Track & Field Piles Up Pac-10 All-Academic Honors
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - The University of Oregon men’s and women’s track and field teams continued their streak of academic success as nine Duck men and 11 women were picked to Pacific-10 Conference Academic All-Academic first, second and honorable squads Tuesday.
The Duck men claimed a league-high and school-best five first-team selections courtesy of redshirt seniors Ryan Andrus (3.94, business administration), Gabriel LeMay (3.77, biology) and Trevor Woods (3.74, business administration), and sophomores Matt Scherer (3.74, business administration) and Andy Young (3.76, exercise and movement science).
The Men of Oregon added two more second-team picks - redshirt junior Eric Logsdon (3,27, business administration) and sophomore Teddy Davis (3.54, undeclared), and two more honorable mentions (redshirt junior Brett Holts and redshirt freshman David Moore).
Career-wise, Andrus collected his third first-team track honor to go along with three honors in cross country, and Woods and Young nabbed their second straight first-team track accolades. Logsdon and Holts were prior two-time honorable mentions, while Scherer, Davis and Moore were eligible for the first time in 2004.
On the track, the aforementioned group accounted for 33 of the Ducks’ 130 points and runner-up finish two weeks ago in the Pac-10 Championships - also their third straight and league-best top-two finish. Among those points, 21 points came first-team academic selections, six points from second-team honorees, and six from the honorable mention category.
Overall among the conference, Oregon edged WSU (4) for most first-team selections, followed by Washington (3), ASU (2), California (1) and Stanford (1).
The Duck men claimed a league-high five selections for the second straight season after four first-team honors in 2002 and three in 2001. UO’s success in the classroom has continued to climb since the arrival of sixth-year head coach Martin Smith as the Ducks claimed their previous high tally (4) only once (1996) since the award’s initiation in 1991.
On the women’s side, the 28-person roster flexed their might with 11 honorees spread among two first-team picks, two second-team and seven honorable mention selections. Even more impressive since the Pac-10 requires nominees to be redshirt freshmen or older and be in at least their second year at the same university, only 18 Ducks were even eligible for the outdoor honor, meaning that 61 percent of the eligible squad sported a 3.0 GPA or higher.
Oregon women’s first team selections included seniors Kirsten Larwin (3.89, French) and Erinn Gulbrandsen (3.73, English) and second-team picks were awarded to sophomore Whitney Gum (3.51, biology) and sophomore Sara Schaaf (3.49, mathematics). Honorable mentions were accorded to senior Jill Hoxmeier, redshirt juniors Taylor Bryant, Laura Harmon and Magdalena Sandoval, juniors Michelle Donovan and Kayla Mellott, and redshirt sophomore Haripurkh Khalsa.
Among the Duck women’s honorees, Gulbrandsen and Larwin repeated first-team All-Academic honors after similar honors in 2003, and Gulbrandsen was also a two-time first-team selection in cross country. Byrant, Harmon, Mellott and Sandoval were repeat honorable mention picks, and Donovan, Gum and Schaaf were first-time honorees.
Several other former honorees - including 2003 Pac-10 All-Academic First Team pick Roslyn Lundeen, Elisa Crumley and Hannah Moore - were not eligible since they redshirted the 2004 outdoor season.
A complete list of honorees is available at the www.Pac-10.org website.
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