Former Missouri S&T All-America performer Tyrone Smith narrowly missed earning a berth in the finals of the long jump competition Saturday as he finished in 15th place overall in the qualifying rounds of the event at the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Smith, the first Miner to ever compete in the Olympic Games, had a top mark of 7.91 meters (25-11 1/2) in the qualifying rounds, which fell just three centimeters shy of a spot in the finals that will take place Monday. The top 12 finishers Saturday earned berths to the finals and the 12th place mark of 7.94 meters (26-0 3/4) was recorded by Roman Novotny from the Czech Republic. (Story/Results)

The Miner football team will open regular season play for the 2008-09 school year August 28 when it takes on Truman State in Fayette, Mo. The opener was moved from Kirksville due to delays in the installation of a new playing field at Truman; the game will be played at Davis Field on the campus of Central Methodist University beginning at 7 p.m. (Story)

Practice for the upcoming 2008 fall seasons is underway at Missouri S&T, with the football, volleyball, soccer and cross country teams all in workouts for their season openers next week.

The first event of the 2008-09 athletic season will be the volleyball pre-season scrimmage August 25 at the refurbished Bullman Multi-Purpose Building; the first regular season contests for the Lady Miners will be in the "Middle of Everything" Classic August 29 and 30 on their home court.

Missouri S&T's soccer teams will open on the road August 29 at Ashland, while the cross country teams take to the course for the first time the following day at Washington University.

As a program, Missouri S&T completed the 2007-08 season with its highest-ever ranking in the United States Sports Academy Director's Cup standings, finishing near the top 25 percent in all of NCAA Division II for the year.

The season was highlighted by a second place finish by the swimming team (pictured above) at the NCAA Division II Championships, the best finish ever by a Miner team at a national competition. The Lady Miner basketball team reached the regional championship game and the men's track and field team scored in both the indoor and outdoor national meets, led by Jordan Henry's national runner-up performance in the indoor pole vault.

In all, the Missouri S&T teams had 18 individuals earn All-America honors during the year, 49 make or earn all-conference honors and 23 earn conference "Player of the Week" awards. In the classroom, S&T student-athletes have earned three earn Academic All-America awards, 11 academic all-district honors and 110 all-academic awards from the Great Lakes Valley Conference as well as 23 from the league affiliations for the football and swimming programs.