Men's Track Takes Sixth in NCAA Indoor Finale

Friday, March 11

Fayetteville, Ark.

TBA

University of Oregon

M-6th, W-DNS

NCAA Indoor Championships

Kedar Inico, University of Oregon (4x400 relay),

03/12/05 | Track and Field

By: GoDucks.com

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. ? In final day action in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, the University of Oregon men's team posted a best-ever sixth-place finish and 29 points, thanks to three more top-eight efforts Saturday.

Saturday's finish was the third top-20 men's team effort under head coach Martin Smith as Oregon took ninth in 2002 and 18^th in 2004 with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Individually, the Duck men also ended the two-day affair with eight All-America honors among their nine entries - both program highs - thanks to All-America honors in all four of Saturday's Duck events (UO's previous indoor All-America best was four in 2004).

Overall in the team race, meet host and favorite Arkansas tallied 56 points to edge Florida (second, 46), Wisconsin (third, 43) and Auburn (fourth, 37).

The Ducks paced Pac-10 Conference finishers, and were followed by Arizona (10th, 20 points), Arizona State and Stanford (13th-tie, 15 points), USC (22nd, 10), UCLA (25th, 9) and Washington (28th, 7), while California and Washington State did not score. The Duck men will also look forward to next year's NCAA Indoor Championships since they graduate only three individual scorers that accounted for nine of Oregon's 29 points.

As expected, Oregon's sprinters stole the headlines Saturday with their first-ever indoor All-America honor in the 4x400 relay. The combo of junior Travis Anderson, senior Kedar Inico, and juniors A.K. Ikwuakor and Matt Scherer took fifth in a time of 3:05.25 ? its second-fastest ever time indoors.

After the three sections were combined, top-seeded Florida won the overall 4x400 crown (3:03.51) by more than a second over second-heat winner Baylor (second, 3:04.72). Northern Iowa followed in third (3:04.95), ahead of LSU (fourth, 3:04.96) and Oregon (fifth, 3:05.26), while Arizona State ? the runner-up in UO's section ? was disqualified for running inside the inside lane too many steps.

Anderson opened the relay with a 47.1 lead-off leg in the third and final heat that also included Florida, Northern Iowa and Arizona State. After the opening 150 meters, the Arvada, Colo., native charged hard down the banked curve into the homestretch to fight for position among the leaders, and traded occasional contact with Florida's leadoff Sekou Clark for various sections midway through the race.

“I thought it was more elbow bumping than anything,” Anderson said afterwards, “but I was also worried that a referee might not catch all of it and take it the wrong way. I did the best I could to get out and keep us in decent position.”

Anderson handed off in fourth place just behind Northern Iowa, and less than seven meters behind Arizona State and Florida so the second leg Inico rocketed out early to try and make up one place quickly. Inico moved up to third after the opening 150 meters when he passed UNI's Cody Eichmeier, and Inico's overall split of 45.7 seconds helped to make up 10 meters on the second-place Gator's leg Bernard Middleton.

He passed off to third leg Ikwuakor less than three meters down of Florida and in third place, and Ikwuakor followed with a 46.7-second split ? his fastest of the season by .1 seconds ? but was passed soon after the exchange by Northern Iowa's Ryan Kedley as Oregon ended his leg back in fourth.

“After watching the second heat and seeing Arkansas, Baylor and LSU go after it to the tape, it got me pretty excited, maybe too fired up,” the second-year Duck Ikwaukor said. “We were hoping to place a little higher, but we all gave it our best.”

Going into the last exchange, UO was almost 20 meters back of leader ASU, 15 meters back of second-place Florida, and almost 10 meters back of Northern Iowa, but Scherer stayed patient and made up ground in the second of his two laps. The Sumner, Ill., native nearly caught Northern Iowa's anchor Dirk Homewood at the tape as Scherer was clocked in 45.5 by Duck sprint coach Dan Steele.

Saturday's relay effort easily edged the Ducks' preseason indoor school record of 3:06.54 from the Iowa State Classic in February 2004. The only time UO has even run faster indoors came last weekend, when the same Duck combo ran an NCAA automatic time of 3:04.17 at Iowa State to move to second in the regular season collegiate rankings.

Looking at previous NCAA mile relay honors, the Duck men made their NCAA indoor debut last year (11^th) when Scherer injured a hamstring on his anchor leg. Outdoors, UO was fifth in the NCAA outdoor finale in 2004 thanks to Anderson, Inico and Scherer, and other prior outdoor All-America finishes came in 1965 (fourth, '70 (fourth) and 1971 (second).

Earlier in the evening in the open 400, Inico led the Ducks with its first All-America honor in the event (sixth, 46.62) ? half of his pre-meet seed that was based on his season best (46.41) from last week's NCAA T&F Qualifier in Ames, Iowa (3/6). The second-year Duck out of Barton Community College finished second in the first of two heats behind Florida State freshman Ricardo Chambers (46.28) who ended up fifth in the combined results.

“I felt the effort was good overall in the 400,” Inico said, “but it would have helped if I would have gotten to the break-in point (at 160 meters) faster so I could have been up front. Unfortunately that meant I was boxed in. When I had to stay back, I probably saved a little energy for the end, but I would have liked to try and given it all I had, all the way. Still, I never thought I would be here as an All-American in both events, back when I was at Barton.”

On his heels, junior Matt Scherer added another All-America honor in the event (ninth, 47.15) since he was one of the top eight U.S. finishers in the event. “This race is all about positioning, and I didn't do what I had to be up in the mix. Afterwards, I was glad to be able to come back and be a part of the relay and do something we've never accomplished before indoors. We had even higher expectations coming in, but we all ran hard and had clean exchanges, so there's not a lot more you can ask for.”

Scherer ranked fifth in his section (47.15), while top-seeded Florida sophomore Kerron Clement won the other section with the event's top time (44.57) over Arkansas senior Terry Gatson (45.29) and LSU junior Kelly Willie (45.41) who ranked second and third in the heat and overall in the nine-man final.

Looking back over the season, Inico's time Saturday was his second-fastest ever and he ranks second all-time for the Ducks behind Scherer who ran his season best of 45.95 also last weekend at Iowa State.

In the distances, UO added its second-ever indoor All-America award in the 3,000 thanks to redshirt senior Eric Logsdon (seventh, 8:04.27) ? two places better than his pre-meet seed.

The Canby, Ore., native even challenged for fifth in the final kilometer, but was passed in the final 200 by the hard-charging pair of Arkansas's Adam Perkins and Iona's Richard Kiplangat who took fourth and sixth, respectively.

Overall in the event, Wisconsin sophomore Chris Solinsky (first, 7:53.59) rallied to the lead in the final three laps and held of a last lap charge by Arkansas sophomore Peter Kosgei (second, 7:54.45). Logsdon also led Pac-10 finishers in the event that included Arizona junior Robert Cheseret (11^th, 8:09.22) and Stanford junior and early leader Ryan Hall (14^th, 8:17.31).

Logsdon ended the season with his first indoor All-America honor after he won outdoor honors in previous NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 5,000 in 2004 (seventh) and '03 (eighth), and in cross country in 2003 (29^th) and 2002 (41^st). His 2005 indoor season was a record-setting one since he broke UO all-time bests in the mile (4:01.86) and 5,000 (13:49.99), and was .03 seconds shy of Steve Fein's mark in the 3,000 (7:54.26) from 1999 ? the same individual that claimed Oregon's first indoor All-America honor in the event that same season (seventh).

In the second day of the men's heptathlon, redshirt junior Ryan Voge held on to his first-day position to take 10th with 5,209 points. Since three foreign athletes finished ahead of him, Voge finished among the top eight American finishers and received UO's first All-America honor in the event.

The native of Hillsboro, Ore. entered the meet ranked 10^th overall and third-best among four Pac-10 qualifiers, and his final score led the league quartet that included Arizona freshman Robert Arnold (13^th, 4,575) and WSU junior Darion Powell and ASU freshman Joshua Kinnaman who did not finish.

Voge's second-day marks follow: 60 hurdles (13^th, 9.01), pole vault (seventh, 15-1) and 1,000 (fourth, 2:45.60), and he entered the meet with the following season bests: 60 hurdles (8.85), pole vault (15-11) and 1,000 (2:43.26). Although he did not register a personal best Saturday, he had to be happy with the overall score since he had turned an ankle early in the meet in Friday's first day events.

In the overall heptathlon standings, Auburn senior and Jamaican Maurice Smith (first, 6,004) weathered a second-day charge from Texas sophomore and returning NCAA champ Donovan Kilmartin (second, 5,925). Fellow Longhorn and junior Trey Hardee followed in third place (5,859).

On the women's side, Tennessee won its first NCAA title with 46 points to beoame the seventh different school to win the indoor team title. Florida followed in second (36), ahead of Miami (third, 32), Nebraska (fourth, 29) and South Carolina (fifth, 28).

Oregon did not have any second-day women's competitors Saturday, while redshirt senior Laura Harmon represented the team Friday evening in the 5,000 (15^th, 17:24.21).

Complete NCAA Championships results are available at the www.NCAAsports.com , www.HogWired.com and www.LadyBacks.com websites.

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