Jeshua Anderson, Bernard Lagat advance to finals of Olympic Trials

The Olympic dreams of two former WSU track stars are still alive.

Jeshua Anderson finished third in the second 400-meter hurdles semifinal heat on Friday to advance to the event finals, to be held on Sunday. Earlier in the week, Bernard Lagat finished with the fastest time in his heat in the 5000-meter run to qualify for today’s final.

You can watch Lagat — who graduated from WSU in 2000 and is now 41 years old — go for a spot in his fifth(!) Olympic games tonight. He’ll need to finish in the top three to advance.

How and when you watch it, though, will depend on your local coverage. The actual race is at 5:20 p.m. PT, but in the Seattle area (where a lot of us live), KING-5 is keeping with the true spirit of Olympic broadcasting by carrying the trials on delay in prime time — at 8:20 p.m. PT. Check your local listings wherever you’re at, but here’s one other idea for you: If you have access to the NBC Live Extra service (and if you subscribe to NBC Sports Network, you likely do), then you can watch the race live online.

Anderson, meanwhile, will run for his spot in Rio on Sunday. Although his time yesterday was only eighth fastest overall in the semifinals, he appeared to more or less be cruising down the stretch of his heat, as he was solidly in third place, which he knew would qualify him for the finals. Those will be at 4:51 p.m. PT, and the same caveats regarding broadcast times apply. He’ll also need a top three finish to make the team.

Other current and former WSU track and field athletes who competed at the trials included:

• CJ Allen, the two-time Pac-12 400-meter hurdles champ, was eliminated in the preliminaries when his time of 51.75 seconds was a half of a second off the final semifinal qualifying time;
• Thane Pierson, the defending Pac-12 high jump champ, failed to post a qualifying jump in the preliminaries and was eliminated;
• Jesse Jorgensen, the 2015 Pac-12 champ in the 800-meter run, was eliminated after failing to finish in the top 16 in the preliminaries;
• Collier Lawrence, a 2009 grad, was eliminated in the preliminaries of the 3000-meter steeplechase;
• Blessing Ufodiama, a 2004 grad, was eliminated in the preliminaries of the triple jump;
• WSU assistant coach Brad Walker, a five-time USATF outdoor champ in the pole vault, also failed to make it out of the preliminaries.