Former University of Akron All-Americans Clayton Murphy and Shawn Barber still have a chance at an Olympic medal.
Murphy, competing for the United States, finished second in his semifinal heat of the 800 meters and Barber, competing for Canada, finished in a tie for the seventh qualifying spot in the pole vault in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night.
Both will compete in their respective finals Monday night.
Murphy, who won gold at the 2015 Pan-Am Games, ran a personal best 1:44.30, the fourth-best qualifying time in the event.
Pierre-Ambroise Bosse of France and Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria share the top qualifying time of 1:43.85, followed by David Rudisha of Kenya (1:43.88).
Murphy joins fellow American Boris Berian in the final. Berian finished seventh in the semifinals with a time of 1:44.56.
Barber advanced with a vault of 5.7 meters, tying with German Chiaraviglio of Argentina and Jan Kudlicka of the Czech Republic.
American Sam Kendricks, Brazilian Thiago Braz da Silva, Konstadinos Filippidis of Greece, Renaud Lavillenie of France, Xue Changrui of China and Piotr Lisek of Poland each also cleared 5.7 meters with fewer misses.
Twelve vaulters advanced to the final.
Barber, who won at the 2015 World Championships with a vault of 5.9 meters in Beijing, is Canada’s first world champion in the men’s pole vault and won the nation’s first gold medal in any event at the world championships since 2003.
While at UA, Barber won the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles in 2015 and the indoor in 2014. He became UA’s only three-time national champion.