Gay takes express lane in 9.68 seconds

Runner-up Dix proved something as well, defying critics who said he should have turned pro a year ago, when he made the 2007 world team by finishing second at nationals.

"I went with my heart, and it turns out my heart was correct," Dix said.

Dix, 22, passed up worlds, returned to Florida State for his senior year, got a degree in social science and ran here in a Seminoles' uniform because he has yet to cut a deal with a shoe company. That impressed Gay, who gave Dix a big hug after the race.

"Basically, he was proving a point," Gay said. "He didn't just take the first thing thrown to him. Whoever gave him advice to stay in a collegiate uniform proved you could run with professional athletes and do a great job."

The task of making the team proved too much for 2004 gold medalists Tim Mack (pole vault) and Dwight Phillips (long jump), but vaulter Jeff Hartwig showed both Mack, 35, and Phillips, 30, there is no reason to stop trying.

Hartwig made the Olympic team in 1996, then failed to clear a height in the qualifying round for both 2000 and 2004, when he was the U.S. record-holder in the event.

Sunday, at 40, he became the oldest vaulter on a U.S. Olympic team by finishing second to Derek Miles. Brad Walker, who broke Hartwig's U.S. record earlier this season, was third.

"Had I made those teams, who knows whether I would be here now," Hartwig said. "This one doesn't make up for those other years, those other teams, but at the same time, I feel very fortunate."

Hurdler Queen Harrison had to feel the same way. She finished second despite having to leap 11 hurdles in a 10-hurdle race -- the extra one coming when Latosha Wallace, in the next lane, stumbled and fell in front of Harrison, who stepped over Wallace and then cleared the next official hurdle in the 400-meter race.

Angelo Taylor, who made the men's team by finishing third in the 400 hurdles, gave himself an extra challenge by also trying to make it in the open 400, which put him in a first-round heat 23 minutes after the hurdles final ended. He gave up after 230 meters.

"I thought I would have 45 minutes between races," said Taylor, the 2000 Olympic hurdles champion.

That time really counted.

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Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and the Chicago Tribune.

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A look at today's main events at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials: