EUGENE - Spring Break will be delayed by at least a day for the Oregon track and field teams who open their outdoor campaign at the Oregon Preview at Hayward Field, Saturday, March 20. The early season staple will welcome a mix of area collegiate and post-collegiate talent in a nearly complete event afternoon schedule. After Saturday, the Duck women’s team and men’s distance runners and throwers travel to the Stanford Invite the following week (3/26-27), and the men’s jumps crew heads to Tucson, Ariz., for a midweek men’s decathlon (3/22-23) and the Jim Click Shootout (3/27).
MEET INFO
Oregon Preview ? Hayward, Field, Eugene, Oregon, Sat., 3/20
First Field Event:
11:30 am - M Javelin, W Hammer
First Running Event: 2:05 pm - W 4x100 Relay
Last Event: 4:20 pm - M 4x400 Relay
Results Web Site: www.GoDucks.com
Promotions: Victory Lap T-shirts
Single Meet Tickets:
Reserved $6; General Admission - $5 Adult, $3 Children (high school or younger) and Senior Citizens (62 or older). $2 per person group rates (10 or more).
Season Tickets:
$24 Reserved; General Admission - $20 Adult, $12 Children & Senior Citizens. Call 541/346-4461 locally or 1-800-WEB-FOOT. The Bowerman Building ticket office will open Saturday at 11 am.
2004 UO MEN’S PREVIEW: Balanced Corps Already Championship-Tested.
The Duck men return nine NCAA qualifiers and a 4x400 relay from last year’s NCAA outdoor finale, including three All-Americans (Jason Hartmann, 10K, fourth; Trevor Woods, pole vault, eighth; Eric Logsdon, 5K, eighth), to go along with two Pac-10 champions (Brandon Holliday, 400 hurdles; Adam Jenkins, javelin). Seven Duck men are ranked top-10 in UO history - Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, second, 13.75), Jason Hartmann (10,000, third, 28:31.96), Trevor Woods (pole vault, fourth, 18-0 1/2), Jordan Kent (200, sixth, 20.99; 100, eighth, 10.46), Matt Scherer (400, fifth, 46.40), Brandon Holliday (400 hurdles, seventh, 50.73) and Adam Jenkins (javelin, eighth, 222-4).
2004 UO WOMEN’S PREVIEW: Field Events Again Pace Charge in 2004.
The Duck women return three All-Americans in 2003 - javelin throwers Sarah Malone (javelin-2001, 7th), Roslyn Lundeen (javelin-2002, 7th, 2003, 8th) and Elisa Crumley (javelin-2002, 13th), and two other NCAA veterans from last season - senior Kirsten Larwin (indoor pole vault, 10th) and Abby Andrus (heptathlon, 18th). Current Ducks on the all-time top-10 lists include Sarah Malone (javelin, first, 179-2), Elisa Crumley (javelin, second, 169-7), Hannah Moore (pole vault, third, 13-5), Kirsten (Riley) Larwin (pole vault, fourth, 13-3 1/2), Abby Andrus (heptathlon, fifth, 5,303; 400 hurdles, sixth, 59.90; 100 hurdles, seventh, 14.00), Eri Macdonald (800, seventh, 2:06.37), Jill Hoxmeier (hammer, eighth, 162-6), and Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles, ninth, 61.30).
NEWCOMERS TO WATCH: Abildtrup, Skipper & Watson Make Instant Impact.
Top Duck women’s newcomers in 2004 include junior sprinter Sofie Abildtrup from Fredericksberg, Denmark (PRs - 100 - 11.84 (1999); 200 - 24.02 (1999); 400 - 54.16 (2002)), freshman pole vaulter Emily Enders from Everett, Wash. (12-7), junior shot putter and Wisconsin transfer Bree Fuqua (51-5 1/2), and freshman hurdler Amanda Santana (300H 43.95). Top men’s newcomers include sophomore hurdler and Colorado transfer AK Ikwuakor (110H 14.10, 400H 51.99), junior middle distance runner and Barton CC transfer Roderick Dotts (800 1:48.41), freshman miler Mike McGrath (1:48.56, 1,500 3:47.5, mile 4:05.28), junior jumper and St. Louis CC transfer Leonidas Watson (LJ 25-8, TJ 53-0), freshman pole vaulter and 2003 Prep Boy’s Athlete of the Year Tommy Skipper (national high school pole vault record 18-3), and junior thrower and Clackamas CC thrower Paul Etter from Everett Wash. (HT 199-3, DT 153-5, SP 48-4). The Duck men's newcomer class was ranked third nationally and first in the Pac-10 by Track and Field News earlier this year.
2003 OREGON PREVIEW REVIEW: Andrus Enjoyed Auspicious Duck Debut.
EUGENE (3/22/03) ? In last year’s Oregon Preview, the Duck M&W polished off a successful home opener, combining for 25 wins (16 W, 9 M), and 11 regional qualifying (6 M, 5 W) and 14 Pac-10 qualifying marks (8 W, 6 M). Among the Ducks women’s eight field event victors, senior hammer thrower Jordan Sauvage started the day off with a personal best and school record on the opening throw of the meet (188-3). The North Bend, Wash., native easily eclipsed the Pac-10 and Regional Championships qualifying marks by more than 15 feet, and broke the former Oregon record of 186-6 set by Maureen Morrison in 2000. Another senior thrower, Mary Etter, added wins and Pac-10 qualifiers in the shot put (44-6) and discus (161-3), with her discus mark also netting a Regional invite. In the javelin, junior and unattached entrant Rachael Kriz took top honors (145-9). In other field events, senior Amanda Brown claimed the triple jump with a personal best and Pac-10 and Regional qualifier (first, 40-8 3/4), and also won the long jump (18-9 1/4) with a mark that was only 3/4 inches from her personal best. In the vertical jumps, Jenny Brogdon won the high jump (5-7) with a Pac-10 and Regional mark, and redshirt senior Georgette Moyle and Hannah Moore went 1-2 in the pole vault with marks of 10-11 3/4 and 10-6, respectively. On the track the Oregon women continued their success with wins in seven of the eight individual events and added another relay victory. Redshirt junior transfer Abby Andrus enjoyed a busy Duck home debut with wins in the 100 hurdles (first, 14.19w, w:+2.2) and 400 hurdles (first, 60.51), and both times earned Pac-10 invites, and her 400 hurdles personal best was a Regional qualifier. Senior Janette Davis won the 200 (first, 24.69) with a .05-second personal best; logged a windy 100 best (12.09, w:+3.0); and anchored the winning 4x400 (3:47.65). Redshirt freshman Sara Schaaf (first, 57.46) and sophomore Michelle Donovan (second, 57.99) led the field across the finish line in the 400. In the distances, senior Eri Macdonald missed the Pac-10 qualifying mark by just over a second in the 800 (first, 2:12.46), as did Duck winner Erinn Gulbrandsen in the 1,500 (first, 4:41.86). On the men’s side, Hayward Field welcomed back a pair of NCAA and Pac-10 champions for the Ducks. Redshirt senior John Stiegeler won the javelin by 19 feet (219-11) with a Pac-10 and Regional qualifier, and edged Duck junior Adam Jenkins (second, 200-4) who also netted qualifiers for both championships. Former collegiate decathlon champ and redshirt senior Santiago Lorenzo anchored the winning 4x400 (3:12.99) and also competed in the 110 hurdles (third, 14.90). Returning NCAA qualifier Adam Kriz posted his then-third-best mark ever in the hammer (fourth, 206-9) and was the top collegian. Senior thrower James March added a pair of wins and a two-foot best in the shot put (55-7) and 10-foot victory in the discus (157-2). In the triple jump, sophomore Derek Strubel registered a four-inch personal best (first, 49-5 1/2), and redshirt freshman Jon Derby also won his first Duck title in the pole vault (15-11) and missed his personal best by only 3/4 inches. On the oval, freshman Eric Mitchum debuted with Regional and Pac-10 qualifying marks in the 110 hurdles (14.07w, w:+3.0) and took a runner-up nod in the 400 hurdles (53.81) that was less than a quarter-second shy of the league standard (53.64). Junior hurdler and Pac-10 champion Brandon Holliday claimed the other hurdle title (53.21) with a Pac-10 qualifier. In the distances, redshirt sophomores Eric Logdson (first, 3:50.93) and Noel Paulson (second, 3:51.15) led finishers in the 1,500 and just missed the Pac-10 (3:50.14) and Regional (3:50.00) qualifying standards. Freshman Ryan Flaherty finished second in the 800 (1:53.07) ? less than a second off his prep best of 1:52.19) - and redshirt junior John Lucas took runner-up honors in the 3,000 (8:29.41).
2004 NCAA INDOOR M RECAP: Ducks Score Record Four All-America Nods.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (3/12-13) - Last week at the University of Arkansas, the Duck men posted school bests for most NCAA indoor entries (7) and All-America honors (4) and added their second-highest finish (18th, 13 points) behind 2002 (ninth, 15 points). UO’s tally ranked third among Pac-10 teams just behind UCLA and ASU (12th-tie, 17), and ahead of Stanford (19th, 12), Washington (22nd, 11), Arizona (34th, 5), WSU (50th, 3) and USC (65th, 1 1/2). On the second day, freshman Tommy Skipper challenged for the NCAA pole vault title in the upper 18-foot range before he took second (18-4 1/2) with his second highest-ever clearance behind returning NCAA champion and indoor record holder Brad Walker, a redshirt senior for Washington (first, 18-8 1/4). Skipper opened the day with first attempt makes at 17-4 1/2, 17-8 1/2, 18-0 1/2, then lost the lead when he needed a second try to clear 18-4 1/2. In comparison, Washington’s 19-footer Walker missed only his opening attempt at his starting height of 17-8 1/2, then cleared the rest of his first tries through 18-8 1/4. Skipper led early thanks to his initial clean slate, but when Skipper missed his first try at 18-8 1/2, and Walker converted, the Duck was forced to go up another bar to 19-0 1/4 for his remaining two tries, which he missed with solid attempts. The Sandy High School product Skipper entered the competition seeded first nationally thanks to a 5 3/4-inch personal best in early February in Idaho (18-8 3/4), while Walker followed one place behind on the national qualifying list (second, 18-1). On the Oregon all-time list, Skipper’s early season clearance broke the school record of Olympian Kory Tarpenning who cleared 18-6 1/2 in 1985. The first-year phenom will chase his own Olympic dream in July’s Olympic Trials after he met the A qualifying standard of 18-8 1/4. Skipper became the Ducks’ third indoor All-America pole vaulter in event history after Trevor Woods took third as a sophomore in 2002 (indoor best 17-11 3/4), and Piotr Buciarski also took third as a senior in 1998 (18-0 1/2). Skipper’s honor also stood as the Ducks’ 21st overall in the event including outdoor collegiate finales, as he also challenged for UO’s third NCAA crown after victories by George Rasmussen in 1947 (14-0) and 1948 (14-0). Horizontal jumper and redshirt junior Leonidas Watson added an All-America honor on the first day with his daily best on his second prelim effort in the long jump (ninth, 25-2 1/2), then added 13th in the triple jump the second day (50-1 3/4) and was less than eight inches away from making the event final. The transfer from St. Louis Community College Watson entered the meet seeded eighth in both events thanks to season bests (25-6 1/2 / 52-10 1/4) that rank him ninth and fourth all-time for the Ducks. The 4x400 fell short of its All-America goal when anchor leg and sophomore Matt Scherer strained his right hamstring 150 meters into his anchor leg and fell. The Sumner, Ill., native got up to slowly jog the remaining lap to the finish. The unit of Scherer, senior Brandon Holliday, junior Roderick Dotts, and sophomore Travis Anderson entered the meet seeded seventh in its first NCAA indoor appearance thanks to a school record and NCAA automatic mark of 3:06.54 a month ago in the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa. Their nearly-three second season best rewrote the previous record of 3:06.73 from the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Championships that featured three of the 2004 NCAA Indoor members (Anderson, Holliday and Scherer, and two-sport star Jordan Kent). In the first day’s 60 hurdles, sophomore Eric Mitchum claimed his first All-America honor as the top finisher in his class (sixth, 7.74) and trailed only seniors and juniors. Three hours earlier in the afternoon, the Calumet City, Ill., native Mitchum won the third of three prelims with a .09-second personal best and school record (7.69) that ranked him second in the 18-man field. Mitchum entered the meet tied for ninth nationally with the Ducks’ former school record with his then-personal best from the previous weekend in Gainesville, Fla. (7.78), and bettered the NCAA provisional mark of 7.95 in all eight of his races this season. Redshirt senior Ryan Andrus added two more points in the 5,000 (seventh, 14:03.21) for his first track All-America honor after missing a similar plaque outdoors in the NCAA 10,000 outdoors in 2003 by one place and one second. The Orem, Utah., native entered the meet seeded fourth nationally after a surprise 15-second personal best and NCAA automatic qualifier (13:51.00) the previous weekend in Seattle. The Ducks’ other first-day entry, sophomore Matt Scherer added duty in the 400 (12th, 46.77) and missed the final by .32 seconds and four places. The Sumner, Ill., native finished fourth in the second of four heats (46.77), after he entered the meet seeded 13th with a season best of 46.40 a month before in Ames, Iowa - a clocking that broke the Oregon indoor school record and moved him to fifth all-time for the Ducks. He made his NCAA debut outdoors in 2003 as a freshman and ran his outdoor best (46.47) that then ranked him sixth in school history. Overall in the final team race, the LSU men won their second national men’s crown with 44 1/2 points to edge host Arkansas and Florida which tied for second (38), ahead of Texas (fourth , 31) and Michigan (fifth, 28). With their women’s victory, the Bayou Bengals LSU became the first school to sweep both titles in NCAA indoor history.
2004 NCAA W INDOOR RECAP: Three of Four Ducks Make NCAA Debuts.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (3/12-13) - Junior pole vaulter Hannah More sealed a strong postseason run as the Ducks’ 12th NCAA pole vault entry in pole vault Mark Vanderville’s five-year tenure overseeing the event. The Reno, Nevada native Moore ended 13th overall with her second-highest mark ever (12-11 1/2) in a field that featured four Pac-10 vaulters and three All-Americans - Chelsea Johnson of UCLA (second, 13-11 1/4), Connie Jerz (third, 13-7 1/4) and Kate Soma (fifth-tie, 13-3 1/2). Moore opened the day with a second-attempt clearance at the opening height of 12-5 1/2 and third-try make at 12-11 1/2, before she missed her three attempts at 13-3 1/2. Moore entered the meet seeded 10th after her 1 foot, 1 1/4 inch personal best the previous weekend (13-5) for her first-ever NCAA provisional mark, and one that raised her to third all-time for the Ducks. Prior to the 2004 indoor season, she owned an indoor best of 11-8 in 2003, and an all-time best of 12-6 1/4 from the West Regional outdoors last spring. On the track the first day, redshirt junior Magdalena Sandoval gave a valiant effort in the 5,000 and ran the first 3/4 of the race in seventh place before a calf injury forced her to drop back to 17th (16:29.69). The Los Alamos, N.M. native entered the meet seeded sixth with an NCAA automatic time (16:04.40) from a month before in Seattle that was a 40-second personal best that also moved her to eighth all-time for the Ducks. Her NCAA indoor debut came on the heels of her first postseason harrier trip the previous November, when she suffered a hard fall in the opening quarter-mile of the 2003 NCAA Cross Country Championships last fall. She got up in last place, and had the courage to pass more than half of the nation’s best 255 runners to finish 105th on the 6K course. In the 800, redshirt senior Eri Macdonald closed her collegiate career with her NCAA track debut (14th, 2:09.14). The Honolulu, Hawai’i native entered the meet seeded 14th overall thanks to her 1 1/2-second indoor personal best in Seattle the previous weekend (2:06.75), and her NCAA prelim clocking ranked as her third-fastest ever indoors. All-time for the Ducks she ranked seventh in the event thanks to her outdoor best from 2002’s Washington Dual win (2:06.37). This indoor season, she also led the Duck season best list in the mile with her season opener also in Seattle (4:54.85). Her NCAA appearance ended a string of qualifying bad luck when she missed an NCAA outdoor invite in 2002 by .04 seconds and was just over a second away as a sophomore outdoors in 2002. On the second day, redshirt senior Abby Andrus made her first NCAA indoor appearance as the pentathlon made its collegiate indoor championships debut. Andrus had a good news and bad news effort with personal bests or near marks in three of the five events, before a trio of fouls in the long jump torpedoed her final tally and put her 16th overall with 3,075 points. Andrus opened with a mark of 9.20 in the 60 hurdles, then followed with marks of 5-6 in the high jump (only an inch off her hep best), and a 36-0 season best in the shot put, before her foul in the long jump. She closed with a 2:23.05 season best effort in the 800. The Peoria, Ariz., native Andrus entered the meet with a personal best and NCAA provisional mark of 3,908 points the previous weekend in Moscow, Idaho that put her 11th on the year-end qualifying list. Andrus’s appearance was her second in a collegiate finale after she took 18th with 5,019 points in the 2003 NCAA heptathlon in 2003. Overall in the final team race, the LSU women repeated as team champions with 52 points for their 14th title in 23 years of the championships’ existence (it started in 1982), and also won the men’s crown by a 6 1/2-point advantage for the first same-school team title sweep in NCAA indoor history.
AT THE HELM: Duck Head Coach Martin Smith Profile.
In 2004, sixth-year men’s head coach Martin Smith adds the women’s head coach title for the first time after the retirement of Tom Heinonen last spring. The 2002 Pac-10 and West Regional Men’s Coach of the Year Smith guided the Duck men to the 2003 Pac-10 Championships team title ? their first since 1990. At the national level, he led the ?Men of Oregon’ to a trio of top-15 NCAA team finishes in 2001 (outdoors-ninth), 2002 (indoors-ninth) and 2003 (outdoors-13th), and three more top-15 cross country team finishes in 1999 (sixth), 2001 (13th) and 2002 (fifth). Individually, Ducks have combined for 36 All-America honors in track and cross country (including two NCAA individual wins), 14 individual Pac-10 crowns, and nine Academic All-America honors in that stretch. Prior to his arrival in Eugene in July 1998, he served as the distance mentor and assistant track coach at Wisconsin, as his Badgers posted two cross country NCAA team titles (1982-88), five NCAA individual track and cross country wins, and 78 All-America honors (44 track and 34 XC). The Alexandria, Va., native made his initial mark on collegiate history as the Virginia women’s distance coach and guided the Cavaliers to consecutive harrier national crowns in 1981 and 1982, while individual Lesley Welch won the individual title in ?82.
ALL-AMERICA EQUATION: Breaking down the NCAA Honor.
Based on their NCAA Championships performances, individuals are awarded All-America honors at season’s end by the U.S. Track Coaches Association. The top-eight finishers from each NCAA event final are honored regardless of citizenship, and any additional U.S. finishers that are among the top eight American finishers are also rewarded. If necessary, the U.S.-based honors can even extend to the top performances in the preceding qualifying round if there are less than eight Americans in the event’s final.
HAYWARD FIELD PROFILE: Eugene Welcomed its Ninth NCAA Finale in ?01.
One of the most famous track facilities in the world, Hayward Field is named for Bill Hayward, who coached the Oregon’s men’s team from 1904-1947. Originally dedicated in 1919, the 10,205-seat stadium now boasts a standing room capacity of 10,505. In 2001, the venue welcomed the world’s fastest, strongest and most explosive to a Triple Crown of great meets ? the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Prefontaine Classic (www.preclassic.com) and USA Outdoor Championships. Altogether, nine NCAA Championships (1962-64-72-78-74-77-91-96-01) have visited Track City USA, along with three Olympic Trials (1972-76-80) and six U.S. Championships (AAU 1971-75, TAC 1986, USATF-1993-99-01). Since the NCAA started rotating outdoor championships sites in 1934, Oregon has welcomed more finals (9) than any other school. California follows with eight (although they haven’t hosted one since 1968), and no other school has hosted more than five.
THE ROAD TO AUSTIN: Explaining the NCAA Regional Qualifying System.
After several years of research and urging by the U.S. Track Coaches Association, the NCAA Championships Division 1 Board of Directors switched to a regional qualifying procedure for the first time for the 2003 outdoor season. Four, two-day regionals, drawn in a vertical fashion geographically, were held nationally on Fri.-Sat., May 30-31 with regional qualifying standards based on the 100th best performance nationally from 2002 (while all conference champions are also automatically invited to their respective regional). Except for the 10K and heptathlon/decathlon (which still operate on an automatic/provisional standard system), the top-five finishers from each regional event automatically advanced to the NCAA Championships, nearly two weeks later. Besides the automatic advancers, an additional 6-8 athletes nationally per event were invited by the NCAA Championships selection committee based on a season performance list (in case of injury, illness, false-start/DQ, etc.) as long as that athlete competed in the regional. Coaches hoped that the easier regional qualifying standards (compared to previous national provisional standards) enabled athletes to obtain marks during the regular season and avoid 'chasing marks', especially in mid- to late-May, while the regional competition encouraged head-to-head competition at the end of the season and increase fan and media interest. In other NCAA committee news, the championships field sizes were raised approximately 40 percent ? most individual events were previously 18-21 deep with relays inviting 11-12 entries, and will now grow to 27-29 and 15-16, respectively. Previous men's and women's fields were set at 388 athletes among the 21 individual and relay events, and in 2003, the number expanded to 544 each.
ALL-AMERICA EQUATION: Breaking down the NCAA Honor.
Based on their NCAA Championships performances, individuals are awarded All-America honors at season’s end by the U.S. Track Coaches Association. The top-eight finishers from each event are honored regardless of citizenship, and any additional U.S. finishers that are among the top eight American finishers are also rewarded. If necessary, the U.S.-based honors can even extend to the top performances in the preceding qualifying round if there are not eight Americans in the event’s final.
MEN’S 2003 SEASON REVIEW: Ducks Surge in Championship Slate.
With a narrow 131-130 Pac-10 Championships win over Stanford, the Duck men won their first league crown since 1990 in anticlimactic fashion when the meet was rescored in October because of an ineligible USC sprinter which dropped the Trojans from first to fourth. Three Duck men claimed Pac-10 crowns, and 23 of the team’s 24 entries (spread among 19 events) scored in an individual event or relay. Two weeks later at the end of May, The Oregon men captured 11 automatic NCAA invites courtesy of top-five finishes, including sprints wins by Samie Parker (100) and Jordan Kent (200). The Ducks continued to surge through the NCAA Championships with their second, top-15 outdoor finish in three years (13th, 19 1/4), and featured six All-Americans among their 14 entries. Two then-seniors capped the year with USA Championships appearances in the hammer and javelin. On the year-end season best list, three freshmen propelled the men’s 4x400 to a school record in the collegiate finale (3:06.73), Eric Mitchum and Samie Parker ended the year second and third on the Duck all-time charts in the 110 hurdles (13.75, 13.73w) and 100 (10.18). Indoors, Parker took third in the 60 final (6.64), after he broke his school record by .01 seconds in the prelim (6.62).
WOMEN’S 2003 SEASON REVIEW: Holliday Soars to New Heights.
Then-senior Becky Holliday penned a fairy-tale ending to her Duck pole vault collegiate career last summer with a World Championships appearance and third-place USA finish (14-3 1/4). In the collegiate championship stretch she broke meet records in her victories in the NCAA (14-5 1/2), West Regional (14-8) and Pac-10 Championships (14-6) with her regional mark a collegiate outdoor record. Among the Ducks’ eight NCAA outdoor invites, Niki McEwen added fifth (pole vault, 13-5 1/4) and Roslyn Lundeen took eighth (javelin, 159-0) to give the Ducks 14 1/2 points which placed them 17th overall. In the inaugural West Regional, discus thrower Mary Etter joined Holliday on the victory stand as Tom Heinonen’s crew ended with seven, top-five finishes. In the Pac-10 showdown in USC, the women took seventh with 60 points and enjoyed runner-up efforts from Niki McEwen (pole vault, 13-3 1/2) and Roslyn Lundeen (javelin, 159-8). Joining Holliday in the Duck record books NCAA hammer qualifier Jordan Sauvage upped the UO hammer best in the Texas Relays by more than three feet (191-4), and Mary Etter climbed to second in the discus with her winning regional effort (179-7).
PICK OF THE PAC-10: Four Ducks Claim Weekly Honors in 2003.
In 2003, the Duck men tied with USC for the most weekly Pac-10 Athlete of the Week honors with USC (4), among the five editions that honor both a track and field event performer. The Duck men claimed the most field event honors (2), USC held court for most track honors (3), and UCLA added the remaining field event honor (1). The Trojans also led in women’s honors in 2003 (3), ahead of UCLA (2), ASU (1), Stanford (1) and WSU (1). Santiago Lorenzo claimed Oregon’s final AOW honor of 2003 for his Pac-10 decathlon victory in USC (7,564, 5/10-11) as he led the field in the javelin (187-4) and 400 (48.96), and stood top three in seven of the 10 overall events. Lorenzo’s win was also his fourth, top-two league decathlon finish after runner-up nods in 2000 (7,649) and 1999 (7,150). Lorenzo’s athlete of the week honor also stood as the fourth of his career. As a junior in 2001, the Buenos Aires, Argentina native was honored after winning the Pac-10 (7,617) and the Texas Relays (7,726) decathlons, and as a sophomore in 2000 after his Texas Relays decathlon then-personal best (third overall, 7,580). The previous week (Tue., 5/6), Brett Holts was selected in the men’s track category after he took the Pac-10 steeplechase lead with his four-second personal best in the Cardinal Invitational (8:48.81, Fri., 5/2). The week before (Mon., 4/28), Adam Jenkins was selected in the field event category after he leapfrogged teammate John Stiegeler to the top of the Pac-10 javelin rankings, thanks to his three-foot personal and six-foot, seven-inch season best in the Oregon Invitational (221-4). Hammer thrower Adam Kriz claimed his first conference award two weeks prior in 2003’s inaugural honor for his then-best and Pepsi Team Invite win (217-10). Besides this year’s quartet of honorees, two other current Ducks have combined for five other Pac-10 honors the past three seasons - Trevor Woods (Pepsi Team Invite 4/02, pole vault, first, 18-0 1/2) and Sarah Malone (Oregon Twilight 5/01, javelin, first, 174-0).
TENTATIVE OREGON PREVIEW SCHEDULE
Oregon Preview
Hayward Field
University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Saturday, March 20, 2004
