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 schedule. After Saturday, the Duck women’s team and men’s distance runners and throwers travel to the Stanford Invite the following week (Fri.-Sat., 3/26-27), and the men’s jumps crew heads to Tucson, Ariz., for an early-season midweek men’s decathlon (Tue.-Wed., 3/23-24) and the Jim Click Shootout (Sat., 3/27). The UO M&W return after the NCAA Indoor Championships last week at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The squads sent an all-time high (11) to the meet, and the men posted a best-ever four All-America honors, and second-highest ever team finish (18th, 13 points).
Oregon Preview Meet Information
Date: Saturday, March 20, 2004
Location: Hayward Field, University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore.
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
Schools: Lane CC, Linfield, Northwest College, OIT, Portland, Portland State, Seattle Pacific, Southern Oregon, Southwestern Oregon, Western Oregon.
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.
OREGON PREVIEW MEET PREVIEW: Duck M&W Join Forces for ?04 Debut.
11:30 am - W Hammer -
The Ducks load up with six entries in the specialty of throws coach Lance Deal, an Olympic hammer silver medalist in 1996 and four-time Olympian. Redshirt junior transfer Katie Kersh leads Oregon entries with a personal best of 173-5 for Sierra College in Sacramento, Calif., and owns impressive potential after splitting JC duty in softball and volleyball. Another transfer, junior Brittany Hinchcliffe, will redshirt after she transferred from Washington State and will compete unattached. The Bellevue, Wash., native owns the team’s top best (186-11, 2003) and is a two-time Pac-10 veteran (13th-2003, 9th-2002).
12:55 pm - W Javelin -
Redshirt junior Sarah Malone returns to action after she sat 2003 out because of injuries. The Newberg, Ore., native upped the school record to 179-2 as a sophomore, and is a two-time Pac-10 runner-up and NCAA veteran. She claimed All-America reviews as a freshman in 2001 in the NCAA Championships in Eugene (seventh, 164-9). Junior Roslyn Lundeen will likely redshirt this season but may throw unattached. The Victoria, British Columbia native fourth all-time for the Ducks with her freshman best (166-11) and has come up big in the championship slate with a pair of All-America finishes in 2003 (8th) and 2002 (7th), and a Pac-10 runner-up nod in 2003.
1 pm - M Hammer - Former Duck All-American Adam Kriz makes his first post-collegiate appearance at Hayward Field. Last year he ranked 15th in the U.S. (221-3) and fifth for the Ducks all-time with his personal best from his Pac-10 win.
2 pm - W Triple Jump -
Junior Clarice Hayward-Lee is one of the team’s most explosive athletes and took eighth in the Pac-10 Championships last season. Indoors in 2004, she topped the 40-foot line for the first time with a best of 40-1 1/4 that moved her to eighth all-time for Oregon.
2 pm - M Pole Vault -
Duck freshman Tommy Skipper finished second in the NCAA Championships last weekend in Fayetteville with his second-highest mark ever (18-4 1/2). He ranked first on the national collegiate indoor list with a school record 18-8 3/4 in Idaho in early February. Outdoors, the former National High School Athlete of the Year owns a best of 18-3 from the Golden West Invite in Sacramento last July that broke the national high school record.
2:23 pm - M 1,500 -
Post-collegian and Olympic hopeful Mike Miller makes his outdoor season debut. The former Linfield College product ran the fastest mile in a Duck home meet since 1986 (Dub Myers, 3:55.31) when he clocked 3:57.13 in the Oregon Twilight in 2001, and defended his title in 2002 at the same meet. Duck junior and All-America 5K runner Eric Logsdon will look to rewrite his personal best (3:48.51) from the 2003 Pepsi Team Invitational.
2:30 pm - W Pole Vault -
Senior and Eugene native Kirsten Larwin begins her chase after a second NCAA appearance after qualifying indoors in 2003. She tied her best 13-3 1/2 in her NCAA debut (10th) and missed her first All-America plaque only on # of misses. Junior teammate Hannah Moore will redshirt outdoors and compete unattached. The Reno, Nevada native was the surprise of the 2004 indoor campaign after she cleared a 1-foot, 1 1/2-inch personal best in the NCAA Last Chance Qualifier in Seattle (13-5) that moved her ahead of Larwin to third all-time for Oregon. Last weekend in her NCAA debut, she finished 13th with her second-highest bar ever (12-11 1/2).
2:42 pm - M 110 Hurdles -
Sophomore Eric Mitchum finished sixth in the NCAA indoor equivalent (60 hurdles, 7.74) last week in Arkansas, and ranked second-fastest in the prelims (7.69). Last year he was the top freshman finisher in the NCAA Outdoor Championships (12th-semi, 13.89) and missed by final by .02 seconds. Three weeks earlier he took second in the Pac-10 Champs and is the top returnee in 2004.
2:40 pm - M High Jump -
Sophomore Jeff Lindsey surged indoors in 2004 with an NCAA provisional mark and indoor best of 7-0 1/2 - one of six meets with marks of 6-9 3/4 or better. He is tied for sixth all-time for the Ducks, and leaped a personal best of 7-2 as a prep senior in Texas in 2002.
3:30 pm - W Shot Put -
Junior transfer Bree Fuqua already owns the Wisconsin school record (51-5 1/2) and ranks second on the Duck list with her 2004 indoor best and NCAA provisional mark of 51-3 1/2. The Polson, Mont., native will also compete in the hammer (11:30 am) and discus (2:20 pm).
3:34 pm - M 400 Hurdles -
Senior Brandon Holliday won the Pac-10 title as a sophomore in 2002, and followed with an NCAA trip in 2003. He ranks seventh all-time for the Ducks, and also ran on the 4x400 that broke the school record in the 2003 outdoor collegiate finale (3:06.73), then improved to 3:06.40 indoors this year in February.
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).
*NOTE: The complete Oregon Track & Field weekly release is available in PDF format by clicking the link at the top.
