EUGENE — Grant Fisher closed hard to win the men’s 10,000-meter final going away on a hot Friday evening at the U.S. Olympic trials for track and field.

Fisher, the U.S. record holder, broke away from a competitive lead pack over the final two laps to finish in 27 minutes, 49.47 seconds and claim a spot on the Olympic team.

He was followed across the finish line and onto the U.S. team by former University of Portland star Woody Kincaid, second in 27:50.74, and Northern Arizona University’s Nico Young, third in 27:52.40.

The 10,000 was the only Friday final as the trials began eight days of competition over 10 days before 11,227 at Hayward Field. But there was plenty of action in qualifying as reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, 2021 Olympic champion Athing Mu and a host of athletes with University of Oregon connections advanced in first-round races.

For Fisher, who made a controversial decision to leave the Eugene-based Bowerman Track Club after last season to essentially train by himself in Park City, Utah, the victory was validation.

“I knew deep down it was the right move,” Fisher said. “It was a hard decision to leave Bowerman, a risky decision just because it was the only thing I’d known. I was really successful under that system. But I knew in my heart it was the right time. I was ready for a change.”

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He went into the year with one overarching goal after failing to make the U.S. team for the 2023 World Outdoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

“Get on the team,” Fisher said. “I missed the team last year. I watched Budapest from the couch. And it sucked. We targeted this race not as a qualifier. I wanted to win. I wanted to do it dominantly.”

Mission accomplished.

Kincaid had his training disrupted by a hip injury in April and May. He tried to stay in shape with 10 days of cross training during a critical time.

Kincaid was the 2021 Olympic trials champion, but he arrived in Eugene for this one admittedly nervous.

“No one likes coming into the Olympic trials after not racing for three months,” Kincaid said. “That was not ideal.”

Not to worry. Kincaid closed with a 55.7-second final 400 and emphatically claim his spot on the U.S. team.

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In the women’s 100, Richardson stumbled coming out of the blocks in her heat — not that it mattered.

She regained her balance immediately, and ran away with her heat, winning in 10.88, the day’s fastest time.

Saturday’s 100 semifinals will be dotted with sprinters who have run collegiately at the University of Oregon, including alums English Gardner and Jenna Prandini, and current UO sprinter Jadyn Mays.

Richardson elected not to speak with reporters in the interview area afterward. The 32-year-old Gardner, 2016 Olympic trials champ, held court. She spoke passionately about navigating injuries and self-imposed pressure over the past few years.

“It took about three years to pull myself out of it,” Gardner said. “I realized I was just putting too much into track and field. ... I’m just totally wrapping my head around this and getting myself into this space where I’m finally loving what I’m doing again.”

That said, she probably will need to be faster than on Friday, when she crossed in 11.17. And she knows it.

“Watching the video, I have a little hitch in my right side,” Gardner said. “That is my surgical side. I have to figure out what is going on there. I didn’t like the way I was dipping every step. It didn’t hurt, but it looked God-awful.”

Prandini, a two-time Olympian, finished in 11.03, Mays in 11.07. Mays last competed in front of the Hayward crowd earlier this month at the NCAA championships.

“It’s a surreal experience,” Mays said of the trials. “Most of the people here are older than me. There are some ladies here who have run the fastest time in the world and have accomplishments that are from here to forever on.”

Mu is the big international story, but former UO star Raevyn Rogers of the Portland-based Union Athletics Club, delighted the home crowd by breezing through the first round of the women’s 800.

Rogers, who starred at the University of Oregon before graduating to a professional career that includes a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, fought out of a box on the back straight, came wide on the home straight to place third in her heat with a time of 2:01.73.

She had been something of a mystery coming into the trials after scratching out of last month’s Prefontaine Classic. She said Friday she wanted to keep a low profile coming into the trials so she could spend time “dialing in. I feel I had things that stressed me out that were out of character leading up to it.

“Once I took that break I was able to get back to myself, which is what is most important.”

Rogers looked fine in her heat. She didn’t need to overtax herself. The top six finishers in each of the four heats advanced to Sunday’s semifinals. She said she will be ready.

“Look, I’m a competitor, a fighter,” Rogers said. “I believe in myself.”

Which is the way Mu — the U.S. record-holder — approached first-round qualifying as well.

She finished a comfortable third in her heat in 2:01.73 in what was her first race of the year. Mu had been missing in action to this point because of reported hamstring problems.

She insisted Friday her “hamstrings are good. No problem.”

If she was at all gimpy, it didn’t show. She looked more than capable of finishing in the top three of Monday’s final and making the U.S. Olympic team, rust and all.

“I want to just take this one day at a time, one race at a time, wake up my legs,” Mu said. “Because it’s been a while.”

Here are results from the Olympic trials.

-- Ken Goe for The Oregonian/OregonLive; KenGoe1020@gmail.com