Lee's Summit's Tegenkamp qualifies for 5,000 final

Former Lee’s Summit High School star Matt Tegenkamp and Bernard Lagat advanced to the 5,000-meter final, hoping to salvage Lagat's Olympics and maybe start a rally today for the struggling U.S. track team.
In the first of three heats, Tegenkamp sliced through the lead pack in the final straightaway to win in 13:37.36 seconds. Lagat won his heat in 13 minutes, 39.70 seconds to move on to Saturday night’s medal race. He didn’t qualify for the 1,500-meter final, adding his name to a list of high-profile American flame-outs at the Bird’s Nest.
The U.S. team entered Wednesday with only three gold medals, and two of them came from the most unlikely of sources – discus thrower Stephanie Brown Trafton and 100-meter hurdler Dawn Harper.
Meanwhile, Lagat, Tyson Gay, Sanya Richards, Lolo Jones and Reese Hoffa have all been disappointments. Of the five gold-medal contenders, only Richards got anything — a bronze after she blew a big lead in the 400-meter final.
Lagat, who won silver and bronze medals for his native Kenya in the 1,500 at the last two Olympics, was hoping to double in the 1,500 and 5,000 for the U.S.
He became an American citizen in 2004 and at last year’s world championships — his first major international competition for the United States — he won both races.
In the 5,000 on Wednesday, he was among the top four entering the final lap and used a strong finishing kick to pass everyone.