The Ducks open the championship season this weekend in the desert and take on their conference rivals in the first of three championship meets.
The University of Arizona plays host to the Pacific-10 Conference Championships for the first time since 1995 when the Duck men finished second to UCLA 163 1/2-142 1/2, and the Duck women also took second that year behind UCLA, 149-123. The Oregon M&W will can enter 24 student-athletes, spread among 21 events (3 sprints, 2 middle distance, 3 distance, 2 relays, 2 hurdles, 4 jumps, 4 throws, 1 multi-event).
The Duck men return two individual champions - seniors Brandon Holliday (400 hurdles, 2002) and Adam Jenkins (javelin, 2003), and the women are led by two-time runner-up and redshirt junior Sarah Malone (javelin). The Webfeet have laid relatively low the past few weeks with a low-key Oregon Twilight (5/1) their last team appearance two weeks ago.
More recently, five Duck multi-eventers got a head start last week in the Pac-10 Heptathlon and Decathlon. Senior and Peoria, Ariz., native Abby Andrus repeated third place thanks to a 22-point personal best (5,325) that should net a repeat NCAA invite in three weeks. Freshman Tommy Skipper made an auspicious decathlon debut with his winning NCAA automatic score of 7,589 points that moved him to eighth all-time for UO. The Duck quartet added three more top-five finishes thanks to personal bests and NCAA provisional scores from sophomore Andy Young (third, 7,372), senior Gabriel LeMay (fourth, 7,333) and sophomore Ryan Voge (fifth, 7,245). After last weekend's opening events, the Duck men are in first with 25 points, and the UO women are third with six points behind ASU (10) and Cal (8).
Looking ahead, the Ducks take the following weekend off before heading to Cal State Northridge in northern Los Angeles for the second annual West Regional Championships, Fri.-Sat., May 28-29.
THIS WEEK’S MEET INFORMATION
Meet: Pacific-10 Conference Championships, Fri.-Sat., May 14-15
Edition: 74th Annual Men's Edition, 18th Annual Women's Edition
Location: Roy Drachman Stadium, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
Results Web Site: www.ArizCats.com (with live updates at www.FlashResults.com)
Fri. First Field Event: 2:30 pm - W Hammer
Fri. First Running Event: 5:15 pm - W 1,500 Meters Qual.
Fri. Last Event: 10:10 pm - M 10,000
Sat. First Field Event: 3 pm - M Hammer
Sat. First Running Event: 6 pm - W 4x100 Relay
Sat. Last Event: 9:35 pm - M 4x400 Relay
Local TV Rebroadcast: Fox Sports Northwest, Saturday, May 22, 3 pm (Pacific Time)
DUCK WOMEN TO WATCH: Field Events Will Shoulder League Load Again in 2004.
The Duck women are led by junior All-America javelin thrower and school record holder Sarah Malone who ranks third in the nation (179-7), and earned Pac-10 runner-up plaudits in 2001 (167-1) and 2002 (171-9). The Newberg, Ore., native stands second in the conference in 2004 behind two-time NCAA runner-up Inge Stasliuonyte of USC who improved almost seven feet last week to take the Pac-10 lead (179-7). Other Ducks ranked top-eight include seniors Kirsten Larwin (pole vault, fourth, 13-3 1/2) and Abby Andrus (400 hurdles, fifth, 59.9-h), redshirt junior Rachael Kriz (high jump, fifth-tie, 5-8), sophomore Sara Schaaf (800, sixth, 2:08.08), juniors Bree Fuqua (shot put, sixth, 52-5 1/4; discus, seventh, 164-1), Clarice Hayward-Lee (triple jump, sixth, 40-8 3/4) and Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles, eighth, 60.8) and senior Jill Hoxmeier (discus, eighth, 162-0). In four of her five outdoor 2004 contests, the NCAA pole vault indoor veteran Larwin has topped 13 feet after she entered the campaign with a 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 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). Redshirt junior Rachael Kriz enters her third Pac-10 finale in a five-way tie for fifth. Her 5-8 season and personal best from the Pepsi Team Invite (4/10) moved her into a tie for eighth all-time for Oregon, and in her last Pac-10 appearance in 2002 she tied her former best (5-7 1/4). Redshirt junior Bree Fuqua stands second for the Ducks all-time in the shot put and launched a one-foot, 1 3/4-inch Duck best two weeks ago that improved on her Wisconsin school record (51-5 1/2, 2002) from 2003. Last meet, she also moved closer to a top-10 all-time ranking in the discus with her three-foot, seven-inch season best (164-1) ? and a toss of 166-9 or better would move her to 10th all-time for the Ducks. The hammer is the team’s breakout event of 2004, as first-year event novice and sophomore Megan Kriz continues to climb the UO all-time list (third, 185-0) ? her third meet above 180 feet in her first year with the ball and chain. Sophomore Whitney Gum has improved 28 feet from last year’s former personal best and now stands seventh all-time for Oregon (174-10) ? one inch behind junior transfer Katie Kersh who leapfrogged ahead two spots to sixth all-time (174-11) two weeks ago. Senior Jill Hoxmeier is also knocking on the door of the top-10 lists with this year’s discus best (162-0), and is only two inches away from 10th in the hammer (11th, 162-6, 2003). In the horizontal jumps, junior Clarice Hayward-Lee popped her first 40-foot outdoor leap last meet in the Oregon Twilight (first, 40-8 3/4, w:1.0) that moved her to fifth all-time for the Ducks. Indoors, she also eclipsed 40 feet with a mark that put her eighth on the UO list (40-1 1/4). Junior Sofie Abildtrup will anchor the sprints and is only the fourth Duck to rank top-10 in the school history in the 100, 200 and 400 with her 2004 season bests of 12.01 (#10), 23.93 (#7) and 54.49 (#9). Redshirt senior Abby Andrus will return to Tucson for the second straight weekend, and could be called upon for double hurdle duty since she ranks seventh all-time for the Ducks in the 100 hurdles (14.00) and sixth in the 400 hurdles (59.90) based on last year’s season bests. She could also compete in the high jump this weekend, and her indoor season best (5-7) ranks second for the Ducks this year. The 400 hurdles stands as arguably the team’s deepest event and features another Pac-10 vet in Mellott who ranks ninth all-time for Oregon with last year’s best (61.30). Redshirt senior C’Rel McAllister has zeroed in on the 63.00-second barrier, and ran 63.0-hand-timed in the Oregon Twilight and 63.05 in the Pepsi Team Invite. Freshman Amanda Santana has chopped almost four seconds off her season best in the 400 hurdles the past month, and her hand-timed 61.3 season best two weeks ago is in the neighborhood of UO’s all-time top 10 (10th is 61.39). Redshirt sophomore Sara Schaaf has emerged as the Ducks’ most improved distance runner on the outdoor oval under the tutelage of her former Klamath Union prep coach and first-year Duck mentor Marnie Mason. Schaaf’s season best (2:08.08) is four seconds better than her preseason best, and she also ranks second for the Ducks in the 1,500 with her Pac-10 qualifier in her first season in the event (4:38.04).
DUCK MEN TO WATCH: UO Men Lead Pac-10 by Land, Air and Sea.
A quartet of the Men of Oregon rank first in their events ? junior Brett Holts (steeple, 8:44.57), sophomore Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, 13.50w), senior Brandon Holliday (400 hurdles, 51.08) and freshman Tommy Skipper (pole vault, 18-8 3/4; decathlon, 7,589). The sprint crew again looms as the Ducks’ X factor, as first-year sprints coach Dan Steele looks for several individuals to improve on their seedings in the 100, 200 and 400, while the hurdles features the Pac-10’s top seeds. The former NCAA 400 hurdle champion Steele has watched Mitchum smash the school record in the 110 hurdles by .13 seconds in mid-April’s Mt. SAC Relays (13.53, w:2.0) ? a week after he climbed to second on the 2004 national collegiate list in the Texas Relays (13.50w, w:3.0). Indoors in March, he finished sixth in the NCAA 60 hurdle final the same day he crushed the school indoor record with the second-fastest time overall in the prelims (7.69). Holliday lowered his season best on May 1 in the Oregon Twilight with his second-fastest career clocking and current Pac-10 leader (51.08). His only faster clocking came in his Pac-10 debut in 2002 when he sped to the blue ribbon (50.73) and moved to seventh all-time for the Ducks. In the 400, sophomore Matt Scherer continues to round into form and ran an indoor best of 46.40 that put him sixth on the Pac-10 season list. That time from February also moved him to fifth all-time for the Ducks, a month before he strained a hamstring on his 4x400 anchor in the NCAA finale. The Sumner, Ill., native was an NCAA qualifier outdoors in the 400 in 2003 (18th-p, outdoor PR 46.47), and indoors in ?04 (12th, 46.77). First-year Duck and junior Kedar Inico ranks 10th in the 200 (21.20w) and 11th in the 400 (46.92) after he joined the Ducks in March. The 2003 junior college indoor 400 champion from Barton Community College will also add a leg on the 4x400 relay that is ranked third thanks to their school record indoors in February (3:06.54). The field events are the foundation of the Duck attack with performers ranked top five in all four jumps and two of the four throws. First-year Duck and redshirt junior Leonidas Watson stands second in the triple jump (52-10 1/4 indoors) and third in the long jump (25-6 1/2). The St. Louis Community College transfer earned his All-America stripes indoors in the NCAA long jump (ninth), and ranked eighth nationally indoors in both events (25-6.5/52-10.25) with marks that put him ninth and fourth all-time for Oregon. Sophomore high jumper Jeff Lindsey ranks third in the Pac-10 and nailed back-to-back seven-foot clearances at home two of the past three meets in the Pepsi Team Invite (first, 7-1 3/4) and Oregon Invite (7-0 1/2). Indoors in 2004, the Mansfield, Texas native cleared an indoor best and NCAA provisional mark of 7-1 3/4 and tied for 19th nationally. One of his next goals is to improve his 7-2 prep best that came as a senior in 2002. Junior and Clackamas transfer Paul Etter heads into the hammer ranked fourth with a season best of 199-0, and is only three feet away from the UO all-time top-10 list (10th place is Nick Anastassiades who threw 202-1 in 1991). Senior and returning Pac-10 javelin champion Adam Jenkins returns this season ranked fifth (218-0) with four others above 220 feet already this year. The Gladstone, Ore., native ranks ninth all-time for the Ducks with his personal best (222-4) that placed seventh in the 2003 West Regional, and is the top returnee from that meet. With Oregon’s upperclass experience in the steeple, 5,000 and 10,000, head coach Martin Smith leads his All-America distance corps into battle against the nation’s deepest distance conference. Holts took second in last year’s steeple finale, and his seven-second list-leader (8:44.57) is only two seconds away from the Olympic Trials ?B’ standard (8:42.00). A pair of 5K All-Americans - redshirt junior Eric Logsdon (13:48.12) and redshirt senior Ryan Andrus (13:51.00) - stand fifth and sixth on the Pac-10 list and were sixth and 10th in the Pac-10 clash last year in USC, while redshirt senior Jason Hartmann and Andrus were second and sixth in the 10,000 last year. Three-time NCAA 10K All-American Hartmann is a two-time league runner-up in the 25-lapper (?02, ?03) and also scored in the 5K the past two seasons.
WOMEN’S TEAM PREVIEW: Bruins Chase Eighth Straight Women’s Crown.
UCLA looms as the clear favorite, and will try to rewrite their meet record of 189.5 points from 1997, while Stanford and USC will try to stop the Bruins from winning their 15th of a possible 18 team crowns since the meet’s inception in 1987. Women's event leaders include Stanford’s Chinney Offor (800, 2:06.17), Arianna Lambie (1,500, 4:16.89), Alicia Craig (5,000, 15:31.15; 10,000, 32:19.97) and Jill Camarena (shot put, 59-6 3/4), USC’s Virginia Powell (100, 11.39) and Inge Stasiulionyte (javelin, 182-4), ASU’s Amy Hastings (steeple, 10:17.67), and Arizona’s Rachel Varner (discus, 190-1), and UCLA’s Monique Henderson (200, 22.71; 400, 51.20), Sheena Johnson (100 hurdles, 13.00; 400 hurdles, 56.45), Sheena Gordon (high jump, 6-1 1/4), Chelsea Johnson (pole vault, 15-0), Renee Williams (long jump, 21-1 1/2 indoors), Candice Baucham (triple jump, 44-2 3/4 indoors), Cari Soong (hammer, 209-2) and the 4x100 (43.78) and 4x400 (3:33.18) relays. The breakdown of the 20 remaining event leaders by schools is handily led by UCLA (11), followed by Stanford (5), USC (2), Arizona (1) and Arizona State (1).
MEN'S TEAM PREVIEW: UCLA, ASU & Oregon Lead Men’s Chase.
On the men's side, last year’s third-place finisher UCLA appears the favorite thanks to their depth across the track in nearly every discipline. Oregon is also equally balanced, but the graduation of former champions in the decathlon, javelin and hammer, and the redshirt of jumper/sprinter Jordan Kent will limit their margin for error. Arizona State owns one of the nation’s top sprint corps and is balanced in other areas, while Stanford could pile up +70 points in the five distance events alone (800, 1,500, steeple, 5,000 and 10,000). USC figures as the darkhorse since Trojan individuals lead four event categories and rank second in three events. The breakdown of event leaders for the remaining 20 events by school follows: USC (4), Oregon (4), UCLA (3), ASU (3), Stanford (2), Arizona (2), California (1), and Washington State (1). Event leaders include USC’s Garry Jones (100, 10.26), Wes Felix (200, 20.57), Allen Simms (triple jump, 55-4 3/4 indoors) and Michael Murray (hammer, 214-11), ASU’s Lewis Banda (400, 45.23) and the 4x100 (39.21) and 4x400 (3:01.51) relays, UCLA’s Nick Thornton (800, 1:48.01) and Dan Ames (shot put, 66-1; discus, 190-5), Stanford’s Donald Sage (1,500, 3:40.31) and Ian Dobson (10,000, 28:15.66), Oregon’s Brett Holts (steeple, 8:44.57), Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, 13.50w), Brandon Holliday (400 hurdles, 51.08) and Tommy Skipper (pole vault, 18-8 3/4 indoors), Arizona’s Robert Cheseret (5,000, 13:22.65) and Matt Wagner (javelin, 240-10), California’s Teak Wilburn (high jump, 7-5) and Washington State’s Matt Mason (long jump, 26-6 1/4 indoors).
TENTATIVE PAC-10 CHAMPS SCHEDULE & ENTRIES
Friday, May 14
*2:30 pm - W Hammer (M. Kriz, Kersh, Gum)
4:30 pm - W Javelin (Malone, R. Kriz)
5 pm - W Long Jump
5:15 pm - W 1500 Qual. (Bryant, Gulbrandsen)
5:30 pm - M 1500 Qual.
5:45 pm - W 100H Qual.
*6 pm - W High Jump (R. Kriz)
*6 pm - M Shot Put
6:05 pm - M 110H Qual. (Mitchum, Ikwuakor)
6:20 pm - W 400 Qual.
6:30 pm - M Pole Vault (Skipper, Woods, Young)
6:35 pm - M 400 Qual. (Scherer)
6:50 pm - W 100 Qual. (Abildtrup)
7:05 pm - M 100 Qual. (Gilliam)
7:20 pm - W 800 Qual. (Schaaf)
7:30 pm - W Shot Put (Fuqua, Gum)
7:35 pm - M 800 Qual. (McGrath)
7:45 pm - M Javelin (Jenkins, Skipper)
7:50 - W Steeple
8 pm - M Long Jump (Watson, Voge)
8:05 - M Steeple (Holts, Alcorn)
8:20 pm - W 400H Qual. (Andrus, Mellott, Santana, McAllister)
8:35 pm - M 400H Qual. (Holliday, Mitchum, Ikwuakor)
8:55 pm - W 200 Qual. (Abildtrup)
9:10 pm - M 200 Qual. (Anderson, Inico)
9:25 pm - W 10K
10:10 pm - M 10K (Andrus, Hartmann)
Saturday, May 15
*3 pm - M Hammer (Etter)
5 pm - W Discus (Fuqua)
*5:30 pm - W Triple Jump (Hayward-Lee, Traver)
*6 pm - M High Jump (Lindsey, Davis, Voge)
6 pm - W 4x100
6:10 pm - M 4x100
6:20 pm - W 1500 (Bryant, Gulbrandsen)
*6:30 pm - W Pole Vault (Enders, Larwin)
6:30 pm - M 1500
6:40 pm - W 100H
6:50 pm - M 110H (Mitchum, Ikwuakor)
7 pm - W 400 (Abildtrup)
7:10 pm - M 400 (Scherer)
7:20 pm - W 100
7:30 pm - M Discus (Tower)
7:30 pm - M 100 (Gilliam)
7:40 pm - W 800 (Schaaf)
7:50 pm - M 800 (McGrath)
8 pm - M Triple Jump (Watson)
8 pm - W 400H (Andrus, Mellott, Santana, McAllister)
8:10 pm - M 400H (Holliday, Mitchum, Ikwuakor)
8:20 pm - W 200 (Abildtrup)
8:30 pm - M 200 (Anderson, Inico)
8:40 pm - W 5K (Harmon, Khalsa)
*9:05 pm - M 5K (Logsdon, Andrus, Hartmann, Holts)
9:25 pm - W 4x400
*9:35 pm - M 4x400
10 pm - Awards Presentation
* indicates time altered slightly from original schedule
NOTE: All events finals unless otherwise noted with qual. for qualifying round.
PAC-10 HISTORY: Duck M&W Have Cemented Their Place in History.
The Pac-10 men’s championships were created in 1979 when the addition of Arizona and Arizona State enlarged the former Pac-8 format (1965-78). Overall, the Duck men have won five Pac-10 team titles (1979, 1986, 1990, 1991, 2003), and three Pac-8 titles (1965, 1967 and 1978). Last year’s one-point victory over Stanford (131-130) was not finally decided until last October when a USC sprinter was ruled ineligible and the 200, 400, 4x100 and 4x400 were rescored. Interestingly, last year’s rescored Oregon win was the third for the Ducks including 1991 and 1978 when Washington State and USC forfeited their wins, respectively. The revised finish continued the steady progress for the Ducks at the conference level who finished sixth in head coach Martin Smith`s first year at the helm in 1999, seventh in 2000, fifth in 2001, and second in 2002. Overall, UCLA handily leads the men’s team competition with 11 crowns (1980, 82, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98) but has not won a title in the past five years ? their longest winless stretch over that period. Other programs with titles to their credit include Washington State (3 - 1983, 84, 85), USC (3 - 1997, 99, 00), Stanford (2 - 2001, 02) and Arizona (1 - 1981). With the official formation of the Pac-10 women’s conference in 1986-87, UCLA has dominated the league finale with 14 wins total (1987, 88, 89, 90, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03). Oregon interrupted that run with back-to-back crowns in 1991 over UCLA (130 1/2-112 1/2) and in 1992 over Arizona (123-90). USC owns the other crown from 1996 over the Ducks (151-144). In the Miss Congeniality category, the Trojans have been runner-up five of the past seven years they haven’t won (and behind UCLA each of those five meets).
OREGON CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS - BY EVENT
Women’ Conf. Champs (55)
3,000?8
Javelin?8
5,000?6
10,000?5
1,500?4
400?4
4x400 Relay?4
800?2
400 Hurdles?2
Heptathlon?2
Shot Put?1
Discus?1
100 Hurdles?1
High Jump?1
Pole Vault?1
Long Jump?1
Triple Jump?1
100?1
200?1
4x100 Relay?1
Men’s Pac-8/10 Champs (112)
Steeplechase?12
Mile/1,500?11
Shot Put?10
Decathlon?10
3-mile/5,000?9
Pole Vault?8
Javelin?8
880 or 800?7
Long Jump?7
Hammer?6
10,000?6
Pole Vault?8
High Jump?6
440 IH/400 IH?4
Triple Jump?4
Discus?3
400?1
ON THE TUBE - TV Broadcasts of the Pac-10 Championships by Various Fox Affiliates
*NOTE: Fox Sports Northwest Will Replay Pac-10 Finale, Saturday, May 22 at 3 pm (PT).
Thur., May 20
FOX Sports Florida 1 p.m. ET
FOX Sports New England 12 noon ET
FOX Sports West2 1 p.m. PT
Fri., May 21
FOX Sports South 3 a.m. ET
Sat., May 22
FOX Sports Arizona 11 a.m. PT
FOX Sports Bay Area 7 p.m. PT
FOX Sports Chicago 3 p.m. CT
FOX Sports Detroit 3 p.m. ET
FOX Sports Midwest 3 p.m. CT
* FOX Sports Northwest 3 p.m. PT
FOX Sports Pittsburgh 4 p.m. ET
FOX Sports West 4 p.m. PT
ZCSN 3 p.m. ET
Sun., May 23
FOX Sports North 2 p.m. CT
FOX Sports Ohio 4 p.m. ET
FOX Sports Rocky Mountain 2 p.m. MT
FOX Sports Southwest 1 p.m. CT
Mon., May 24
CSNM 1 p.m. ET
Tues., May 25
FOX Sports Wisconsin 1 p.m. CT
2003 PAC-10 REVIEW: Ducks Combine for 4 Wins & 1 Duck Record.
LOS ANGELES (5/17-18/03) - In the 73rd and 17th annual Pacific-10 Conference Championships last year, 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 a USC 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 (131-130) 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 (dec., 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).
HEP/DEC. REVIEW: Ducks Go 1-3-4-5 in Dec./Andrus Repeats Third in Hep.
TUCSON, Ariz. - Last Friday and Saturday, the Duck men featured four NCAA provisional or automatic marks among their quartet of top-five finishes, including men’s winner Tommy Skipper, in final day action Saturday in the Pac-10 Championships decathlon, and senior Abby Andrus posted a NCAA provisional mark and 22-point personal best for third place in the women’s heptathlon at the University of Arizona’s Roy Drachman Stadium. Skipper led the Duck men with an NCAA automatic score (7,589) that was 89 points above the decathlon auto standard, and ended 105 points better than runner-up Arizona State senior Joshua Kinnaman (second, 7,484). Duck sophomore Andy Young registered a 193-point personal best to take third place (7,372), and senior Gabriel LeMay followed in fourth with a 158-point personal best of his own (fourth, 7,333). Redshirt sophomore Ryan Voge also easily topped the NCAA provisional standard of 7,000 points with a 191-point personal best to finish fifth (7,245). Among second day marks, Skipper led the pole vault marks by almost a full foot with his clearance of 17-4 1/2, and he was also 18 feet better than the field in the javelin with his collegiate best (203-10). The Sandy, Ore., native also ranked top-two in the 100 (first, 10.69, w:0.0), shot put (first, 44-6 3/4), high jump (second, 6-5 1/2) and discus (second, 143-4), . Giving Oregon its fourth straight Pac-10 decathlon title and 11th overall including Pac-8 history dating back to 1965, he moved up from fourth place after the first day when he tallied 3,857 points. At the halfway point Friday, he trailed ASU’s Kinnaman who scored 3,995 points to lead Oregon’s Voge (3,956), while LeMay followed in third (3,874) and Young stood eighth (3,578). Among Oregon’s other three event wins, Young kicked to the tape first in the 1,500 (4:21.94) in a Duck 1-2-3 sweep with LeMay in second place four seconds back (4:25.94). LeMay won the first day’s 400 (48.78), and Voge skied to a personal best and Pac-10 qualifying win in the high jump (6-9). Overall, the Ducks’ 1-3-4-5 finish netted them 25 points - their most points in a single event in recent memory in any of the 19 individual events in the conference championships. With one of the 21 total events now complete, Arizona State follows in second with eight points, Cal is in third place with three points, UCLA is in fourth with two points and WSU is in fifth with one point. On the all-time Duck charts, three of the four Ducks bettered the previous 10th-place ranked performer, Paul Pappas, who scored a personal best 7,303 points in 1997. Skipper now ranks eighth all-time for the Ducks ahead of Kanon Vanderhoff (ninth, 7,488) and recent Pac-10 champion and All-American Billy Pappas (10th, 7,532) who tallied his best en route to the Pac-10 win in 2002. On the women’s side, Andrus took a sizable step towards an NCAA heptathlon return with a 22-point personal best and repeated her third-place finish from last year (5,325). The Peoria, Ariz., native trailed only a pair of top-five ranked collegians in the final scores - Arizona State freshman Jackie Johnson (first, 5,603) and Cal junior Brooke Meredith (second, 5,475). Her single event marks included 25.98, 35-7 3/4 in the shot put, in the 200 (w:0.7), 18-2 1/2 in the long jump (w:2.9), 118-0 in the javelin, Among the day’s opening events, Andrus ranked fifth with a hep season best in the long jump (18-2 1/2, w:2.9), and also in the javelin (118-0) with Saturday’s mark only four inches shy of her personal best. Before the 800, she owned a six-event score of 4,481 points and was in a three-way battle for third place with Washington’s Grace Vela (4,482), and Washington State’s Julie Pickler (4,478). As Andrus pushed to the lead from the start en route to a two second-win (2:18.48) over ASU’s Johnson (second, 2:20.88), the other Northwest rivals faded to fifth (Vela, 2:26.09) and eighth (Pickler, 2:50.36) in the two-lap event. Andrus’s last event surge also pushed her ahead of the two rivals on the national list with Pickler (5,135) and Vela (5,065) formerly ranked ahead of Andrus (5,060) based on season bests. Andrus’s mark still ranks her fifth all-time for the Ducks and pushed her closer to two-time All-American Jennifer Thomas (fourth, 5,452) who posted her personal best in 1998.
QUALIFYING UPDATE: Duck Men Sprinted Past Pac-10 24-Person Limit.
Athletes qualify for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships based on their season best mark in an event and if he/she meets a pre-set league standard (see the 2004 Oregon 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-eight Duck men have posted 40 marks in 16 of 18 possible individual events (there is no qualifying standard in the 4x100, 4x400 or 10,000) - Ryan Gilliam (100), Travis Anderson (200, 400), Kedar Inico (200, 400), Matt Scherer (400), Ryan Flaherty (800), Mike McGrath (800), Eric Logsdon (1,500, 5,000), Ryan Andrus (1,500, 5,000), Brett Holts (steeple), Kyle Alcorn (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), Tommy Skipper (100, 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 (high jump, long jump, decathlon). Events with multiple men’s qualifiers include the pole vault (5), high jump and decathlon (4), 400 hurdles and 400, 5,000 (3), and the 100, 200, 800, 1,500, steeple, 110H, triple jump and javelin (2). At the regional level, 23 Duck men have posted 24 marks in 12 of a possible 19 events (400 (3), 800, steeple (2), 5,000, 110H, (3), 400H (2), high jump (2), pole vault (4), long jump, triple jump (2), hammer, javelin (2), 4x400). * NOTE: See page 10 for a complete qualifier list.
On the women’s side, 21 Ducks have combined for 30 marks in 16 of a possible 18 events (the 4x100, 4x400 or the 10K don’t have standards) - Sofie Abildtrup (100, 200, 400), Sara Schaaf (800, 1,500), Laura Harmon (1,500, 5,000), Taylor Bryant (1,500), Erinn Gulbrandsen (1,500), Magdalena Sandoval (5,000), Haripurkh Khalsa (5,000), Abby Andrus (100 hurdles, 400 hurdles, high jump, heptathlon), Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles), Amanda Santana (400 hurdles), Rachael Kriz (high jump), 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 (4), 5,000, 400 hurdles, pole vault and hammer (3), and high jump, shot put and discus (2). First-year women’s qualifying newcomers include junior transfers Sofie Abildtrup, (100/200/400), Bree Fuqua (shot put, discus) and Katie Kersh (hammer) and veteran junior Taylor Bryant (1,500), sophomores Sara Schaaf (800, 1,500), Haripurkh Khalsa (5,000), Whitney Gum (shot put, hammer) and Megan Kriz (hammer), and freshmen Amanda Santana (400 hurdles) and Emily Enders (pole vault). At the regional level, 14 women have accounted for 16 marks in 12 of 19 possible events (200, 400, 800, 5,000, 400 hurdles, high jump, pole vault (2), triple jump, shot put, discus (2), hammer (3), javelin).
UO newcomers to the West Regional season list the past two weeks included Abby Andrus (400 hurdles). Pac-10 qualifying newcomers included Amanda Santana (400 hurdles), Maegan Traver (triple jump), Tommy Skipper (100, decathlon) and Ryan Voge (high jump). On the NCAA provisional list, NCAA veteran senior Abby Andrus climbed the NCAA list in the heptathlon (5,325). Freshman Tommy Skipper eclipsed the NCAA auto standard with his Pac-10 decathlon win (7,589), and Andy Young (7,372), Gabriel LeMay (7,333) and Ryan Voge (7,245) climbed the NCAA provisional lists.
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 arriveed from Denmark and owned prior bests in the 100 (11.84, UO #10 12.01), 200 (24.02, UO #7 23.93) and 400 (54.16, UO #9 54.49) that would rank top-10 in Oregon history. Indoors, she raced to an NCAA provisional mark in the 400 (54.46) in her season debut. 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 (174-11) that ranks her sixth 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). In the Oregon Invitational in late-April, she improved again to 200-3. 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. She ranks fifth all-time among Ducks with her outdoor best 12-10 1/4. Freshman Amanda Santana won the state 300-hurdle crown last year and ranks second on the Ducks in the 400 equivalent (61.3-h/62.23). 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. This season he has climbed to fourth all-time for the Ducks in the triple jump (52-10 1/4) and ninth in the long jump (25-5 1/2), and he was tabbed an All-American indoors after he took ninth (25-2 1/2) in March’s finale. 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 2003 in the 800 (1:48.56) and pole vault (18-3) as seniors, respectively, with the latter tabbed prepster of the year after he upped the national pole vault by 3/4 inches. 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. 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. This season he owns season bests and Pac-10 qualifiers of 14.28w (w2.6) and 52.55, respectively.
DUCK MEN'S NEWCOMERS
Jeff DeWolf, Fr.-HS, Bend, Ore. (Mtn. View) - 800 1:53.59, 1:52.26 (UO)
Roderick Dotts, Jr.-TR, E. St. Louis, Ill. (BartonCC) - 400 47.7, 800 1:48.41
Steve Green, Fr.-HS, Malta, Mont. (Malta) - HJ 6-6, LJ 20-9, TJ 45-10, 46-0 (UO)
AK Ikwuakor, So.-TR, Arvada, Colo. (Colorado) - 110H 14.10, 14.28w (UO), 400H 51.99, 52.55 (UO)
Kedar Inico, Jr.-TR, Queens, NY (Barton CC) - 200 21.66-indoors, 400 46.30, 46.92 (UO)
Scott Lamb, Jr.-TR, Dallas, Ore. (Mt. Hood CC) - 400 48.28, 48.12 (UO)
Ben Looney, Fr.-HS, Coos Bay, Ore. (Marshfield) - Dec. 6,326 (HS), 6,470 (UO), 400 49.53, HJ 6-4, LJ 21-11, 110H 15.31
Mike McGrath, Fr.-HS, Portland, Ore. (Lincoln) - 800 1:48.56, 1:50.24 (UO), 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, 14.93w (UO), 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, 45-9 1/4 (UO), 400 49.28
Ryan Voge, RSo.-TR, Hillsboro, Ore. (N.Mex.), Dec. 6,448, 7,245 (UO), HJ 6-8, 6-9 (UO), LJ 22-10, 23-8 (UO)
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 8:42
DUCK WOMEN’S NEWCOMERS
Amanda Santana, Fr.-HS, Eugene, Ore. (North) - 400 58.75, 300H 43.95, 400H 61.3-h/62.23 (UO)
Emily Enders, Fr.-HS, Everett, Wash. (Snohomish), PV 12-7 (HS), 12-10 1/4 (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, 52-5 1/4 (UO), DT 165-7
Brittany Hinchcliffe, Jr.-TR, Olympia, Wash. (WSU), HT 186-11, 200-3 (UO), DT 154-11
Katie Kersh, RJr.-TR, Willow Creek, Calif. (Sierra Coll.), HT 173-5, 174-11 (UO), DT 14-20, SP 42-8
Megan Kriz, So.-TR, Toledo, Ore. (PSU) - SP 42-10 3/4, HT 184-1 (UO)
2004 MEN’S SEASON 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). Eleven Duck men are ranked top-10 in UO history - Tommy Skipper (pole vault, first, 18-8 3/4), Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, first, 13.53), Jason Hartmann (10,000, third, 28:31.96), Trevor Woods (pole vault, fifth, 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 3/4), Jordan Kent (200, sixth, 20.99; 100, eighth, 10.46), Matt Scherer (400, fifth, 46.40), Brandon Holliday (400 hurdles, seventh, 50.73), Ryan Andrus (10,000, eighth, 28:56.67) and Adam Jenkins (javelin, eighth, 222-4), and the 4x400 of Travis Anderson, Brandon Holliday, Roderick Dotts and Matt Scherer lowered the school record indoors (3:06.24). Indoors in 2004, the Duck men posted their most NCAA invites (7) and All-America (4) honors in school 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 SEASON 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), Megan Kriz (hammer, third, 184-1), 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), Katie Kersh (hammer, sixth, 174-11), Whitney Gum (hammer, seventh, 174-10), Magdalena Sandoval (5,000, eighth, 16:04.41), Clarice Hayward-Lee (triple jump, eighth, 40-1 1/4), Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles, ninth, 61.30) and Jill Hoxmeier (hammer, 11th, 162-6). 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).
LAST MEET RECAP: Hurdlers Log Qualifiers in Regular Season’s Twilight.
EUGENE - In the Oregon Twilight regular season finale two weeks ago, the Duck M&W combined for 24 Pac-10 marks (14 W / 10 M) and 18 regional marks (9 W / 9 M) in the Oregon Twilight, Saturday in front of a crowd of approximately 4,000 at Hayward Field. Among the Duck women’s nine event wins, redshirt senior Abby Andrus won the 100 hurdles (14.16w, w:2.3) and 400 hurdles (59.9-hand timed) in season bests. The Peoria, Ariz., native met the Regional and Pac-10 standards for the first time in the 400 hurdles, and also notched another Pac-10 qualifier in the 100 hurdles. Junior Sofie Abildtrup added wins in the 200 (24.01, w:1.9) - only .08 seconds off her personal best - and as an anchor on the 4x100 relay (47.97). In the middle distances, redshirt sophomore Sara Schaaf (first, 2:08.08) rode the coattails of former Duck Vicky Fleschner (second, 2:08.25) en route to a two-second personal best in the 800 for another Pac-10 and regional qualifier. Junior Clarice Hayward-Lee finally claimed her first outdoor, wind-legal 40-foot triple jump mark (first, 40-8 3/4), and junior Maegan Traver also notched a personal best by more than 8 1/2 inches (second, 38-10 1/2). In the throws, Oregon’s #2 shot putter all-time and junior Bree Fuqua improved her personal best by one foot and 1 3/4 inches with Saturday’s winning mark and regional and Pac-10 mark (52-5 1/4), and sophomore Whitney Gum also registered a personal best (second, 45-8). Junior transfer and redshirt Brittany Hinchcliffe unleashed her second-best mark ever in the hammer (first, 198-5) - less than two feet off her personal best from the Oregon Invite last week (200-5). Sophomore and Oregon’s third-ranked hammer thrower Megan Kriz delivered an 11-inch personal best (second, 185-0) and closed with 1 1/2 feet of former Duck school record holder and now second-ranked Maureen Morrison. Junior transfer Katie Kersh (third, 174-0) was 11 inches shy of her personal best from last week, Gum bettered 170 feet again (fifth, 163-1), and senior Jill Hoxmeier (fifth, 163-0) moved back into the UO all-time list in the 10th position with her six-inch personal best. The Duck men piled up six wins among the 13 events - spread among the sprints (2), hurdles (2) and throws (2). Senior and returning Pac-10 champion Brandon Holliday made a bid for the conference lead in the 400 hurdles with his nearly half-second season best (first, 51.08). All-America sophomore Eric Mitchum broke 14.00 again in the 110 hurdles (13.76w, w:2.6), and sophomore AK Ikwuakor added a .02-second wind-aided season best (second, 14.28). Junior Kedar Inico won the 400 for the first time for the Ducks in a season best (46.92), just ahead of sophomore Matt Scherer who also logged an outdoor season best (second, 47.09). Freshman Ryan Gilliam won the 100 again at home with his second-fastest collegiate effort (10.70, w:1.2). Freshman Brandon Tower won his first event at Hayward Field thanks to a 10-foot personal best in the discus (166-6), and pulled within two feet of the Pac-10 qualifying mark. In the hammer, junior Paul Etter (fifth, 198-9) was only three inches from his season best and six inches from his personal best last season for Clackamas, and Tower turned in a six-foot best (eighth, 151-5). The pole vault stood as the Ducks’ deepest event Saturday as freshman Tommy Skipper upped his outdoor season best by 3/4 inches (second, 17-9 1/4), and senior Trevor Woods (third, 17-1 1/2) and redshirt freshman David Moore (fourth, 16-5 1/2) added a half-inch and 3/4 inches, respectively, to their season bests. In distance action, freshman Mike McGrath posted a .10-second personal best in the 800 (second, 1:50.24).
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.
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: Skipper & Abildtrup Claim Weekly Honors in 2004.
Freshman Tommy Skipper became the second Duck to be named track and field athlete of the week Monday by the Pacific-10 Conference in the fifth edition of the award in 2004. The freshman from Sandy, Ore., won the conference decathlon title in his event debut last Friday-Saturday (5/7-8) with an NCAA automatic score (7,589) that was 89 points above the decathlon auto standard, and 105 points better than runner-up Arizona State senior Joshua Kinnaman (second, 7,484). Skipper gave Oregon its fourth straight Pac-10 decathlon title and 11th overall including Pac-8 history dating back to 1965. Among Saturday’s marks, he led the pole vault marks by almost a full foot with his clearance of 17-4 1/2, was also 18 feet better than the field in the javelin, and also topped the field the first day in the 100 (10.69) and shot put (44-6 3/4). In the award’s opening edition on April 12, UO junior Sofie Abildtrup claimed similar honors for the women’s track category. The Saturday before (4/10), she helped Oregon to team wins over Colorado, Minnesota and Washington in the Pepsi Team Invite and claimed individual blue ribbons in the 200 (23.94) and 400 (54.49), and also ran a 54.40-second split on the victorious 4x400 relay. Looking back to 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). Among current Ducks tabbed last year, 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). Two other current Ducks have combined for other Pac-10 honors in previous 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).
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 (13th 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).
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 USA CHAMPS REVIEW: Holliday Wins Trip to Paris.
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).
TRACKWIRE NCAA PREDICTIONS
Gary Verigin’s Trackwire 25 projects a hypothetical score for the NCAA meet, factoring in injury reports and other variables supported by information gathered from coaches and NCAA-qualfying competitions across the country. This projection is generated by scoring the Dandy Dozen, a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay squads in each NCAA event.
Women’s Teams
1. LSU, 56
2. UCLA, 55
3. Texas, 54
4. Nebraska, 47
5. South Carolina, 40
6. Florida, 36
7. Miami, 35
8. Georgia, 33
9. Tennessee, 31
10. Stanford, 29
11. Arkansas, 22
=12. North Carolina, 21
=12. Northern Arizona, 21
14. USC, 18
=15. Providence, 16
=15. Florida State, 16
17. San Diego State, 15
=18. Texas A&M, 14
=18. BYU, 14
20. Colorado State, 13
=21. Cal, 12
=21. Cal Poly, 12
23. Oregon, 11
=24. Kansas State, 10
=24. Mississippi State, 10
=24. Georgia Tech, 10
UO Women’s Individual Top-12 Predictions
PV - Kirsten Larwin, 8th
JT - Sarah Malone, 1st
Men’s Teams
1. Arkansas, 57
2. LSU, 50
3. Florida, 48
4. Auburn, 36
5. Ohio State, 35
=6. Nebraska, 30
=6. Baylor, 30
8. Arizona State, 28
9. TCU, 27
10. SMU, 26
11. Stanford, 25
12. USC, 24
13. Texas, 21
=14. UCLA, 19
=14. Wisconsin, 19
16. Georgia, 18
=17. Minnesota, 16
=17. Arizona, 16
=17. Middle Tennessee, 16
=20. Oregon, 13
=20. Texas Tech, 13
22. Indiana, 12
=23. Cal, 11
=23. Rice, 11
=23. Tennessee, 11
=23. Texas A&M, 11
UO Men’s Individual Top-12 Predictions
Steeple - Brett Holts, 11th
10K - Ryan Andrus, 12th
110H - Eric Mitchum, 4th
PV - Tommy Skipper, 2nd
Dec - Andy Young, 12th
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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