Husky duo of Kyle Nielsen & Joe Zimmerman finish third and fourth in javelin; Jake Riley gets third in 10000...

EUGENE, Oregon--The University of Washington duo of Kyle Nielsen and Joe Zimmerman highlighted the second day of competition in the NCAA track & field championships at Hayward Field, as they finished third and fourth in the men's javelin, as the Husky duo threw 241-6 (73.60m) and 233-7 (71.19m).

Nielsen and Zimmerman battled both the elements and the competition. Both were beneficiaries of throwing in the first flight, which had better conditions than the second.

In the men's 10000, Bellingham's Jake Riley (left/photo by Paul Merca), representing Stanford, finished third, running 28:57.41 in the 25-lap race.

Another third place finish went to Scott Roth of Washington, who cleared a modest 17-4.5, as the rain delay and the large field of 24 started marred the pole vault competition.

Pac-10 champ Ryan Vu finished 11th with a mark of 16-10.75 (5.15m).

After the first day of competition in the decathlon, the University of Washington's Jeremy Taiwo stands seventh with a score of 3944 points.

He started his day by winning his heat of the 100 meters, stopping the watches at 11.02. In the long jump, he managed a mark of 22-9 1/4 (6.94m), worth 799 points. In the shot put, he threw 39-3.25 (11.97m), worth 605 points.

He scored a decathlon personal best in the high jump with a clearance of 6-7 1/2 (2.02m) for 822 points, then concluded his day by running a personal best of 48.98 in the 400m.

Oregon's defending champion Ashton Eaton leads at the halfway mark with a score of 4500 points.

In the men's 200, Washington's James Alaka finished fourth in heat 3 in a time of 21.11.

The Huskies' Katie Follett easily advanced to the finals in the women's 1500 meter run, running in the lead for most of the race, before placing fourth in a time of 4:13.58.

Gabby Midles of Idaho via Camas High School finished 13th with a mark of 185-1 in the women's hammer throw.

In the men's 1500, Nathan Hale HS grad Abdi Hassan of Arizona finished tenth in heat 2, running 3:46.37.

Washington's Falesha Ankton scored a major personal best in finishing third in her heat of the 100 hurdles, in a time of 13.18, missing the finals by one place.

A video interview with Ankton is available here.

Teammate Mel Lawrence qualified easily for the finals of the women's steeplechase, finishing fifth in 10:06.09, running the sixth fastest time of the day.

Results from the NCAA championships are available here
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Friday's competition will be televised live on CBS College Sports (channel 412 on Seattle area Comcast), beginning at 5 pm. The meet is also being streamed live via NCAA.com.

NOTE: An update to this report will be posted later Thursday evening...

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