6/28/08

EUGENE -- The pressure weighing on Rachel Yurkovich was evident in her posture and her short, clipped answers after completing the qualifying round of the javelin on Saturday at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field.

The recent NCAA champion had the sixth-longest throw (172 feet, 5 inches) out of 24 competitors, and yet the lack of an Olympic A standard throw (198 feet, 6 inches) on her resume could keep the Newberg High graduate from making the Beijing Games, even with a top-three finish in Monday's final.