This week, the Ducks head south to Los Angeles for the Mt. SAC Relays, Fri.-Sun., April 16-18. The annual trip is often the team’s busiest with several Ducks adding extra duty in the Long Beach Invitational on Saturday (4/17), although they will not compete in the nearby Pomona Pitzer Invitational as years past.
The following week, Oregon returns home for the Oregon Invitational, Sat., April 24 and will welcome much of the Northwest’s top collegiate and post-collegiate talent. A decathlon and heptathlon kick things off Thursday (4/22) and Friday (4/23), and the men's and women's 10,000-meter races will be held Friday evening. Saturday’s dual session affair will run likely from 10 am in the morning until 8 pm at night and will feature approximately 900 entrants.
Last week, the UO M&W won the Pepsi Team Invitational at home by scores of 191 and 184 points, respectively. Junior transfer and first-year Duck Sofie Abildtrup won both the 200 (23.94, w:1.8) and 400 (54.49) and anchored the 4x400 to a come-from-behind win and season best (3:46.92). All-American and sophomore Eric Mitchum won the 110 hurdles in a wind-legal personal best (13.70) that missed the school record by .03 seconds, and added a two-second personal best in the 400 hurdles en route to the win (51.47), .05 seconds ahead of senior and former Pac-10 champion Brandon Holliday (second, 51.52).
This Week's Meet Information
Meet: Mt. SAC Relays (46th Edition)
Location: Mt. SAC Stadium, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, Calif.
Friday Only Duck Event: M 10,000 - 9:25 pm
Saturday Only Duck Event: W Pole Vault - 3:45 pm
Sunday First/Last Duck Events: W Triple Jump - 9:45 am / 5:45 M 4x400
Results Website: http://vm.mtsac.edu/relays
Meet: Long Beach State Invitational
Location: Jack Rose Track, Long Beach State University, Long Beach, Calif.
First/Last Duck Events: W Shot Put - 10:30 am / 2:55 pm - M 200
Results Website: www.longbeachstate.com
DUCK WOMEN’S UPDATE: Vaulters and Sprinters Ahead of Pace.
Oregon will send only a sprint contingent to LA this week with junior Sofie Abildtrup (pron. ah-BEEL-D-trup) on a hot streak. The first-year Duck from Fredericksberg, Denmark joined the school’s all-time top-10 list last weekend with her wins in the 200 (#7, 23.94) and 400 (#9, 54.49), and added a 54.40, 4x400 anchor in her fourth race of the day (she also anchored the third-place 4x100). In all three of her outdoor 2004 contests, NCAA indoor veteran and senior Kirsten Larwin has topped her 12-10 preseason best. She cleared 13-1 1/2 in her last two home appearances, sandwiched around her current best of 13-3 1/2 at Texas (that featured several close misses at 13-7). The Eugene native and South High School was an NCAA qualifier indoors in 2003 (10th, 13-3 1/2) and was shy of All-America honors only on misses (eighth ended at the same height). One of the Ducks’ deepest events is the 400 hurdles with a pair of Pac-10 and regional veterans back from 2003 in senior Abby Andrus and junior Kayla Mellott. Andrus led the team last year with a personal best of 59.90 that moved her to seventh all-time for the Ducks, and Mellott climbed to ninth all-time with her 61.30 clocking in '03 - a mark she was just shy of last weekend in her season best at home in the Pepsi Team Invite (61.43). Senior C’Rel McAllister added a .31-second personal best last weekend (63.05) and is barely a second away from the Pac-10 mark (62.04). Freshman Amanda Santana won the Oregon 4A prep state title last spring in the 300 hurdles (43.95) and has raced the distance only once so far in 2004 (65.19). Junior Rachael Kriz owns one of the most unique pair of Pac-10 and regional invites on the West Coast and will see double duty again this weekend. She cleared a 3/4-inch high jump personal best to win the Pepsi Team Invitational last weekend (5-8). Simultaneously, she competed in the javelin and logged another league/regional qualifier and season best (139-6) not far from last year’s unattached personal best (145-9). She now ranks eighth all-time in the high jump and ninth in the javelin in Oregon history. Junior triple jumper Clarice Hayward-Lee finally eclipsed the 40-foot barrier outdoors last weekend in the Pepsi Team Invitational with her winning leap (40-4 3/4w, w:3.7) and earned the first regional invite of her career. Last season she took eighth in her Pac-10 debut (39-9 3/4w, w:3.3), and indoors in 2004 she cleared 40 feet in her final appearance of February in the Pac-10 Invitational (fourth, 40-1 1/4).
DUCK MEN’S UPDATE: Ducks Fine-Tune Sprint & Field Event Corps.
The Duck sprinters and hurdlers will match up against many of the nation’s top collegians and post-collegians in the West Coast’s biggest relay carnival. All-Americans Tommy Skipper and Trevor Woods compete in the invitational pole vault, and rank first (18-8 3/4) and fifth (18-0 1/2), respectively, in school history. The Duck event speciality has produced two NCAA champions, eight Pac-10 champions and four U.S. Olympians, not to mention a trio of top three NCAA indoor finishers the past seven years - Skipper (second indoors in ?04), Woods (third indoors in ?03) and former Duck Piotr Buciarski (third indoors in ?98). The Duck duo will be joined in a separate section by two other Pac-10 qualifiers - sophomore Jon Derby and freshman David Moore - who will shoot for their first 17-foot clearances after they cleared 16-6 3/4 and 16-6, respectively, the final month of the indoor season. The 4x400 relay takes aim at the Oregon all-time list again this week after breaking the school record indoors (3:06.40), and again went top-10 two weeks ago in the Texas Relays final (seventh all-time at UO, 3:08.51). The NCAA indoor quartet featured sophomore Travis Anderson, junior Roderick Dotts, senior Brandon Holliday and sophomore Matt Scherer, although Scherer has missed the first month of the outdoor season with a hamstring injury midway through his leg in the NCAA indoor 4x400 final in March. He has been ably replaced by recent Barton Community College transfer and former national junior college indoor 400 champion Kedar Inico who anchored the quartet in Austin with a coaches-clocked 45.95 split. All-America sophomore Eric Mitchum closed within .03 seconds of the school 110 hurdle record last weekend at home in the Pepsi Team Invitational (13.70, w:1.6). The prior week, he ran the fastest 110 hurdle ever by a Duck in the Texas Relays (13.50w, w:3.0) although the wind was 1.0 meters per second over the allowable limit (2.0) for a UO record. Indoors in March, he finished sixth in the NCAA 60 hurdles final the same day he crushed the school indoor record with the second-fastest time overall in the prelims (7.69).
TENTATIVE DUCK ENTRIES
Mt. SAC Relays
Mt. SAC Stadium, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, Calif.
Fri.-Sun., April 16-18, 2004
Results Website: http://vm.mtsac.edu/relays
Friday, April 16
9:25 pm - M Inv. 10K (Ryan Andrus) (Event #126)
Saturday, April 17
3:40 pm - W Univ. Pole Vault (Emily Enders, Kirsten Larwin) (Event #283)
Sunday, April 18
9:45 am - W Univ. TJ (Clarice Hayward-Lee) (Event #404)
10:15 am - M Univ. PV (Jon Derby, David Moore) (Event #410)
11:10 am - W Univ. 100 (Sofie Abildtrup) (Event #413)
12:55 pm - M Univ. 400H (Brandon Holliday, AK Ikwuakor) (Event #412)
1:40 pm - W Univ. 200 (Sofie Abildtrup) (Event #434)
3 pm - M Pole Vault Inv. (Tommy Skipper, Trevor Woods) (Event #447)
4:35 pm - M Inv. 110H (Eric Mitchum) (Event #462)
5:45 pm - M 4x400 Inv. (Event #468)
Long Beach Invitational
Jack Rose Track, Long Beach State University, Long Beach, Calif.
Sat., April 17, 2004
Results Website: www.longbeachstate.com
10:30 am - Shot Put (Abby Andrus)
Noon - High Jump (Rachael Kriz)
Noon - Triple Jump (Maegan Traver, Clarice Hayward-Lee)
12:10 pm - 400 (Michelle Donovan)
12:30 pm - Javelin (Abby Andrus, Rachael Kriz)1 pm - M 100 (Travis Ramme)
2:10 pm - 400 Hurdles (Abby Andrus, C’Rel McAllister, Kayla Mellott, Amanda Santana)
2:55 pm - 200 (Travis Ramme)
2004 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). Ten Duck men are ranked top-10 in UO history - Tommy Skipper (pole vault, first, 18-8 3/4), Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, second, 13.75), Jason Hartmann (10,000, third, 28:31.96), Trevor Woods (pole vault, fourth, 18-0 1/2), Leonidas Watson (triple jump, fourth, 52-10 1/4, long jump, ninth, 25-5 1/2), Jeff Lindsey (high jump, fifth, 7-1 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). Indoors in 2004, the Duck men posted their most NCAA invites (7) and All-America (4) honors in history, and their 18th-place team finish (13) was their second highest ever behind 2002 (ninth, 15 points). All-Americans included Tommy Skipper (pole vault, second, 18-4 1/2), Eric Mitchum (60 hurdles, sixth, 7.74) Ryan Andrus (5,000, seventh, 14:03.21) and Leonidas Watson (long jump, ninth, 25-2 1/2).
2004 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, 179-7), 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), Megan Kriz (hammer, fifth, 171-1), Katie Kersh (hammer, seventh, 170-7), Magdalena Sandoval (5,000, eighth, 16:04.41), Clarice Hayward-Lee (triple jump, eighth, 40-1 1/4), Whitney Gum (hammer, eighth, 166-8), Jill Hoxmeier (hammer, 11th, 162-6), and Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles, ninth, 61.30). Indoors in 2004, the Ducks claimed a best-ever four NCAA invites courtesy of Hannah Moore (pole vault, 13th, 12-11 1/2), Abby Andrus (pentathlon, 16th, 3,075), Magdalena Sandoval (17th-injured, 16:29.69) and now-graduated Eri Macdonald (800, 14th, 2:09.14).
NEWCOMERS TO WATCH: Abildtrup, Skipper & Watson Make Instant Impact.
A seven-woman group of newcomers share equal opportunity to contribute immediately. Junior sprint transfer Sofie Abildtrup arrives from Denmark and owns prior bests in the 100 (11.84), 200 (24.02, UO #7 23.94) and 400 (54.16, UO #9 54.49) that rank top-10 in Oregon history. Redshirt junior shot putter Bree Fuqua is the Wisconsin school record holder (51-5 1/2) and her 2004 indoor Duck best (51-3 1/2) put her second in UO history. Junior Katie Kersh hails from Sierra College near Sacramento and owns a hammer best (171-10, UO #7 170-7) that would rank top-six in Duck history. Two other additions, junior Mandi Fitz-Gustafson (steeple) and Brittany Hinchcliffe (hammer), arrive from Arizona State and Washington State, respectively, but will redshirt in 2004 because of inter-conference transfer rules. Hinchcliffe opened her Duck career in March’s Oregon Preview with a 10-foot personal best (197-2) that was almost six feet better than the school record set by Jordan Sauvage in 2003 (191-4). Freshman Emily Enders ranked 10th nationally among high school pole vaulters (12-7) in 2003, and that mark stands as the Ducks’ top prep best in an event that has developed one NCAA champion, two other All-Americans and another NCAA veteran. Freshman Amanda Santana won the state 300-hurdle crown last year and could compete in several sprints or hurdles events. The Duck men snagged the nation’s third-best recruiting class (and tops in the Pac-10) according to Track and Field News. St. Louis Community College transfer and junior Leonidas Watson won junior college titles in the triple jump indoors and outdoors last year and was second in the long jump in each. Barton Community College transfer and junior Roderick Dotts ran a 800 personal best of 1:48.41 that would have led the Pac-10 in 2003 and ranked 34th in the U.S. A pair of home-state freshmen - Mike McGrath and Tommy Skipper - led the national prep ranks in the 800 (1:48.56) and pole vault (18-3), respectively, as seniors with the latter tabbed prepster of the year after he upped the national pole vault by 3/4 inches. Sophomore hurdler and Colorado transfer AK Ikwuakor (110H 14.10, 400H 51.99) took fourth in the Big 12 400 hurdles last year, and his high hurdle mark would rank 10th all-time for the Ducks. Indoors in 2004, Skipper led the collegiate pole vault list during the regular season with a school record 18-8 3/4, Watson ranked top 10 nationally in both the long jump and triple jump and earned NCAA invites, and Abildtrup raced to an NCAA provisional mark in the 400 (54.46). Enders has since upped her outdoor best to 12-9 1/2 in the Texas Relays, and McGrath has also earned Pac-10 and regional invites with his outdoor best of 1:50.34 in the Pepsi Team Invitational.DUCK MEN’S NEWCOMERS
DUCK MEN’S NEWCOMERS
Jeff DeWolf, Fr.-HS, Bend, Ore. (Mtn. View), 800 1:53.59
Roderick Dotts, Jr.-TR, E. St. Louis, Ill. (Barton CC), 400 47.7, 800 1:48.41
Steve Green, Fr.-HS, Malta, Mont. (Malta), HJ 6-6, LJ 20-9, TJ 45-10
AK Ikwuakor, So.-TR, Arvada, Colo. (Colorado), 110H 14.10, 400H 51.99
Kedar Inico, Jr.-TR, Queens, NY (Barton CC), 200 21.66-indoors, 400 46.30
Scott Lamb, Jr.-TR, Dallas, Ore. (Mt. Hood CC), 400 48.28
Ben Looney, Fr.-HS, Coos Bay, Ore. (Marshfield), Dec. 6,326 (HS), 400 49.53, HJ 6-4, LJ 21-11, 110H 15.31
Mike McGrath, Fr.-HS, Portland, Ore. (Lincoln), 800 1:48.56, 1,500 3:47.5, Mile 4:05.28
Travis Ramme, Fr.-HS, Eugene, Ore. (Sheldon), 100 10.69a, 200 21.73a
Joseph Reiter, Fr.-HS, Tirschenrenth, Germany, HJ 6-11
Caleb Rexius, Fr.-HS, Eugene, Ore. (Churchill), 100 10.88
Sol Rexius, Fr.-HS, Eugene, Ore. (Churchill), 110H 14.12, 300H 38.16
Tommy Skipper, Fr.-HS, Sandy, Ore. (Sandy), PV 18-8 3/4 (UO) / 18-3 (HS), 100 10.83, 200 21.86, 300H 39.17, LJ 22-10 1/4, HJ 6-4, JT 211-9
Jacob Tolbert, Fr.-HS, San Jose, Calif. (Silver Creek), LJ 22-10, TJ 45-10, 400 49.28
Ryan Voge, RSo.-TR, Hillsboro, Ore. (N.Mex.), Dec. 6,448, 7,054 (UO), HJ 6-8, LJ 22-10
Alec Wall, Fr.-HS, Portland, Ore. (Grant), 1,500 3:54.31, 3K 8:14.77-indoors
Leonidas Watson, RJr.-TR, St. Louis, Mo. (St. Louis CC), LJ 25-8, 25-6.25 (UO), TJ 53-0, 52-10.75 (UO)
Patrick Werhane, Fr.-HS, Beaverton, Ore. (Southridge), 800 2:01, 1,500 4:08, 3K 8:4
DUCK WOMEN’S NEWCOMERS
Amanda Santana, Fr.-HS, Eugene, Ore. (North), 400 58.75, 300H 43.95
Emily Enders, Fr.-HS, Everett, Wash. (Snohomish), PV 12-7 (HS), 12-9 1/2 (UO)
Mandi Fitz-Gustafson, Jr.-TR, The Dalles (ASU), 800 2:16.9, 1,500 4:37.86, 3K 10:17, Steeple 10:59.85
Bree Fuqua, Jr.-TR, Polson, Mont. (Wisconsin), SP 51-5 1/2, 51-3 1/2 (UO), DT 165-7
Brittany Hinchcliffe, Jr.-TR, Olympia, Wash. (WSU), HT 186-11, 197-2 (UO), DT 154-11
Katie Kersh, RJr.-TR, Willow Creek, Calif. (Sierra College), HT 173-5, DT 14-20, SP 42-8
Megan Kriz, So.-TR, Toledo, Ore. (PSU), SP 42-10 3/4, HT 181-9 (UO)
2003 MT SAC REVIEW: Holliday Breaks UO Pole Vault Record.
LOS ANGELES (4/17-19/03) - On final day action, Becky Holliday upped her school pole vault record by two inches (second, 14-5 1/4) - the same mark but with more misses as post-collegian and former UCLA NCAA champion Tracy O'Hara who won the event with a season best. Holliday's mark improved on her previous Duck outdoor record of 14-3 1/4 that won the Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field the previous weekend (4/12/03), and was four inches higher than her preseason outdoor school record from the 2002 edition of the Mt. SAC Relays (fourth, 14-1 1/4). On the 2003 U.S. outdoor season best lists, Holliday climbed to a tie for third place, and second-best among collegians, trailing Nike's Stacy Dragila (15-8 1/4) and Florida State sophomore and NCAA indoor champion Lacy Janson (14-7 1/4). Also in the pole vault, All-American Niki McEwen followed in a tie for sixth place (13-5 1/4), and UO's third invite in the invitational section - Kirsten Riley (Larwin) - tied for 11th (12-7 1/2). In first day action, Janette Davis won the fourth of five sections of the 400 (54.57) out of lane nine and into a strong headwind - less than a half-second off her personal best from the previous weekend (54.11). In the 1,500, Laura Harmon (second, 4:31.31) and Eri Macdonald (third, 4:34.72) claimed then-season bests and Pac-10 qualifiers, and were just shy of the Regional qualifying mark (4:31.00). The same day in the nearby Long Beach Invite, Abby Andrus led a Duck 1-2 sweep in the 400 hurdles (first, 59.90) with a .34-second personal best that put her sixth all-time in Oregon history. In her wake, Kayla Mellott (second, 61.30) posted her first career Pac-10 and Regional qualifying marks, and her personal best moved her to ninth in school history. In the field, triple jumper Clarice Hayward-Lee upped her windy career best on her first and best jump of the afternoon (second, 39-10 1/2 (w:+2.9)). Another Duck travel party ventured up the road to Claremont, Calif., for the Pomona Pitzer Invitational as Hannah Moore became the fifth Duck pole vaulter this season to qualify for the Pac-10 and West Regional Championships (second, personal best 12-5 1/2). On the men's side, All-American Samie Parker made his debut on the all-time Oregon men's list in the 100-meter-dash at the seventh position, thanks this .18-second personal best in the Olympic Development section (sixth, 10.43, w:+0.5). In the invitational 10K, Jason Hartmann sealed his third NCAA automatic invite (second, 28:52.03) with his then-third-fastest career effort - only six seconds off his then-all-time best (28:46.76). The Rockford, Mich., native was the top collegiate finisher and was edged only by Mexican entrant Jonnathan Morales (28:48.31), and placed just ahead of fellow collegian Ed Torres of Colorado (third, 28:55.41). In the field, two-time Pac-10 hammer champion Adam Kriz ranked third among collegians and 14th overall (206-9).
LAST WEEK’S RECAP: Abildtrup and Mitchum Strut Their Stuff in Pepsi Team Invite.
EUGENE - The University of Oregon mens and women swept the team crowns in the same meet for the eighth time in last Saturday’s 15th annual Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field. The Duck women capitalized on seven event wins to tally 184 1/2 points and edge Washington (169), Minnesota (third, 160 1/2) and Colorado (100). Duck women’s winners included Sofie Abildtrup (200, 23.94; 400, 54.49), Sara Schaaf (800, 2:10.15), the 4x400 relay (3:46.92), Rachael Kriz (high jump, 5-8), Clarice Hayward-Lee (triple jump, 40-4 3/4), Megan Kriz (hammer, 181-9) and Sarah Malone (javelin, 167-10). Among individual highlights, the women’s throwers featured 10-foot and eight-foot hammer bests by Kriz and Whitney Gum as the duo climbed to fourth and sixth all-time for the Ducks. The elder Kriz, Rachael, enjoyed a 3/4-inch high jump personal best and moved to eighth all-time for the Ducks. Other personal bests came from redshirt junior Taylor Bryant (1,500, sixth, 4:42.23) and senior C’Rel McAllister (400H, fifth, 63.05), and windy jump bests by senior Abby Andrus (long jump, second 18-11 1/4w (+2.6 wind)) and junior Clarice Hayward-Lee (triple jump, first, 40-4 3/4w, 3.7w). Near personal bests came from by redshirt sophomore Sara Schaaf (800, first, 2:10.15) , junior Kayla Mellott (400H, third, 61.43), and seniors Andrus (100H, second, 14.06, w:3.5), Jill Hoxmeier (discus, second, 161-7) and Kirsten Larwin (pole vault, second, 13-1 3/4). On the men’s side, the Ducks posted eight individual titles to rack up 191 points and outdistance Minnesota (second, 169), Washington (third, 144) and Colorado (fourth, 101). Individual UO men’s included Travis Anderson (400, 47.04), Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, 13.70; 400 hurdles, 51.47), Jeff Lindsey (high jump, 7-1 3/4), Tommy Skipper (pole vault, 17-5), Leonidas Watson (long jump, 24-2 1/4; triple jump, 48-10 3/4) and Adam Jenkins (javelin, 218-0). Mitchum’s .67-second victory margin was a .05-second wind-legal personal best (13.70) and missed Micah Harris’s two-year old school record by only .03 seconds (13.67). Later in the afternoon, he returned to win the 400 hurdles (51.47) by a scant .05-second margin over senior teammate Brandon Holliday who showed well out of lane one (second, 51.52). Mitchum’s time stood as a two-second personal best and left him .03 seconds shy of 10th all-time for UO. Holliday’s time Saturday was .37-second season best as his former time (51.89 from the Oregon Preview three weeks ago) ranked second in the region and 16th nationally the previous week. In other sprint action, sophomore Travis Anderson won the 400 (47.04) and was .10 seconds off his personal best, then came back for second in the 200 in a personal best (21.27, w:1.9). Junior transfer Kedar Inico made his Duck home debut and placed top four in the 200 (third, 21.47, w:1.9) and 400 (fourth, 47.43) for a Pac-10 qualifier in the latter event. In the distances, the 1,500 duo of junior Eric Logsdon (fifth, 3:49.09) and senior Ryan Andrus (sixth, 3:49.64) both met the Pac-10 mark (3:50.14) and were a second shy of the regional standard (3:48.21). Logsdon’s mark was a half-second season best, and Andrus made his season debut in the event. Freshman Mike McGrath added second in the 800 in a nearly one-second season best and first regional mark of 2004 (1:50.34), and UO newcomer and junior Roderick Dotts made his 800 season debut (sixth, 1:53.06). The field events were critical in the team win as the Ducks swept all four jumps thanks to sophomore Jeff Lindsey (high jump, 1/4 inch college best 7-1 3/4), freshman Tommy Skipper (pole vault, 1, and redshirt junior Leonidas Watson (long jump, 24-2 1/4w; triple jump 48-10 3/4). Senior Adam Jenkins added another blue ribbon in the javelin in his official outdoor debut (218-0), and Skipper also netted a Pac-10 invite in his collegiate event debut (third, 198-0). The Men of Oregon again received scoring help from the football ranks as freshman Ryan Gilliam and Brian Paysinger took second (10.72w, w:2.3) and sixth (11.23w) in their collegiate 100 debuts, and 340-pound, sophomore defensive lineman Haloti Ngata scored in the shot put in his first meet since his sophomore prep season (sixth, 45-10 3/4).
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, the Duck men 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.
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 grew 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.
QUALIFYING UPDATE: Ducks Sprint Towards Pac-10 24-Person Limit.
Athletes qualify for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships (Sat.-Sun., May 5/14-15) based on their season best mark in an event and if he/she meets a pre-set league standard (see the 2004 outdoor season best list to see each event standard). Marks can be performed either indoors or outdoors in 2004, and sprint/jump marks are even accepted with wind readings of more than 4.0 meters per second (although +4.0 readings are not permissible for regional or NCAA qualifying). Each Duck squad is limited to a 24-person travel roster, composed of 1) qualifiers, 2) wild card entries (each is coach is allowed to enter 3 athletes without qualifying marks) and 3) right of entry additions (each is team is granted one entry per event by the right of entry rule regardless of the athlete’s season best).
Twenty-nine Duck men have posted 35 marks in 16 events of 18 possible individual events (there is no qualifying standard in the 4x100, 4x400 or 10,000) - Ryan Gilliam (100), Travis Anderson (200, 400), Matt Scherer (400), Ryan Flaherty (800), Mike McGrath (800), Eric Logsdon (1,500), Ryan Andrus (1,500, 5,000), Brett Holts (steeple), Jason Hartmann (5,000), Eric Mitchum (110H, 400H), Brandon Holliday (400H), AK Ikwuakor (110H, 400H), Jeff Lindsey (high jump), Teddy Davis (high jump), Bobby Owen (high jump), Joseph Reiter (high jump), Tommy Skipper (pole vault, javelin), Trevor Woods (pole vault), Jon Derby (pole vault), Andy Young (pole vault, decathlon), David Moore (pole vault), Leonidas Watson (long jump, triple jump), Derek Strubel (triple jump), Paul Etter (hammer), Adam Jenkins (javelin), Gabriel LeMay (decathlon) and Ryan Voge (decathlon). Events with multiple men’s qualifiers include the pole vault (5), high jump (4), decathlon and 400 hurdles and 400 (3), 800, 5,000, 110H, triple jump and javelin (2). At the regional level, 14 Duck men have posted marks in 11 of a possible 19 events (400, 800, steeple, 110H, 400H (2), high jump (2), pole vault (3), long jump, triple jump, hammer and javelin). * NOTE: See page 9 for a complete list of qualifiers.
On the women’s side, 17 Ducks have combined for 25 marks in 14 of a possible 18 events (the 4x100, 4x400 or the 10K which doesn’t have a standard) - Sofie Abildtrup (200, 400), Sara Schaaf (800, 1,500), Laura Harmon (1,500, 5,000), Erinn Gulbrandsen (1,500), Magdalena Sandoval (5,000), Abby Andrus (100 hurdles, high jump), Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles), Rachael Kriz (high jump, javelin), Hannah Moore (pole vault), Kirsten Larwin (pole vault), Emily Enders (pole vault), Clarice Hayward-Lee (triple jump), Bree Fuqua (shot put, discus), Whitney Gum (shot put, hammer), Jill Hoxmeier (discus), Megan Kriz (hammer), Katie Kersh (hammer) and Sarah Malone (javelin). Events with multiple women’s qualifiers include the 1,500, pole vault and hammer (3), and 5,000, high jump, shot put and javelin (2). Women’s qualifying newcomers include junior transfers Sofie Abildtrup, (200/400), Bree Fuqua (shot put, discus) and Katie Kersh (hammer), sophomores Sara Schaaf (1,500), Whitney Gum (shot put, hammer) and Megan Kriz (hammer), and freshman Emily Enders (pole vault). At the regional level, 12 women have accounted for 15 marks in 11 of 19 possible events (200, 400, 800, 5,000, high jump, pole vault, triple jump, shot put, discus, hammer, javelin).
New Oregon additions to the Pac-10 list last week included Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles), Rachael Kriz (high jump), Ryan Gilliam (100), Travis Anderson (200), Ryan Andrus (1,500), Adam Jenkins (javelin), Tommy Skipper (javelin). UO newcomers to the West Regional list last week included Rachael Kriz (high jump), Clarice Hayward-Lee (triple jump), Megan Kriz (hammer), Whitney Gum (hammer), Mike McGrath (800), Eric Mitchum (400 hurdles), Jeff Lindsey (high jump), Teddy Davis (high jump) and Adam Jenkins (javelin).
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 Shine 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 with a World Championships appearance and third-place USA finish (14-3 1/4) last summer. 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 claimed the other 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).
2004 NCAA INDOOR M RECAP: Ducks Score Record Four All-America Nods.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (3/12-13) - In March’s indoor collegiate finale 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 team 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 and 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 1/2. Skipper led early thanks to his initial clean slate, but when he 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 ranked 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 prior 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 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 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 Moore sealed a strong postseason indoor 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 of Arizona (third, 13-7 1/4) and Kate Soma of Washington (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 an 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 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. 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 2003. 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 fouls 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 ranked 11th with a personal best and NCAA provisional mark of 3,908 points the previous weekend in Moscow, Idaho. Andrus’s appearance was her second in a collegiate finale after she took 18th with 5,019 points in the 2003 NCAA heptathlon. 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.
2003 NCAA OUTDOOR REVIEW: Ducks Net Most All-Americans Since ?96.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (6/11-14/03) - The men’s largest NCAA outdoor qualifying corps in recent memory came away with their second top-15 finish in three years (13th, 19 1/4 points), thanks to five All-America honors from Jason Hartmann (10,000, fourth, PR 28:31.96), John Stiegeler (javelin, fourth, 241-5), Samie Parker (100, fifth, 10.41), Adam Kriz (hammer, fifth, 220-2), Eric Logsdon (5,000, eighth, 13:59.00) and Trevor Woods (pole vault, eighth-tie, 16-10 3/4). Among other highlights, the 4x400 broke the school record with a two-second season best (3:06.73) that ranked 11th in prelims after the squad ended the regular season ranked 25th nationally with their prior runner-up clocking from the regional finale. Ryan Andrus just missed another All-America plaque in the 10,000 by one place and one second, although he still netted a one-second personal best (13th, 29:11.04). In last year’s women’s collegiate outdoor finale, Becky Holliday extended her amazing championship run with her third meet record in as many tries against the nation’s best. The native of nearby Penryn, Calif., topped the best-ever outdoor field with a meet record (14-5 1/2) and ended the meet with her first tries at 15 feet. Senior teammate Niki McEwen added her fourth All-America honor in her seventh NCAA trip and took fifth (13-5 1/4). The Ducks also sent a pair of javelin entries and Roslyn Lundeen posted her second straight All-America honor (eighth) after she set a season best in the prelims (161-10), while Elisa Crumley missed the final by one place with her 13th-place effort in prelims. Abby Andrus reeled off the 11th-best second day in the 27-person heptathlon field to finish 18th (5,019) after missing much of the previous 1 1/2 weeks of practice due to injuries. The Ducks’ other NCAA entries also came from three seniors and field-event specialists - Mary Etter (17th-prelim), Jordan Sauvage (hammer, 25th-prelim) and Amanda Brown (23rd-prelim).
2003 USA CHAMPS REVIEW: Hartmann & Holliday Go Top-Eight.
STANFORD, Calif. (6/19-21) ? On the second day of the three-day U.S. finale, redshirt senior pole vaulter Becky Holliday tied for third (14-3 1/4) to claim the final position on the U.S. squad for the World Championships. The event featured relatively low heights due to fairly strong and changing crosswinds ? the bane of most vaulters ? but Holliday’s concentration at her final clearance proved the difference as one of five vaulters that ended at that height and only two bound for France. She opened with first-attempt clearances at her first three heights ? 13-1 1/2 (4.00m), 13-7 1/4 (4.15m) and 13-11 1/4 (4.25m). She cleared her final height on the third try and slightly brushed the bar on the way down. As it bounced slightly on the pegs for a moment, Holliday gleefully celebrated below on the mat. Overall in the event, world record holder Stacy Dragila of Nike won with a final height of 14-9 to edge Nike’s Jillian Schwartz (second, 14-5 1/4) and Mary Sauer (third, 14-3 1/4). Normally, countries are offered three invites to the World Championships provided athletes meet the A qualifying standard (14-5 1/4), but the USA was offered a fourth spot since Dragila was the returning World Champion from 2001 and automatically offered an invitation. In the second-day javelin final, All-America sophomore Elisa Crumley recorded a daily best of 133-3 on her first throw and followed with two fouls to finish 15th overall. Unattached entrant Erica Wheeler pulled a surprise win in the event (first, 186-6) over former national record holder Kim Kreiner of Nike (second, 185-0). Stanford, Calif. (6/19-21) ? Senior and two-time All-America javelin thrower John Stiegeler took ninth with his second-best mark of the season (234-5) and stood as the fourth collegiate finisher. National record holder Breaux Greer of adidas (260-5) won the U.S. title over Boise State’s Rob Minnitti (second, 253-4) and Joshua Johnson (third, 249-10). On the second day, hammer All-American Adam Kriz finished 18th (202-9) in an event won by James Parker of the U.S. Air Force (first, 239-7).
2003 REGIONAL RECAP: M&W Claim 18 Top-Five Finishes & NCAA Invites.
STANFORD, Calif. (5/30-31) ? In the first go-around at regional qualifying, the Oregon men and women reaped one of their biggest lists of NCAA invitations in recent memory (13 men’s individuals & the 4x400 relay / eight women’s individuals). In the team scoring races, the Duck men third with 71 points behind UCLA (101) and USC (92), and the Oregon women tallied 60 points to place seventh in the 42-team race. Collegiate leader Becky Holliday stole first-day headlines with a 1/4-inch collegiate record (and two-inch Pac-10 record) that moved her to sixth all-time among Americans and fourth on the weekly world season best list. Niki McEwen added her seventh NCAA trip in the pole vault and tied her second-best outdoor mark ever (third-tie, 13-6 1/4), and three other Ducks vaulters competed in the 40-woman field that had all cleared 12-0 during the year, including Kirsten Riley (Larwin) and Hannah Moore tied for 16th and 24th (12-6 1/4). A pair of javelin All-Americans earned NCAA returns as Elisa Crumley and Roslyn Lundeen placed third (157-11) and fourth (157-3) and improved on eighth and fifth-place pre-meet seedings. Oregon’s other women’s winner, Mary Etter, claimed her fifth and most important blue ribbon of the season with a two-foot, six-inch discus season best (179-7). The Everett, Wash., native earned her fourth NCAA discus invite, and edged returning NCAA champion Chaniqua Ross of UCLA who took second (176-10) with a mark nearly three feet behind. The upset bug also bit Amanda Brown who springboarded off a ninth-place seeding in the triple jump to finish second (41-5w, w:+2.2) with a 7 1/2-inch best. After she had missed most of the previous week’s practice with an ankle injury, she started slowly with a halfway best of 39-10, then improved in the final to place four places better than her Pac-10 showing two weeks prior. Similar qualifying rumblings occurred in the hammer ring as Jordan Sauvage followed a similar method to finish fifth (183-11). She owned a prelim effort just past 179 feet that ranked her eighth overall, and climbed to fifth with a daily best on her fifth effort. On the high jump apron, Jenny Brogdon improved on her 17th-place seeding to tie her personal best (ninth-tie, 5-9 1/4) and miss an NCAA invite on number of total misses. The LaGrande, Ore., native had jumped that mark only once before in her career in her runner-up finish in the 2002 Pac-10 Championships, and tested her coach’s and teammates’ patience by relying on two attempts to clear 5-5 1/4, and three attempts at 5-7 3/4 and 5-9 1/4. Abby Andrus faced the fastest hurdles fields of her career and scored a .06-second windy best in the 100 hurdles prelims (fifth-heat, 14th overall, 13.93w). The Peoria, Ariz., native returned in the evening for the 400 hurdles prelims (third-heat, 12th overall, 60.22), and was only .43 seconds from the final time qualifier. The men’s squad featured a pair of wins in the sprints courtesy of Samie Parker in the 100 (10.25w, w:0.8) and Jordan Kent in the 200 (20.99, w:0.8), to go along with four more sprint and hurdle qualifiers and another field event invite. Parker claimed the first win of the meet for the ?Men of Oregon with his third fastest time of his career (10.25w, w:0.8) - and led the first day prelims by .12 seconds (10.34, w:1.5). Kent, the sixth seed entering the meet, stole the win out of lane eight with a .10-second personal best (20.99) after leading much of the first half of the race, then surged again in the final stretch to hold off USC’s Wes Felix (second, 21.06). Kent also made his first season appearance on the 4x400 relay as the Ducks led from wire to wire in the slower section (3:08.05) in a time that stood up second-fastest overall, one second behind fast heat winner Stanford (3:07.23). Another freshman sprinter, Matt Scherer, entered the meet seeded 12th in the 400, and improved to fourth in the final (personal best, 46.56) after leading the previous day’s prelims (.02-second then-best, 46.85). That time also moved him up three positions to seventh all-time for the Ducks. Seeded second going into the 110 hurdles, Eric Mitchum ended up third in the final (13.95-final, 13.95-prelims (1st-heat, into -2.1 mps wind) behind a pair of senior rivals that included the eventual NCAA champion Ryan Wilson of USC (13.54). 400 hurdler Brandon Holliday netted his first NCAA invite (fifth, 50.73), and avenged a fall in the Pac-10 prelims earlier in May after winning the league title as a sophomore in 2001. In the distances, Brett Holts earned his first NCAA steeplechase invite and ran most of the race close to his final position (fifth, 8:50.70) in the heat and overall, with his second-fastest career effort. In the 5K, Eric Logsdon earned his first NCAA invite with a third-place effort in the 5,000 (13:54.28) and was less than two seconds off his personal best from the Oregon Invite (13:52.62), and improved two places off his pre-meet fifth-place seeding. In the 800, Ryan Flaherty capped his season with an eighth-place finish in a final marked by its share of physical contact (1:53.47). The Bend, Ore., native took second in the first of two prelim heats the day before (1:50.20) - and fourth-fastest of the 15 entries - with the second-fastest of his career. In the field, hammer thrower Adam Kriz wrapped up his final preparation for an NCAA return with runner-up honors (207-7) on the first day thanks to a daily best on his initial throw. Former NCAA javelin champion John Stiegeler earned his second NCAA trip thanks to an eight-foot season best (fourth, 228-2), and 2003 Pac-10 champ Adam Jenkins fell four feet shy of a second invite but still netted a one-foot personal best (seventh, 222-4). Triple jumper Foluso Akinradewo ranked seventh overall (50-11 1/2, w:+0.6) with his third-best mark of the season, and sophomore Derek Strubel added 13th (48-9).
2003 PAC-10 REVIEW: Ducks Combine for 4 Wins & 1 Duck Record.
LOS ANGELES (5/17-18) - In the 73rd and 17th annual Pacific-10 Conference Championships, the Duck men and women took first (131) and seventh (60 points) at USC’s Katherine Loker Stadium. The UO men initially finished third in the team race with 127 points behind USC (139) and Stanford (128), but were later awarded the win when USC’s Brandon Matlock, a scorer in the 200, 400, 4x100 and 4x400 was ruled ineligible and the meet was rescored and gave the Ducks a one-point decision over Stanford in the tightest 1st-4th race since 1969's 14-point spread. Individually in the league finale, collegiate season leader and Becky Holliday paced the UO women with their first-ever pole vault title (14-6) and her third outdoor meet above 14 feet in ’03, to go along with two others indoors. Niki McEwen tied for second in the same event (13-3 1/2), and Roslyn Lundeen also claimed runner-up honors in the javelin (159-8). The Duck men featured three individual champions ? Santiago Lorenzo (decathlon, 7,564), junior Adam Jenkins (javelin, 217-9) and Adam Kriz (hammer, 221-3) - and three runners-up ? Brett Holts (steeple, 8:55.00), Jason Hartmann (10,000, 29:18.00) and Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, 13.73w, w:+3.8).
Online Track & Field Resources
UO Athletics: www.GoDucks.com
Pacific-10 Conference: www.pac-10.org
NCAA Championships: www.ncaasports.com
NCAA Outdoor Host: www.TexasSports.com
NCAA: www.ncaa.org
USATF Oregon: www.usatf-oregon.org
USA Track and Field: www.usatf.org
USOC: www.olympic-usa.org
IAAF: www.iaaf.org
High School T&F Info: www.dyestat.com
Oregon Track Club: www.oregontrackclub.com
Prefontaine Classic: www.preclassic.com
Olympic Trials: www.sacsports.com
Olympics: www.athens2004.com
World Rankings: www.tilastopaja.net
Runner’s World: www.runnersworld.com
Trackwire: www.trackwire.com
Collegiate Track Results: www.trackshark.com
T&F News: www.trackandfieldnews.com
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