Tracy Press

One Olympian long-jumper with Tracy ties comes up short of his dream, while another will swim into the medal round in men's water polo.

West High graduate Trevell Quinley missed the cut by 7 centimeters Saturday in the qualifying round of the men’s long jump at National Stadium at the Beijing Summer Olympics.

That put him out of Monday’s finals, where the gold medal went to Irving Jahir Saladino Aranda of Panama, who had a winning jump of 8.34 meters. Silver went to Khotso Mokoena of South Africa, 8.24 meters, and third went to Ibrahim Camejo of Cuba, 8.2 meters.

Twelve jumpers qualified for Monday’s finals. Quinley was ninth in his group, 18th overall, with a jump of 7.87 meters. The 12th-place qualifier was Roman Novotny of Czech Republic, with a leap of 7.94 meters in Saturday’s rounds.

Quinley’s jump on Saturday was the best among the U.S. jumpers, including Brian Johnson, 7.79, and Miquel Pate, 7.34. Quinley jumped 8.36 meters in June in the U.S. Olympic trials in Oregon, where he qualified for the team.

The top jump in the preliminary rounds Saturday was 8.27 meters by Louis Tsatouma of Greece. He and two others, Camejo, 8.23 meters, and Greg Rutherford of Great Britain, 8.16 meters, automatically made the finals when they cleared the qualifying distance of 8.15 meters.

U.S. water polo in medal round

The USA water polo team earned a spot in Friday’s semifinal round with two straight wins Saturday and Monday, and will be among four teams going after medals this weekend.

U.S. goalie Merrill Moses, son of Max and Marlene Moses of Tracy, blocked 11 of 16 shots on goal in Team USA’s 7-5 win over Croatia on Saturday, and stopped 14 of 21 shots in his team’s 8-7 win over Germany on Monday.

USA and Croatia were tied for first in their group in the preliminary round, but Team USA gained the semifinal berth by virtue of the head-to-head win.

The team from Hungary was the winner in its group and also will be in Friday’s semifinal round. Quarterfinal games Wednesday include Montenegro vs. Croatia and Spain vs. Serbia, and winners of those games will play Friday.

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