ESPN Olympic Sports

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Marion Jones wasn't talking during the first day of the U.S. track and field trials. She wasn't running all that fast, either.

Jones was the seventh-fastest of the 16 qualifiers in the 100-meter quarterfinals Friday at 11.38 seconds, then slipped off the track the back way, sending notice she would not talk to reporters until after the final.

Lauryn Williams, the 20-year-old NCAA champion from Miami who has the second-best time in the world this year (10.97), was the fastest qualifier at 11.13 seconds. All of the runners raced into a head wind at the Cal State-Sacramento track.

"Really great, super great," she said. "Things weren't coming together out on the practice track and I was pretty nervous. But it turned out to be a good nervous."

Four years ago, Jones blew away the competition in the trials in the 100, including a 10.92 in the quarterfinals. She went on to win an unprecedented five track medals in the Sydney Games, three of them gold.

But she took last year off to have a baby, and this year has been preparing for her Olympic bid under the cloud of an investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

She has repeatedly, vehemently denied ever taking performance-enhancing substances.

Jones has not been accused of doping offenses, but her boyfriend Tim Montgomery has been charged with taking banned performance enhancers and could face a lifetime ban, even though he did not test positive.

The charges against Montgomery and three others competing in the trials stem from the criminal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative.

Chryste Gaines, one of the four accused, was eighth-fastest in the 100 qualifying in 11.39.

That could explain why the normally outgoing, smiling Jones, who usually has no problem stopping to chat briefly with reporters after qualifying rounds, was grim through her brief time on the track Friday.

"She isn't at the point where she was in previous years," said Inger Miller, the 1999 world champion and second-fastest in the quarterfinals Friday with a time of 11.28. "It's yet to be seen where she is."

The 100 is the first of Jones' three events at the trials. She also plans to compete in the long jump and 200.

Meb Keflezighi was the meet's first winner, running away with the men's 10,000 in 27 minutes, 36.49 seconds. He broke the trials record set 24 years ago by Craig Virgin, but the time was only the 15th-fastest in the world this year.

The top three in each event in the nine-day trials will make the U.S. team in Athens, providing they've met the Olympic qualify standard. The top three in the 10,000 -- Keflezighi, Abdi Abdirahman and Dan Browne -- have met the standard.

Keflezighi and Browne also have qualified for the marathon, and both have indicated they could run in that race only.

"I'm going to sit down with my coach and figure it out," Keflezighi said. "The goal in Athens is to get to the medals stand, and my chances are better in the marathon."

Bob Kennedy, three-time U.S. champion in the 5,000, dropped out of the 10,000 with a strained left Achilles' tendon.

"The old body just isn't as young as it used to be," he said.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press