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

NEW ORLEANS – For the second night in a row, an Oregon Duck sophomore will be battling for the podium in a sprint final at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Hurdler Devon Allen came up short in his quest for a 110-meter hurdles medal last night, and it’s now Deajah Stevens’ turn in tonight’s women’s 200 meter final.

Prior to this year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships, she had never run faster than 22.48 over 200 meters. That all changed when she finished runner-up at both those NCAA Championships and the USA Olympic Trials in 22.25 and 22.30, respectively.

The road to a medal will be difficult – she will square off with three women who have broken the 22-second barrier, including reigning world champ Dafne Schippers, Olympic 100 champ Elaine Thompson and US champ Tori Bowie – but Stevens did run the sixth-fastest time of the semis in 22.38. Plus, only those three aforementioned titans have run faster than her 22.25 at NCAAs this season.

Meanwhile, the women’s 100-meter hurdles final tonight could look an awfully lot like June’s NCAA Championships, with no fewer than four finalists from Eugene lining up for these Rio 2016 semifinals.

NCAA champ Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Kentucky (Puerto Rico) and national runner-up Tobi Amusan of UTEP (Nigeria) will square off in the second of three semifinal heats. Pedrya Seymour of Illinois (Bahamas) will take part in heat one and indoor 60-meter hurdles national champ Cindy Ofili of Michigan (Great Britain) will be in the third.

If any of them advance, they will contest the final at 9:55pm ET.

Decathlon Gets Underway

Three NCAA Champions and five overall collegians will be among those men competing for the title of "Greatest Athlete on Earth" starting this morning at 8:30am ET. They’ll contest five of the 10 events today – ending with the 400 at about 8:20pm ET – with the remaining five coming Thursday.

Reigning NCAA decathlon champion Lindon Victor of Texas A&M (Grenada) will look to continue his rapid ascent in the multi-event world, squaring off against collegiate rivals in two-time NCAA decathlon winner Maicel Uibo of Georgia (Estonia) and indoor NCAA heptathlon winner Zach Ziemek of Wisconsin (United States).

Those three are the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 8 among decathletes in collegiate histories.

Of course, they’ll all be chasing 2010 The Bowerman winner Ashton Eaton – the reigning Olympic champ and world record-holder.

Looking to Qualify

• LSU’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (Great Britain) will look to qualify to the 200 meters final. Mitchell-Blake was considered an NCAA favorite both at 100 and 200 meters prior to suffering an injury in the NCAA 100 final in June. He appeared strong yesterday with a runner-up finish in his heat to Andre De Grasse.

• NCAA hammer champion Nick Miller of Oklahoma State (Great Britain) and NCAA runner-up Rudy Winkler of Cornell (United States) look to make the Rio 2016 final starting at 8:40am ET

• NCAA cross country runner-up and outdoor 5000m All-American Patrick Tiernan of Villanova (Australia) competes in the second heat of the 5000 qualifying round.

• Middle Tennessee State’s John Ampomah (Ghana), who finished third and runner-up in each of the past two NCAA Championships, will look to qualify for the men’s javelin final.

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

* NBC broadcast begins at 8pm ET