What to Watch: Collegians in Day Five of #Rio2016 T&F

NEW ORLEANS – After three days of top-five finishes by collegians at the Rio Olympics, it was only a matter of time until an NCAA star broke through for a Rio 2016 medal.

That moment came Tuesday night as Akron’s Clayton Murphy (United States) ran the race of his life for the bronze medal in the men’s 800 meters final. He overtook the third position in the final 100 meters of the race, crossing the line in a career-best 1:42.93 – a nearly second-and-a-half PR that landed him at No. 3 on the all-time U.S. performers list. His medal was not only the first by a collegian in these games, but also the first by an American since the 1992 Games in Barcelona.

It seems obvious in retrospect that Murphy would show up big in the biggest of races; that’s what he’s done all season long. The Olympic bronze caps a 2016 campaign that included wins in the NCAA Indoor 800, the NCAA Outdoor 1500 and the USA Olympic Trials 800.

With the first collegiate medalist on the books, a new question for arises for the Olympic collegians: will Murphy’s medal stand alone for the remainder of the Games or did he just open the floodgates for collegians looking to stand on the podium?

We may not have to wait too long to answer that question, as Oregon wide receiver/hurdler Devon Allen (United States) runs the semifinals and potentially the final of the 110-meter hurdles tonight. Like Murphy, all Allen has done this year is win: NCAA Indoor 60 hurdles title, NCAA Outdoor 110 hurdles crown and an Olympic Trials 110 hurdles victory.

He didn’t win his opening heat yesterday after knocking over a few hurdles en route to a 13.41 second-place qualifier, but the Duck – ranked No. 2 in the world – is still on track for a showdown with world leader Omar McLeod of Jamaica. Why is that significant? Beyond the 1-2 matchup, Allen won NCAA titles in 2014 and 2016 while McLeod took the 2015 crown. However, the two have never squared off in a major final. There’s no better stage for that battle than the Olympic Games.

The semifinals will run at 7:40pm ET, with the final set for 9:45pm ET.

Perhaps this summer’s biggest breakthrough sprints star could be Oregon sophomore Deajah Stevens (USA), who was the NCAA and US Olympic Trials runner-up over 200 meters. After running the second-fastest qualifying time of the Olympic heats yesterday, she’s earned the right to square off with Olympic 100m champ Elaine Thompson of Jamaica, reigning world champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands and former world bronze medalist Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria.

In other words, she’ll need to draw on all of her untapped potential to advance to the eight-woman final on Wednesday – either as one of the two fastest women in her heat or as one of the two-fastest non-auto-qualifiers.

Meanwhile, the fields in the heats of the men’s 200 heats and the women’s 100-hurdles are loaded with collegiate talent looking to advance to tomorrow’s action.

The men’s 200 at 10:50am ET features the largest number of collegians of any event at these Games with seven from seven different nations. Among them are LSU’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (Great Britain), Brendon Rodney of LIU-Brooklyn (Canada) and DII champ Burkheart Ellis, Jr., of Saint Augustine’s (Barbados). Mitchell-Blake in particular will look to rebound after injury forced him out of the NCAA Championships 200 meter final.

Earlier that hour at 10:05am ET, the women’s 100-meter hurdles heats are stacked with five collegians from five different nations. Among them are NCAA Outdoor Champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Kentucky (Puerto Rico) and NCAA Indoor 60-hurdles winner Cindy Ofili of Michigan (Great Britain), as well as two other NCAA Outdoor finalists in runner-up Tobi Amusan of UTEP (Nigeria) and Pedrya Seymour of Illinois (Bahamas).

Speaking of NCAA Champions trying to get through qualifying rounds, that’s exactly what indoor/outdoor NCAA pole vault champ Lexi Weeks of Arkansas (USA) and women’s javelin collegiate record-holder Maggie Malone of Texas A&M (USA) will be attempting to do.

Already the first freshman in collegiate history to clear 15 feet and sweep the national titles, Weeks will look to add "Olympic Finalist" to her already-impressive resume starting at 8:45am ET. Fellow 15-foot vaulter Alysha Newman of Miami (FL) (Canada) will also look to advance. They’ll need to either hit that 15-foot mark again today to qualify for tomorrow’s final or be among the top-12 finishers.

Malone will take to the javelin runway at 7:35pm ET, looking to recapture the historic form that netted her the collegiate record at the NCAA Championships. She’ll need all of that magic – and maybe more – to rise above her No. 28 seeding to become one of at least 12 finalists to advance to Thursday’s final (depending on how many hit the auto-qualifying standard of 63m)..

More details on all of the above athletes’ competitions can be found below.

* NBC broadcast begins at 8pm ET