University of Oregon
University of Arkansas
Skipper Wins NCAA Indoor Pole Vault Title
03/10/06 | Track and Field
Even more impressive, Skipper's 10 points, and additional top-five efforts from senior Eric Mitchum and freshman Galen Rupp have the Duck men tied with Florida State for second place with 20 points, behind the host Arkansas Razorbacks (first, 24). On the women's side, meet favorite Texas leads with 25 points, ahead of North Carolina (second, 20) and USC (third, 19), while Oregon stood 33rd with two points from its distance medley ? its only entry in an event final Friday.
Individually, Skipper added another chapter to the UO indoor pole vault record books with the its fifth All-America plaque and top-three placing and since 1998.
The Sandy, Ore., native captured his third straight top-two NCAA indoor finish with a final clearance of 18-6 1/2, and edged BYU senior Robison Pratt who also cleared 18-6 1/2 but finished second since had more misses at the same final height.
Skipper opened the day with first-attempt conversions at 18-2 1/2 (5.55m) and 18-6 1/2 (5.65m), then missed three tries at 18-10 1/4 (5.75m). Pratt also opened at 18-0 1/2 but needed two tries for a make, then cleared his third attempt at 18-6 1/2.
“This is my third time to compete here, but honestly probably the most nervous one,” Skipper said. “It's been a gradual process of building my confidence back after last year's injury outdoors, so I have to give credit to God, my family, my coaches and teammates, not to mention the trainers and massage therapists who have made the recovery possible.”
Heading into the indoor collegiate finale, Skipper was seeded first based on his season best of 18-8 3/4 that won the Mountain Pacific Championships two weeks ago in
“I went up a pole at 18-10 1/4 thinking that it would make it easier,” Skipper said. “Looking back I probably shouldn't have switched and used the same one and just tried be better technically. At the early heights, I was rolling the pole over well and had a good plant. My rhythm felt good on the runway, and I was getting outside of 14 feet on some of my takeoffs, so I was pretty happy with those attempts.”
In previous NCAA indoor finales, Skipper cleared the same final height of 18-4 1/2 to win as a sophomore in '05, and finish second in '04 as a freshman, and the latter only trailed 2005 World Championships silver medalist Brad Walker.
Friday's performance verified Skipper's status as the collegiate scene's top pole vaulter after he missed most of the 2005 outdoor season with a knee injury. As a freshman outdoors in ?04, Skipper also broke the school outdoor record (18-10 1/4) with a mark that was a new Pac-10 record, and he later won the NCAA outdoor title that season (18-8 1/4).
“The talent level at this meet seems to get better and better, so you always have to be at your best,” Skipper said. “I wish I could have gone higher today, but that's something that I can keep working on for outdoors. I also need to keep improving my opening heights so I can start comfortably at 5.60 or 5.70 meters.”
In the sprints Friday, senior Eric Mitchum scored his third All-America honor in the 60-meter hurdles and posted a best-ever finish in the collegiate final (third, 7.68) behind Tennessee junior Aries Merritt (first, 7.51) and Baylor senior Jerome Miller (second, 7.66).
“I was really hoping to win, but I didn't have the start I wanted,” Mitchum said. “This was my last NCAA indoor race so I gave it my all. I still have another chance to help the team outdoors.”
Mitchum ran his second-fastest time ever, but almost faced disaster when the start of the race was called back and he was warned by the starting officials for his movement in the starting blocks.
“There were a lot of people that were restless at the line, and they ended up giving me the yellow card, but that's how these races are. There is so much riding on this race, and the start is so critical if you want to win.”
Earlier in the day, Mitchum ranked third in the prelims (7.71) behind Merritt (first, 7.63) and
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Mitchum also claimed Oregon's only other indoor All-America hurdles honors as a junior in '05 (fourth, 7.73) and sophomore in '04 (sixth, 7.74). Outdoors for UO, he has been an All-American in the 110-meter hurdles as a junior in 2005 (fourth, 13.53) and sophomore in '04 (second, 13.38).
In contrast to Mitchum, freshman distance runner Galen Rupp made his NCAA indoor debut in the 5,000 meters (fifth, 13:56.41) and improved on his 10th-place pre-race seeding.
After a tepid early pace, Rupp gravitated to the front and led several of the race's middle laps. Afterwards, returning NCAA indoor 3,000 champ Chris Solinsky led the early part of the last mile before Arkansas senior Joshpat Boit (first, 13:49.93) outsprinted Iona senior Richard Kiplagat at the finish (second, 13:51.96), while Solinsky followed in third place (third, 13:52.47).
Rupp earned his NCAA invitation based on his NCAA automatic mark two weekends before in Seattle in his win in the Mountain Pacific Championships ? a mark that also bettered the previous school record of Eric Logsdon from 2005 (13:49.99).
Rupp's race Friday was actually his second at the NCAA level after he competed outdoors in 2005 in
In other men's action Friday, redshirt sophomore Michael McGrath finished 16th in the prelims of the mile (4:06.47) in his NCAA debut.
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Overall in his heat,
McGrath earned his NCAA invite last week when he became
On the women's side Friday, the Duck distance medley relay added an All-America honor (seventh, 11:18.89) in UO's first-ever appearance in the indoor championship event.
Graduate student Amber McGown led the squad off on the 1,200-meter leg with an unofficial split of 3:27.6, and was followed by redshirt sophomore Irie Searcy (400 meters, 55.0), redshirt senior Sara Schaaf (800, 2:09.9) and junior Dana Buchanan (1,600, 4:45).
Overall in the event, North Carolina won (11:01.97) as freshman Brianna Felnagle unleashed a final 400-meter surge on her anchor leg to edge Stanford's anchor Arianna Lambie. The Cardinal finished second (11:05.03), ahead of
The Duck DMR entered the NCAA meet seeded 10th with their season best and school record (11:16.05) from two weeks ago that placed them second in the Mountain Pacific Championships.
Noble did compete for the Ducks earlier Friday in the 800-meter prelims and won the third section (2:05.72) over Cornell junior Morgan Uceny (second, 2:05.97) and advanced to Saturday's event final. Overall Friday, Noble ranked third among the 17 entrants, behind
Between UO's women's two distance showings Friday, McGown began her afternoon with a personal best in the mile, and finished fifth in her section (4:41.48) and eighth overall in the 17-woman field.
McGown ran an intelligent race in the middle of the main peloton for much of the race's midsection between fifth and sixth places and recorded unofficial splits of 69 seconds (400 meters),
“This is it ?the NCAA Championships ? so I wasn't worried that I didn't hear any splits,” McGown said. “I just ran as fast as I could against these awesome fields and the times came on their own. Last week's race gave me a lot of confidence, and today I continued to springboard off that momentum. I'm so lucky to have these great teammates here and we can share this honor together.”
McGown's time Friday (4:41.48) moved her up one spot all-time for UO to second place, past another All-American Katie Crabb who ran 4:42.19 indoors in 2001. The first-year Duck and Cornell transfer McGown is now less than a second behind indoor school record holder and former NCAA outdoor 1,500 champion Leann Warren (4:40.6, 1985).
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Looking ahead to Saturday evening's final day action, Noble and McGown will compete in the 800 meters and mile, and Rupp will return to compete in the 3,000 meters.
“We had a lot of great performances today,”
Complete results and more meet information are available from Flash Results at their www.FlashResults.com website, and also at the www.NCAAsports.com , www.HogWired.com and www.LadyBacks.com websites.
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