INDIANAPOLIS - Nick Symmonds, a pre-med student from little Willamette University in Salem, provided one of the most eye-opening performances in the USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships Sunday at Carroll Stadium, finishing second in a blistering men's 800 meters.

The race was won by veteran Khadevis Robinson, who ran 1 minute, 44.3 seconds, but Symmonds ran a strong final 100 meters and leaned to get the runner-up spot in a personal best of 1:45.83.

His previous best was 1:47.03.

"I knew I deserved to be in this final," said Symmonds, who won his semifinal heat. "I knew I could run a 1:47 again if I had to. That would have probably put me in the top five.

"But to run 1:45.8 or whatever it was, that surprised me. I didn't know I had 1:45 in me."

However, his performance wasn't likely to have surprised those who have followed the career of the runner from Boise, who won seven Division III national championships at Willamette University - where the head coach is former UO steeplechaser Matt McGuirk - including the 800 and the 1,500 earlier in this, his senior year.

"My goal coming in was to make it to the finals," Symmonds said. "I didn't expect win my semifinal, but it worked out well that I did. I couldn't be happier with the way this weekend went."

Overlooked as a prep runner in Idaho, Symmonds came to Willamette University because his prep coach, Tom Shanahan, was friends with Kelly Sullivan, then the Willamette coach and now women's coach at Oregon State. Shanahan still writes his workouts, said Symmonds, who ran in his prep singlet Sunday.

Symmonds went out conservatively, running near the back after the first lap.

"I knew I had more left than most of those guys," he said. "With 100 meters to go, I thought, `you've worked your whole life for this, give everything you've got on that track.' Fortunately, I was able to keep my form."

He narrowly edged Jebreh Harris, 1:45.91, and Samuel Burley, 1:45.93; it was, by the way, the first time he'd lost an 800 final since his sophomore year.

Symmonds said he'd like to stay in Oregon to pursue his professional running career, and is intrigued by the post-collegiate club for middle-distance and distance runners being established in Eugene under the name of the Oregon Track Club.

"I'd like to stay in Oregon," he said. "The Trials are coming to Eugene in 2008 and that's a good place to be."

Sunday's events, on the final day of the meet, were delayed again by thunderstorms that forced the third evacuation of the stadium during the meet, this time for a delay of almost four hours just as events were about to begin.

Attendance was 6,833, for a total crowd of 33,950 over the five days that began with events in the USA Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Wednesday.

Probably no event was affected more by Sunday's delay than the women's pole vault, originally scheduled to begin at 1:45 p.m. EDT and ultimately rescheduled for 7 p.m.

Despite those difficulties, former Oregon star Becky Holliday, who works for Home Depot in Eugene and is coached by UO assistant coach Dan Steele, finished third, clearing her highest bar since 2003.

Holliday, whose personal best is 14 feet, 8 inches, cleared 14-7, her best height yet in the U.S. championships, and had two good attempts at a personal best of 14-9.

"I wanted that," she said. "But I'm back up where I want to be."

Holliday said the conditions were difficult.

"It was tough, but you just stay mentally tough, and you just do it," she said. "It's the weather, so you can't control it."

Holliday said she's "excited to go to Europe and jump some high bars there. A couple of years out of college, it's taken me a while to get used to it."

Another former Duck who is coached by Steele, Niki McEwen, cleared 14-1 and finished tied for sixth. McEwen, who competes for Team XO, commutes to Eugene from Colorado, where her husband, Seth, the former UO football player, is a firefighter.

She set a PR two weeks ago at 14-7 and, while disappointed with her mark Sunday, is encouraged by the direction of her training.

"It always makes you feel good when you jump higher," she said. "I still have more meets this summer, and I feel pretty good that I'll PR again before the end of the season."

In other events Sunday:

• Eugene steeplechaser Thomas Brooks, third at the bell in that race, couldn't hold it down the stretch and finished fifth in a time of 8:28.24. The race was won by Daniel Lincoln, who ran 8:22.78. Max King of Bend, who runs for Team XO, finished 11th in 8:37.92. Former national champion Tom Chorny, who trained in Eugene from October until recently, was an early leader in the race before falling back and stepping off the track with less than two laps remaining.

• Kyley Johnson of Team XO was unable to clear the opening height of 7 feet in the high jump. The former Oregon athlete moved from Eugene to Portland and spent the last month in Chicago in training for his new job in pharmaceutical sales.

• Jared Swehosky of Salem won the 10,000-meter racewalk in the USA Juniors meet, clocking 48:47.50.