Oregon Invite Viewer's Guide
10:15 am - W Shot Put - Duck junior Bree Fuqua gets the early wake-up call as the top seed in the shot put. The Polson, Mont., native transferred to Eugene last fall with the Wisconsin school record (51-5), and was just shy of that heave indoors with her NCAA provisional mark (51-3 1/2) that put her #2 all-time for the Ducks. She also leads the Ducks outdoors in 2004 with a season best of 50-11 1/2. She’ll face former Duck and Team XO’s Mary Etter who took sixth in the Pac-10 last year and owns a best of 49-11 1/4 from 2002.
11:15 am - W Triple Jump - Team XO’s Simidele Adeago (13.42m) is listed as a UO master’s student in communications and was the 2003 SEC Conference indoor triple champion for Kentucky. She owns a personal best of 44-0 1/2w (43-9 1/4) from last season and was listed as a Canadian citizen by Track and Field News, even though she was a Kentucky prep and seven-time state champion.
3 pm - W Hammer - The Ducks’ breakout event this year is officially paced by first-year event novice and sophomore Megan Kriz, now ranked fourth in UO event history with her Pepsi Team Invite personal best from two weeks ago (181-9). Sophomore Whitney Gum has improved 28 feet from last year’s former personal best and now stands sixth all-time for Oregon (174-10), and both Ducks are Pac-10 and regional qualifiers. Unattached UO junior and Washington State transfer Brittany Hinchcliffe leads the lot but is redshirting due to conference transfer rules. She opened her career in Eugene in March with a 10-foot personal best in her Oregon Preview win (197-2) that would rank fourth this week in the Pac-10 if she were eligible. The current Duck school record was set by former NCAA qualifier Jordan Sauvage last year (191-4) who hiked the best almost five feet in 2003.
3:40 pm - M Javelin - Duck senior and returning Pac-10 champion Adam Jenkins is seeded 10th in Saturday’s javelin with his official season debut two weeks ago (218-0). He ranks third currently in the Pac-10 and is the top returnee from the 2003 West Regional after he threw his personal best in the inaugural meet last May (seventh, 222-4). The deep field includes former Duck NCAA champion and school record holder John Stiegeler who will make his first meet appearance after he underwent another round of surgery last summer/fall. Washington freshman Brian Harris was a prep All-American at Hillsboro High School last year and ranked fourth among preps nationally (213-1). Washington junior Rigel Wise took sixth in the 2003 Pac-10 finale with a then-best (205-9). Harris currently ranks second in the Pac-10 with a personal best of 219-10 1/2, and Wise follows in fifth (215-0 1/4).
4:55 pm - W Steeplechase - Husky assistant coach Kelly Macdonald finished third in the U.S. championship at the end of her senior season for ASU. Two weeks earlier in her final NCAA appearance, the Tualatin, Ore., native took third in the steeple and 5,000.
5:05 pm - W Pole Vault - Former Duck and five-time All-American Niki McEwen leads the field and makes her season debut. She ranks second all-time for the Ducks with her 14-1 1/4 indoor mark that ranked her 12th in the U.S. last year. In all four of her outdoor 2004 contests, NCAA pole vault indoor veteran and senior Kirsten Larwin has topped 13 feet after she entered the campaign with a prior 12-10 preseason outdoor best. She cleared 13-1 1/2 in three of those appearances, sandwiched around her current best of 13-3 1/2 at Texas the first weekend of April (that featured several close misses at 13-7). The Eugene native and South High School product 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). Junior teammate and unattached entrant Hannah Moore was the surprise of the Ducks’ 2004 indoor campaign after her more than one-foot personal best in the Last Chance Qualifier (13-5) in Seattle in March that ranked her 10th nationally among collegians. She followed with her second-highest mark ever in the NCAA indoor finale (13th, 12-11 1/2) and currently ranks third all-time for the Ducks behind former NCAA champion (Becky Holliday, first, 14-8) and McEwen (14-1 1/4). Outdoors, Moore has played it low-key and is redshirting since she’s on a five-year academic plan. Saturday will be her third outdoor meet of 2004 as the Reno, Nevada native cleared 12-9 1/2 in the Oregon Preview and 12-6 in the Pepsi Mini-Meet ? the former above her previous outdoor best of 12-6 1/4 that placed 16th in last year’s West Regional. Washington junior Kate Soma, a Portland native and Grant High School product, cleared 13 feet five times before 2004 and was an All-American outdoors in 2003 (seventh), and indoors in 2004 (fifth-tie). So far this year, she ranks third in the Pac-10 (13-5 1/4), just ahead of Oregon’s Moore (fourth) and Larwin (fifth). Washington sophomore Ashley Wildhaber transferred from UNC Wilmington and is a first-year Husky (her best is 12-6). UW frosh teammate Stevie Marshalek was a prep All-American at Kentlake High School in Kent, Wash., and ranked sixth nationally among high schoolers in 2003 (12-10-outdoors, 12-11 1/2-indoors). UW sophomore Carly Dockendorf is a two-sport athlete in gymnastics and track, and was a recent NCAA qualifier in gymnastics. She entered the season with a personal best of 12-11 1/2 that placed her eighth in the Pac-10 in 2003. This season, Marshalek and Wildhaber went 13-3 and 12-9 indoors, respectively, while Dockendorf cleared 12-9 1/2 indoors in limited duty. Former Duck NCAA champion Becky Holliday may make her season debut after she set outdoor meet records in the Pac-10 (14-6), West Regional (14-8) and NCAA Championships (14-5 1/2). She followed with a third-place tie in the USA Championships to earn an invite for the World Championships in Paris, where she finished 18th in the prelims (13-7 1/4) and ranked third-highest among the four Americans in the prelims.
5:10 pm - W 1,500 - Nike post-collegian and former Auburn All-American Janet Trujillo ranked 12th in the U.S. last year with her 4:12.03 personal best, then lowered her mile personal best indoors in 2004 to 4:34.70 and ranked fourth on the U.S. list. Former Colorado All-American Carrie Messner is entered at 4:15, and moved into the all-time US steeplechase top 10 last weekend in the Mt. SAC Relays with her first sub-10:00 effort (9:50.16). Idaho sophomore Mary Kamau ranks 19th nationally in 2004 with her 4:21.75 season best. Former Duck Eri Macdonald lowered her mile best indoors to 4:54.85, while her 1,500 best dates back to 2003 (4:25.81).
5:20 pm - M 1,500 - 2000 5K Olympian Adam Goucher returns to his track home away from home ? the site of his first U.S. 5K title in 1999. He also won a memorable 5K in the Pepsi Team Invite in 1998 in a solo effort and meet record on a windy day (13:42.90). The former NCAA cross country and 3K/5K track champ makes his 2004 season debut and missed part of the 2001 and ?02 seasons due to injuries but rebounded with an impressive mix of season bests in 2003 (1,500 3:43.20, Mile 3:56.96, 3,000 7:48.72, 5,000 13:35.67). The Montana duo of Scott McGowan (mile, fourth, 4:02.70) and teammate Antony Ford (5,000, ninth, 14:04.60) were tabbed All-Americans indoors, although Ford may run the 5,000 instead. Washington senior and sub-4:00 miler Eric Garner broke the UW school record indoors in 2002 (3:58.93) at home, and also owns solid PRs in 3,000 (8:02.56) and 1,500 (3:43.21). Boise State sophomore Forest Braden earned an NCAA cross country individual invite last fall (124th) after a 13th-place West Regional finish.
5:35 pm - M Hammer - Junior and Clackamas transfer Paul Etter will likely face the deepest hammer field of his career that features 2003 U.S. champion and US Air Force post-collegian James Parker (239-7), and local post-collegians Justin Carvalho (217-5) and Adam Kriz (221-3). The Toledo, Ore., native Kriz was a two-time Pac-10 hammer champion for the Ducks and one-time All-American (fifth in 2003), and last year’s Pac-10 personal best (221-3) ranked him 16th in the U.S. and fifth all-time for UO. Club Northwest’s Scott Boothby ranks seventh in the U.S. in 2004 (217-1). The 1997 Idaho State grad Boothby finished 13th in the 2003 U.S. finale (215-3) and owned a season best of 232-6 that ranked seventh in the U.S. Etter debuted for the Ducks in March’s Oregon Preview with his season best and Pac-10 and regional qualifier (195-9), and will also contend with two league rivals ? Martin Bingisser from Washington (197-7 in 2004) and USC’s unattached entrant Adam Midles (242-11 with the prep implement as the top prep senior in 2002).
6:05 pm - M 100 - Oregon freshman cornerback Ryan Gilliam debuted for the Ducks with a 10.73w (w:2.3) in the Pepsi Team Invitational for a Pac-10 invite. Wichita State’s Bruce Swan leads the field at 10.33 over Boise State’s Andre Summers.
6:05 pm - W Javelin - Duck record holder Sarah Malone (179-7) leads the national collegiate list for the third straight week after her five-inch PR and Texas Relays win over U.S. record holder Kim Kreiner of Nike by more than two feet. Unattached Duck and two-time All-American Roslyn Lundeen opened 2004 in the Oregon Preview in March with a low-key 142-2. She finished eighth as a sophomore in the 2003 NCAA finale (159-0, season best 161-10 in prelims) and seventh as a freshman (165-4), and was also the Pac-10 runner-up last year (159-8). Former Boise State All-American Trina Rogers ranked fourth in the U.S. last year (175-10) and was sixth in the NCAA javelin as a senior (162-5).
6:10 pm - M Steeplechase - Looking to tune-up for July’s Olympic Trials, three post-collegians headline the field that have broke 8:28 - Clint Wells (8:23.26, 2000), Ray Hughes (8:24.67, 2002) and Jared Cordes (8:27.62, 2002). Wells took fifth in the 2000 Olympic Trials and again in the 2001 U.S. finale. Hughes, a Nike post-collegian and former Missouri grad training in Eugene under former Duck coach Bill Dellinger, took fourth in the 2002 U.S. Championships and took sixth in the same meet in Eugene in ?01. Cordes took fifth in the 2002 USA steeple right behind Hughes, and was a three-time NCAA competitor with a best finish of fifth as a junior in 2000. Duck junior Brett Holts was the Pac-10 runner-up last year (8:55.00). The Bend, Ore., native led the 2003 conference season best list (8:48.81), then followed with his NCAA debut (8:54.07-prelims). This season, he again paces the Pac-10 again with his Stanford Invite season debut in March (8:49.66). Eastern Michigan senior Jordan Desilets took second in the NCAA steeple in 2003, and his personal best (8:29.44) ranked fourth in the U.S. last year. Last June, Montana grad Lyle Weese took fifth in the NCAA steeple as a senior, then ran his current best (8:33.35) in the U.S. finale - a clocking that ranked 12th overall in the U.S. last year. The Dillon, Mont., native also ranked 11th in the flat 3,000 last year (7:54.35), while his 5,000 best came in last year’s Oregon Invite (13:50.33).
6:25 pm - W 800 - In her first year since arriving from Norway, Washington junior Ingvill Makestad stands 28th nationally and eighth in the Pac-10 in the 1,500 (4:23.76) and sparked the Huskies to their seventh straight NCAA XC trip last fall. On the oval, she owns impressive prior-UW bests of 2:04.99 in the 800 and 4:13.58 in the 1,500. Utah senior Nellie Hammons was a 2004 NCAA indoor qualifier in the 800 (2:08.52-prelims), and qualified with a season best and school record of 2:06.59 that ranked 12th on the indoor collegiate qualifying list. Former Husky All-American Courtney Inman is entered for her Canadian club and was fourth in the 2003 NCAA outdoor 1,500 (a school record 4:10.93), and owns personal bests of 2:05.97 and 4:10.93 from 2003.
6:30 pm - M 800 - Oregon frosh Mike McGrath from Lincoln High School in Portland led the nation last year with his Oregon state record (1:48.56), and ranks fifth in the Pac-10 so far in 2004 with his season best from the Pepsi Team Invite (1:50.34). Washington senior Todd Arnold was an NCAA outdoor qualifier last year thanks to his fourth-place regional finish, and has clocked 1:51.23 this year. First-year Husky Stig Ellingson arrived in Seattle this past fall with a best of 1:49.63 in the 800, and ran 1:51.95 last weekend. Former Duck Ross Krempley was a three-time Pac-10 scorer in the 800, and owns a best of 1:49.7. Former ASU All-American Brandon Strong is entered at 1:50.00 and is now a post-collegian for Asics. Last year, he ran 4:03.76 in the mile, while as a Sun Devil senior in 2002, he ran personal bests of 3:41.42 in the 1,500 and 3:59.59 indoors in the mile.
6:50 pm - M 400 Hurdles - Sophomore Eric Mitchum rattled off a nearly two-second personal best (51.47) two weeks ago to win the Pepsi Team Invite, and missed Grady O’Connor’s 10th place spot on the all-time UO list by .02 seconds. 2002 Pac-10 champion and senior Brandon Holliday finished a valiant second behind Mitchum by .05 seconds two weeks ago at Hayward Field (51.52) out of lane one. The Beaverton, Ore., native Holliday ranks seventh all-time for Oregon with his Pac-10 winning mark (50.73) and is barely a second away from Pedro Chimulera’s school record from 1987 (49.64).
7:45 pm - M 5,000 - Last year’s race featured eight sub-14:00 collegians (and three more post-collegians) ? the second-largest gaggle of collegiate sub-14:00 finishers in the same U.S. race last season. This year’s contest could be even faster with the addition of several Wisconsin runners. The Badgers have always loomed as one of the nation’s top distance programs but their depth this year is challenging even Arkansas and Stanford as the nation’s best in both quality and quantity. Freshman Chris Solinsky finished sixth in the NCAA indoor 3,000 in March (8:04.70) after he ran 7:57.58 indoors for his qualifier. The national prep cross country champion in December 2002 is also looking sharp on the outdoor scene and ranks fifth nationally on the 2004 list in the 1,500 (3:42.13). Wisconsin teammate and Canadian Simon Bairu clipped off a 13:57.63 5K indoors, then improved three seconds in the NCAA finale (sixth, 13:54.46). Two weeks later in the Stanford Invite, he came back with the nation’s second-fastest collegiate 10K so far in 2004 (28:28.69). Another pair of Badger entrants, junior Tim Keller and freshman Tim Nelson follow in 11th (29:09.03) and 14th (29:11.33) on the national 10,000 list this year with their clocking from the same race. Northern Arizona junior Henrik Ahnstrom ranks second nationally in the steeplechase (8:42.19). NAU junior Seth Watkins ran his personal best 13:57.77 in last year’s race, as did Duck junior Eric Logsdon who posted a 12-second PR (13:52.62). The Canby, Ore., native Logsdon logged three sub-14:00 efforts last year including an All-America eighth-place NCAA outdoor finish (13:59.00). Montana’s Antony Ford was ninth indoors in the NCAA 5,000 in March and ran a 13:52.95 personal best the week before. Washington’s Andy Fader and Jonathon Hickey ran 14:10.81 and 14:11.39 indoors in Seattle in March 2004 in a last chance qualifying meet. On the post-collegiate side, a pair of sub 13:30 entrants from Japan ? Tomohiro Seto (13:26) and Satoshi Irifune (13:22) ? arrive in Eugene a week early before they chase Olympic A/B 10K standards (27:49.00/28:15.00) in Stanford on Fri., April 30. Post-collegian and road racing veteran Kevin Castille of Team Eugene arrived in Eugene two months ago and clocked a track personal best 28:49.11 last month at Stanford. Eugene citizen Paul Kezes debuted in the U.S. 5K finale last year and took 12th (13:53.42).
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