University of Oregon
NCAA Championships
Rupp Caps Career with 5K Win as Women Rise to the Top
06/13/09 | Track and Field
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Galen Rupp capped his remarkable career by winning his sixth national title, while Rachel Yurkovich and Brianne Theisen helped lead the charge for the Oregon women with wins in the javelin and heptathlon, respectively.
The Duck women piled up 23 points on Friday to take the team lead with 39 points. USC was second with 21 points, Arizona State, Florida State and Texas were tied for third with 20 points and Texas A&M was sixth with 19 points.
In the men's race, Oregon led with 36 points, followed by Louisiana State with 30 points, USC with 22 and Florida with 21. Texas A&M, which has a number of competitors in Saturday's finals, has 13 points.
In a development that impacted the men's team race, Texas A&M was disqualified in the men's 4x100 meter relay for being out of the zone on the final exchange. The Aggies were third in that race, so the disqualification cost them six points.
"We're going to take one day at a time and wait and see what happens tomorrow," said Oregon Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna. "Our goal was to come to the NCAA Championships and have both teams be in the hunt to compete for a trophy and we're in a position to see that happen."
Rupp's final collegiate victory was also his hardest-earned one as he crossed the line in 14:04.12.
He nearly lost a shoe on the first lap and David McNeill of Northern Arizona pushed him until the end, finishing second in 14:05.79.
After pausing to fix his shoe, Rupp measured the race from the back of the pack until he moved up gradually with three laps remaining. He went to the lead with 600 meters remaining and only McNeill kept pace to the finish.
"I was trying to do what I could to help the team out," said Rupp. "I was pretty tired. I tried to slow it down a little bit, but it's hard. I'm not going to go out of my way to get behind everybody."
The senior from Portland, Ore., accomplished something Friday night that no one has ever done before by winning his sixth NCAA distance race in one academic year (cross country, indoor 3,000 meters, indoor 5,000 meters, distance medley relay, outdoor 10,000 meters and outdoor 5,000 meters).
He also became the first person to pull off a double in the 5,000 meters and the 10,000 meters since Brad Hauser of Stanford in 2000, who was also coached by Lananna. Rupp, who Thursday night became the first 10,000 meter winner in school history, joined Oregon legends Bill Dellinger (1956), Steve Prefontaine (1972) and Rudy Chapa (1978) as the only 5,000 meter winners in school history and was the Ducks' first at that distance in 31 years.
Oregon also picked up a point in the 5,000 from senior Shadrack Biwott, who ran eighth in 14:11.45.
The men capped the night with five points from Cyrus Hostetler's fourth-place finish in the javelin with a throw of 238-6.
Yurkovich and Theisen led a serious charge by the women that also saw contributions from Nicole Blood in the 5,000, Kalindra McFadden in the heptathlon and Keshia Baker in the 400 meters.
Yurkovich won her second consecutive women's javelin title with a commanding series of throws that culminated in a school and Pac-10 record heave of 195-7.
The senior from Newberg, Ore., took the lead on her opening throw of 177-3, but then Anna Wessman of Texas-El Paso moved in front with a throw of 178-7 in round two. Yurkovich then reclaimed the lead later in round two with a throw of 179-3, only to have Kara Patterson of Purdue take the lead at the end of the round at 188-6.
But in the finals, Yurkovich unleashed a spectacular series, 195-7, 195-4 and 195-6, to win the meet. Patterson finished second with a mark of 190-2.
"I don't know where it came from," said Yurkovich, who became the first Oregon woman to win back-to-back NCAA titles in any event. "I just wanted it really bad.
"I knew that Kara (Patterson) was going to be right on my heels and I wanted to extend my lead as much as I could and just give it all I had."
It was the 12th straight collegiate win for Yurkovich, who was one of three top-three finishers for the Duck women on Friday.
Building off the momentum from her crucial third-attempt PR in the javelin, Theisen won the 2009 NCAA heptathlon title by scoring a school record 6,086 points. McFadden used a furious charge in the 800 meters to finish sixth with 5,683 points.
Sitting in fourth through five events, Theisen unleashed a personal-best throw of 148-0 to move into the lead.
"I knew as soon as it came out of my hand it was going to be huge," said Theisen. "I felt good."
From there, it was just a matter of holding off any challengers in the 800 meters, which she did by winning the event in 2:14.77.
Theisen, who opened the day with an outdoor PR of 19-8.25 in the long jump, became just the second Duck to win the heptathlon, joining Kelly Blair, who won in 1993. The sophomore from Humboldt, Sask., also broke Blair's 1993 school record, 6,038 points, by 48 points.
Coupled with Ashton Eaton's win in the decathlon on Thursday, Oregon became the first school ever to sweep the combined event titles at the same NCAA Championships.
In the final heptathlon standings, Liz Roehrig of Minnesota followed Theisen with 5,892 points. Then it was Bettie Wade of Michigan with 5,876 points, Nia Ali of USC with 5,824 points and Gayle Hunter of Penn State with 5,797 points.
McFadden took sixth place by just eight points over Hawaii's Annett Wichmann thanks to her second-place run of 2:15.07 in the 800 meters.
The senior from Bozeman, Mont., also had a leap of 18-5 in the long jump and a throw of 125-0 in the javelin.
"It's actually a great finish to my senior year," said McFadden. "It was definitely fun to finally get up on that podium. To finish sixth at the national meet is definitely a pretty cool feeling."
"You couldn't ask for nicer kids who do everything you ask of them and for them to be rewarded with national titles, it's one of the big thrills of my career," said associate director of track and field Dan Steele.
The women collected their final eight points of the night from Blood in the 5,000 meters. The junior from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., ran a strong race, staying with race winner Angela Bizarri nearly the entire distance. Bizarri won in 16:17.94, while Blood crossed the tape in 16:26.58.
"You want to win, so I'm not completely satisfied," said Blood. "But I put everything I had on the track. I wouldn't have changed anything, so I guess I'm satisfied with the effort I had."
In the only preliminary race for the Ducks on Friday, Baker advanced to Saturday's final in the 400 meters by finishing third in her semifinal in 52.33.
"I feel good," said Baker. "Brianne (Theisen) got me pumped up and ready. I look up to her. She was amazing."
In other action, senior Chris Winter finished ninth in the men's 3,000 meter steeplechase in 8:46.06.
Claire Michel ran 10:29.16 to finish 12th in the final of the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase.
Alex Wolff threw 219-11 to finish tenth in the men's javelin.
Melissa Gergel had a clearance of 13-5.25 to finish 14th in the pole vault.
In the preliminaries of the women's triple jump, Jamesha Youngblood had a leap of 42-0.5, but did not move on to the finals.
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