available here.

NOTE:  The sports information offices of the University of Washington, University of Oregon, Washington State University, and Eastern Washington University contributed to this report.