poses for a portrait at the USOC Rio Olympics Shoot at Quixote Studios on November 18, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

EUGENE – Ten athletes with ties to Texas A&M were in competition on the seventh day of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field and seven advanced to either a semifinal or final in front of a Thursday crowd of 21,835.

Shamier Little, the 2015 U.S. champion, ran a time of 55.83 seconds from lane 2 in the fifth and final preliminary heat of the 400m hurdles to automatically advance to the semifinal. The top qualifying time was turned in by Dalilah Muhammad with a 55.33. Finishing ahead of Little in her heat was USC’s Jaide Stepter with a 55.64.

Collegiate record holder Maggie Malone produced the second best throw in javelin qualifying with a heave of 198-3 (60.44) on her only attempt while Texas A&M volunteer coach Ariana Ince hit a mark of 183-1 (55.80) in the third round to place fifth in qualifying.

Throwing in the first flight of javelin qualifying, Audrey Malone produced a mark of 172-9 (52.66). She ranked third among the dozen throwers in the flight, behind overall leader Kara Winger (201-6) and Brittany Borman (190-6), to place eighth overall with the top 12 advancing to Saturday’s final.

“I want to compete and I want to win the final,” stated Maggie Malone. “Kara and Brittany are fantastic. I think those are the other two that have the Olympic standard, but anyone could pop off at any time and we all know that in javelin. I just want to go into the final and get top three, hopefully qualify for Rio.”

A trio of Aggies contested the men’s 200m with Devin Jenkins and Ameer Webb each earning an automatic berth to the semifinal while Curtis Mitchell just missed advancing on time.

Webb cruised to a heat victory in 20.27 (0.9 wind) ahead of Justin Gatlin (20.32). Jenkins originally finished third in his heat, clocking 20.94 (1.0), but moved up to second place following a disqualification for Elijah Hall-Thompson. Mitchell ran 20.48w (2.8) for fourth place in his heat, but missed advancing on time by 0.02.

Ricky Babineaux produced a solid run in placing second to Bershawn Jackson (49.91) in a prelim heat of the 400m hurdles with a time of 50.05 to earn an automatic qualification to the semifinal. Robert Grant initially placed third in his heat of the 400m hurdles in 50.21, but was disqualified for trail leg violation.

Natosha Rogers ran 15:54.27 for ninth place in the first heat of the 5,000m and placed 19th overall.

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