University of Oregon
Oregon Relays - Multi-Events
Eaton, McFadden Post First Day PRs
04/24/09 | Track and Field
EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon's Ashton Eaton and Kalindra McFadden held the lead in the decathlon and heptathlon, respectively, after the first day of the Oregon Relays multi-event competition, held Thursday at Historic Hayward Field.
Eaton, competing in his first decathlon since finishing fifth at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, was 32 points ahead of the first day pace he established last June. The junior had 4258 points to take a commanding lead over teammate Aaron McVein.
"A record is always exciting, but anything over 8,000 points would be great," said Eaton. "I'm not really focused on a score, I'm just taking it one event at a time."
Eaton set an outdoor personal best in the high jump, clearing 6-8.75. He also neared lifetime bests in the 100 meters (10.66), 400 meters (47.25) and long jump (24-10.5).
McVein was second with 3,726 points, followed by teammates Marshall Ackley (3,463), Ingmar Kerem (3,159), Brian McGinty (3,136) and Wichita State's Justin Taylor (2,935).
McVein, a junior from Eugene, Ore., set a collegiate best in the high jump, clearing 6-7.5.
McFadden, a senior from Bozeman, Mont., had a first day personal best in the heptathlon by more than 100 points. She just missed personal bests in what might have been her most consistent heptathlon.
She ran 14.38 seconds in the 100 hurdles and missed a mulit-best by .01. She cleared 5 feet, 6.5 inches in the high jump, which was just 1.5 inches off her PR. McFadden then threw 39-3.75 in the shot put before finishing the day by clocking 25.28 in the 200 meters, less than a quarter of a second off her personal best.
"The first day went pretty good, pretty consistent," said McFadden. "I really just took care of what I needed to do today, and I'll hopefully be able to continue that tomorrow."
The Ducks' Erin Funkhouser was second with 2,710 points.
"I thought our multis did a really good job today," said associate director of track and field Dan Steele. "I was very happy with the first day scores our kids put up in both the heptathlon and the decathlon."
The multi-events, as well as the first full day of the Oregon Relays, get underway again at 10 a.m. Friday.
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