Boise State's Simon Wardhaugh and Pontus Thomee each finished in the top five in their respective events to catapult Coach Mike Maynard's Broncos into 19th place at the NCAA National Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  Favorite Oregon has the lead heading into the final day of action with 36 points to 30 for second-place LSU and 22 for USC.  Boise State has 10 points thus far.

Wardhaugh posted his top hammer throw of the season (230-feet, 5-inches) to place third in the nation yesterday afternoon and came within five feet of capturing the national championship.  Marcel Lomnicky of Virginia Tech (235-6) won the title while LSU sophomore Walter Henning (232-0) topped Wardhaugh for second.

Wardhaugh is now a two-time All-American.  The Bronco senior earned his first All-America award earlier this year when he placed fifth at the Indoor Championships  in the weight throw.  Wardhaugh qualified for the National Championships in each of his four years at Boise State.  He finished 11th in 2007 and 15th last year.  

Wardhaugh won the West Regional two weeks ago to earn an automatic bid into these championships with a throw of 216-10 (66.09m)  He won the Western Athletic Conference title in the hammer by nearly 21 feet when he send it 224 feet downfield.  He also captured the hammer title in 2008 and is a two-time WAC weight throw champion in both 2008 and earlier this year.

Thomee, who has been steadily improving throughout his freshman year at Boise State, placed fifth in the javelin by hurling the spear 233-5.  Thomee served notice two weeks ago at Regionals that he could be a factor in Fayetteville by placing second in the West with a season-best throw of 239-3.  Georgia's Chris Hill performed brilliantly in winning the event with a throw of 268-5.

Thomee began his postseason run last month by winning the WAC title with a throw of 230-9.

Bronco senior Ryan Grinnell could virtually guarantee Boise State a Top 25 finish if he can score points in his specialty, the triple jump.  That final is set for 1 p.m. this afternoon (MT).  Grinnell finished 11th in the high jump finals yesterday by clearing 6-10.75.  He finished 17th in long jump qualifying Wednesday with a jump of 25-2.  Grinnell is the only athlete in the nation to qualify for the National Championships in the high jump, long jump and the triple.  

Here are the complete results:

Men - Team Rankings - 13 Events Scored

1) Oregon 36

2) LSU 30

3) Southern California 22

4) Florida 21

5) Georgia 19

6) South Carolina 18.5

7) Arizona State 18

7) Arkansas 18

9) Brigham Young 16

9) Kansas State 16

11) Virginia Tech 14.5

12) Texas A&M 13

12) Nebraska 13

14) Auburn 12

15) Florida State 11

15) Stanford 11

15) Arizona 11

15) Washington 11

19) Boise State 10

19) Mississippi State 10

19) Rice 10

19) Washington State 10

23) Missouri 9

23) North Carolina 9

25) Iowa State 8

Men Hammer Throw

1 Marcel Lomnicky FR VA Tech 71.78m (235-6)

2 Walter Henning SO LSU 70.72m (232-0)

3 Simon Wardhaugh SR Boise State 70.23m (230-5)

4 Chris Rohr SR Missouri 69.03m (226-6)

5 Dimitrios Fylladitakis SO UTEP 68.04m (223-2)

6 Jason Lewis JR Az State 67.22m (220-6)

7 Nate Rolfe SR Georgia 65.41m (214-7)

8 John Freeman JR Georgia 65.01m (213-4)

9 Boldizsar Kocsor SR UCLA 64.87m (212-10)

10 Jake Shanklin SR Wyoming 63.38m (207-11)

11 Branislav Danis JR Georgia 63.17m (207-3)

1 Scott Sellers SR Kansas St. 2.26m (7-5)

2 Ryan Fleck FR Auburn 2.23m (7-3.75)

3 Manjula Wijesekara JR USC 2.23m (7-3.75)

4 Jerome Miller SR Ga Tech 2.20m (7-2.5)

5 Adetayo Adesanya JR Purdue 2.20m (7-2.5)

6 Greg Shroka JR Illinois 2.17m (7-1.25)

7 Tone Belt JR Louisville 2.17m (7-1.25)

8 Garrett Huyler SR Cornell 2.14m (7-0.25)

9 Trent Arrivey JR WSU 2.14m (7-0.25)

10 Paul Hamilton SO Nebraska 2.14m (7-0.25)

11 Ryan Grinnell SR Boise State 2.10m (6-10.75)

11 Ivan Diggs SR Houston 2.10m (6-10.75)

13 Raymond Harris SR Texas 2.10m (6-10.75)

14 Jacques Watson SO Coastal Carolina 2.10m (6-10.75)

1 Chris Hill JR Georgia 81.80m (268-5)

2 Corey White SR USC 75.72m (248-5)

3 Craig Kinsley SO Brown 73.31m (240-6)

4 Cyrus Hostetler JR Oregon 72.71m (238-7)

5 Pontus Thomee SO Boise State 71.14m (233-5)

6 Kyle Nielsen SO Washington 70.56m (231-6)

7 Alex VanderMerwe SR UTEP 70.52m (231-4)

8 Cody Fillinich SR NW State-LA 68.61m (225-0)

9 Anthony Fairbanks SR New Mexico 67.79m (222-5)

10 Alex Wolff JR Oregon 67.04m

11 Colin Molteton JR Ole Miss 66.12m

12 Brett Trudo SO Wichita St. 64.56m

Today's Schedule:

Event 16 Men Triple Jump ============================================= Saturday 6/13/2009 - 12:00 PM Auto: 16.30 Best 12 and ties by mark from qualifying to final 45 minutes flight specific warm-up, 10 minutes before finals. Wind direction 1 hour prior. Two flights, two qualifying pits. Advance best 9 plus ties by mark to reverse order finals. American: 18.09m 7/27/1996 Kenny Harrison, Mizuno College Best: 17.92m 5/20/1995 James Beckford, Blinn NCAA Meet: 17.57m 6/5/1982 Keith Connor, SMU Name Year School Prelims ============================================== Flight 1 Finals

 1 Alphonso Jordan JR Ga Tech 16.00m 

2 Zuheir Sharif JR Texas A&M 16.56m 

3 Christian Taylor FR Florida 15.88m 

4 Ryan Grinnell SR Boise State 15.87m 

5 Will Claye FR Oklahoma 16.37m 

6 Melvin Echard SO Texas A&M 15.86m 

7 Tyron Stewart SO Texas A&M 16.11m 

8 Christopher Carter SO Houston 16.29m 

9 Nkosinza Balumbu SR Arkansas 16.18m 

10 Austin Davis SO North Carolina 16.19m 

11 Julian Reid SO Texas A&M 16.33m 

12 Clarence Smith SR Penn St. 16.00m