University of Oregon
Pac-10 Championships Heptathlon/Decathlon
Duck Decathletes Take Four of Top Five Places at Pac-10s; Andrus Posts PR For Third in Hep
05/08/04 | Track and Field
TUCSON, Ariz. - The Duck men featured four NCAA provisional or automatic marks among their quartet of top-five finishes, including men's winner Tommy Skipper, in final day action Saturday in the Pac-10 Championships decathlon, and senior Abby Andrus posted a NCAA provisional mark and 22-point personal best for third place in the women's heptathlon at the University of Arizona's Roy Drachman Stadium.
Freshman Tommy Skipper led the Duck men with an NCAA automatic score (7,589) that was 89 points above the decathlon auto standard, and ended 105 points better than runner-up Arizona State senior Joshua Kinnaman (second, 7,484). Duck sophomore Andy Young registered a 193-point personal best to take third place (7,372), and senior Gabriel LeMay followed in fourth with a 158-point personal best of his own (fourth, 7,333). Oregon's fourth entrant, redshirt sophomore Ryan Voge, also topped the NCAA provisional standard of 7,000 points with a 191-point personal best to finish fifth (7,245). Rounding out the other finishers in arguably the deepest Pac-10 decathlon in recent memory, two others - Cal's Scott Sobieralski (sixth, 7,215) and UCLA's Chris Staton (seventh, 7,041) - also claimed NCAA provisional marks, followed by WSU's David Turpin (eighth, 6,817) and Stanford's Nick Taylor (ninth, 6,501). Among Saturday's marks, Skipper led the pole vault marks by almost a full foot with his clearance of 17-4 1/2, and he was also 18 feet better than the field in the javelin with his collegiate best (203-10). The Sandy, Ore., native also ranked second in the discus (143-4), fifth in the 110 hurdles (15.44, w:0.1) and ninth in the 1,500 (5:21.46). "I was doing some great jumping," Skipper said, "and I have to credit the help of our trainers. Coach [Bill] Lawson is the man, he really gets the team fired up to compete. The team's camaraderie really is good, and we work well together." Giving Oregon its fourth straight Pac-10 decathlon title and 11th overall including Pac-8 history dating back to 1965, Skipper moved up from fourth place after the first day when he tallied 3,857 points. At the halfway point Friday, he trailed ASU's Kinnaman who scored 3,995 points to lead Oregon's Voge (3,956), while LeMay followed in third (3,874) and Young stood eighth (3,578). Young added the Ducks' third event victory Saturday in the 1,500 finale (4:21.94) in a Duck 1-2-3 sweep. The Newberg, Ore., native also ranked second in the pole vault (16-4 3/4), fourth in the 110 hurdles (15.44, w:0.1) and discus (131-0) and fifth in the javelin (172-3). Four of his marks Saturday were decathlon personal bests - his discus by more than three feet, his pole vault by more than seven inches, his javelin mark by more than a foot, and his 1,500 by more than a half-second. LeMay followed Young in second place in the 1,500 four seconds back (4:25.94), and ranked fourth in the pole vault (15-5), sixth in the 110 hurdles (15.71, w:0.0) and discus (127-0) and eighth in the javelin (136-6). LeMay's second-day marks included bests in the pole vault by one foot, 1 3/4 inches, and in the 1,500 by a half-second over his previous marks from the same track in March. Voge ended the day third in the 1,500 (4:39.16), and added seventh in the 110 hurdles (15.82, w:0.1), discus (115-8) and javelin (168-4), and eighth in the pole vault (13-9 1/4). Four of Voge's marks Saturday were personal bests - by .18 seconds in the hurdles, by five feet in the discus, by seven feet in the javelin and three seconds in the 1,500. Overall, the Ducks' 1-3-4-5 finish netted them 25 points - their most points in a single event in recent memory in any of the 19 individual events in the conference championships. With one of the 21 total events now complete, Arizona State follows in second with eight points, Cal is in third place with three points, UCLA is in fourth with two points and WSU is in fifth with one point. On the all-time Duck charts, three of the four Ducks bettered the previous 10th-place ranked performer, Paul Pappas, who scored a personal best 7,303 points in 1997. Skipper now ranks eighth all-time for the Ducks ahead of Kanon Vanderhoff (ninth, 7,488) and recent Pac-10 champion and All-American Billy Pappas (10th, 7,532) who tallied his best en route to the Pac-10 win in 2002. Although the national collegiate national rankings will change fairly dramatically the next eight days when the remaining conference championships are held, Skipper would have ranked seventh nationally on last week's list, and the other Ducks would have ranked top 20 - Young (ninth), LeMay (12th) and Voge (17th). Last year, the NCAA upped the decathlon field slightly, and invited 24 to the NCAA Championships. On the women's side, redshirt senior Abby Andrus took a sizable step towards an NCAA heptathlon return with a 22-point personal best and repeated her third-place finish from last year (5,325). The Peoria, Ariz., native trailed only a pair of top-five ranked collegians in the final scores - Arizona State freshman Jackie Johnson (first, 5,603) and Cal junior Brooke Meredith (second, 5,475). Other heptathlon competitors included Washington's Grace Vela (fourth, 5,225), UCLA's Natassja Hall (fifth, 4,975), WSU's Julie Pickler (sixth, 4,938), Arizona's Amanda Underwood (seventh, 4,791) and UCLA's Georgea Richards (eighth, 4,734). "It was a good day for Abby and bless her heart she earned every point," assistant coach Rock Light said. "I was not surprised one bit because she was determined to get third for the team's sake, even though she was ranked fifth beforehand. She got a personal best score, and that's all you can ask." Among the day's opening events, Andrus ranked fifth with a hep season best in the long jump (18-2 1/2, w:2.9), and also in the javelin (118-0) with Saturday's mark only four inches shy of her personal best. "In the long jump, she had a good decent jump on a day that nobody jumped well," Light said, "and everybody struggled with the crosswinds. Her javelin was near a lifetime best and put her in good position going into the final event." Before the 800, she owned a six-event score of 4,481 points and was in a three-way battle for third place with Washington's Grace Vela (4,482), and Washington State's Julie Pickler (4,478). As Andrus pushed to the lead from the start en route to a two second-win (2:18.48) over ASU's Johnson (second, 2:20.88), the other Northwest rivals faded to fifth (Vela, 2:26.09) and eighth (Pickler, 2:50.36) in the two-lap event. "I asked Abbby what her plan was going in," Light said, "and she said she had to take it out from the start and try to get away, and she did. She ran a season best and made it look smooth. Afterwards, she was extremely happy and proud." Andrus's last event surge also pushed her ahead of the two rivals on the national list with Pickler (5,135) and Vela (5,065) formerly ranked ahead of Andrus (5,060) based on season bests. Andrus's mark still ranks her fifth all-time for the Ducks and pushed her closer to two-time All-American Jennifer Thomas (fourth, 5,452) who posted her personal best in 1998. Looking ahead to the NCAA Championships four weeks from now in Austin, Texas (6/9-12), Andrus significantly helped her chances for an NCAA return. Although the national qualifying list will change fairly dramatically in the next eight days when other conference championships are held, Andrus would rank 12th nationally based on last week's list. She entered this weekend's previously ranked 31st nationally with her prior season best and opener in the Oregon Invite in late April (5,060). Last year's collegiate finale upped the field to 27 athletes, and coaches expect at least 23-24 entrants to be invited again in 2004. The remaining 20 events of the men's and women's Pac-10 Championships will be held Friday-Saturday, May 14-15 at Roy Drachman Stadium. Meet results and other information will be posted at the University of Arizona
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