Finals Verdict: Lewis Out of 100 : Olympic trials: He finishes sixth, losing the chance for a third consecutive victory in the event.

In a result that not even the Supreme Court could overturn, Carl Lewis lost his chance to win a third consecutive gold medal in the Olympic 100 meters when he failed to qualify Saturday for the U.S. team in the event at the track and field trials.

On a sweltering afternoon at Tad Gormley Stadium, where the focus for most of the second day of the trials was on whether the Supreme Court would allow 400-meter runner Butch Reynolds to compete, attention was at least temporarily diverted to the track for one of the most stunning 100-meter races in years.

There was one false start and two recalls, the result of slippery blocks and sweaty palms, before Dennis Mitchell, third in last year’s World Championships, was able to win, as he had predicted. He outleaned Mark Witherspoon at the finish line. Both were timed in 10.09 seconds, respectable considering the 89-degree temperature and 52% humidity that kept medical personnel at the track almost as busy as the sport’s lawyers.

Former world record-holder Leroy Burrell was less than a step behind in 10.10 for third place, earning the final berth on the U.S. team in the 100 meters. Mike Marsh, formerly of UCLA, was fourth in 10.14; James Jett was fifth in 10.25; and then came Lewis in 10.28, considerably slower than the world-record time of 9.86 that he ran last year. He has not finished as low as sixth in a race in 11 years.

After fighting his way through a mob befitting a rock star on his way to the reporters’ tent, Lewis, seemingly resigned to the result, said: “You don’t make the Olympic team running 10.28. That’s the way it is. I’ve won some big races. Now, I’m on the other side. I can accept that.”

By finishing among the first six, Lewis is a candidate for the 400-meter relay team that will run at Barcelona. He also will attempt later this week to qualify for the U.S. team in the 200 meters and the long jump.

But, at 30, Lewis’ unparalleled career as an Olympic 100-meter runner, in which he became the only sprinter to repeat as the gold medalist by winning in 1984 at Los Angeles and 1988 at Seoul, is probably finished.

“I guess that’s the natural course of events,” said Marsh, who--as does Burrell and Witherspoon--trains with Lewis at Houston.

Events have yet to catch up to Evelyn Ashford, who, at 35, earned a place on her fourth Olympic team Saturday by finishing third in the women’s 100.

Gwen Torrence, the favorite after finishing second to Germany’s Katrin Krabbe in last year’s World Championships, won comfortably in 10.97 seconds, followed by Gail Devers in 11.02 and then Ashford, whose 11.17 edged the 11.18 of Carlette Guidry White.

Devers, who--as did Ashford--competed for UCLA, has made an amazing comeback since being sidelined for 1989 and ’90 because of Graves disease, which almost resulted in the amputation of both of her feet.

“Before last year, I didn’t think I’d ever run again,” said Devers, also a favorite to represent the United States at Barcelona in the 100-meter hurdles.

But Saturday belonged to Ashford.

“I can’t believe this,” said Ashford, who made her first Olympic team in 1976 and won the gold medal in 1984 and the silver in 1988 in the 100. “I’m 35. I’m not supposed to be running like this.”

When Ashford competed in her first Olympics, Marion Jones had not yet celebrated her first birthday. But the 16-year-old Thousand Oaks High junior has a chance to join her at Barcelona after finishing fifth in the 100 at 11.29. The U.S. women’s coach, Barbara Jacket, will choose the 400-meter relay participants at the end of the trials on June 28, but she said Friday that she plans to select the first six finishers in the 100 meters.

Jones can further ensure herself of a place on the U.S. team by finishing among the first three in the 200 meters, which begins with the first two rounds of qualifications Friday. The national junior record-holder in the 200, she said Saturday that she believes that is her better event.

The only other final Saturday, before 16,492, was the women’s triple jump, which is a non-Olympic event. Sheila Hudson, formerly of California, won with a jump of 46-8 1/4, an American record. She is considered among the contenders for the U.S. team in the long jump.

The long-jump favorite, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, began competition Saturday in the first of her three events, the heptathlon, and had a comfortable lead with 4,071 points through four of the seven disciplines. But the 1988 Olympic champion is far off her world-record pace entering the final three disciplines today.

“It’s nasty out there,” Joyner-Kersee’s throwing coach, Art Venegas, said of the weather.

Venegas said that Joyner-Kersee also was affected mentally by the injury in the high jump suffered by her Westwood training partner, Gea Johnson, the former NCAA champion from Arizona State who was expected to finish second here. She left the field on a stretcher with a torn tendon in her right knee and had to withdraw.

Joyner-Kersee continues to struggle with the effects of her own injury, a torn hamstring, that she suffered in the 200 meters of the heptathlon in the 1991 World Championships. At the same point on the track where she collapsed last year at Tokyo, she appeared Saturday as if she might pull up. But she regained her stride and easily won the race.

“When I’m working out, I slow down at that point,” Joyner-Kersee said last week. “The other girls say, ‘Are you hurt?’ I say, ‘No, but you wouldn’t believe what I just saw.’ I keep seeing myself hitting the ground.

“I know that’s the first step in trying to heal myself, but it’s tough mentally.”