Duck Track Teams Honor Award Winners
EUGENE - The University of Oregon men’s and women’s track and field teams announced their year-end team award winners Wednesday evening at their annual year-end banquet in the Pittman Room in the Casanova Center.
WOMEN’S AWARDS
Harry Ritchie’s Most Inspirational Award - Sofie Abildtrup. The first-year Duck sprinter and junior from Fredericksberg, Denmark ran team season bests that rank top-10 in Oregon history in the 100 (10th, 12.01), 200 (seventh, 23.93) and 400 (third, 52.92). In the recent Pac-10 Championships, she ran a more than one-second best in the Pac-10 400 prelims (52.92), added fifth in the final (53.22), and anchored the Ducks’ 4x400 four-second season best (sixth, 3:42.23). Indoors, she also led the Ducks in the 200 (24.39) and the 400 (NCAA provisional, 54.76). She was also tabbed the Pac-10 Women’s Track Athlete of the Week in mid-April after she won the 200 and 400, and ran a sub-55 second split on the winning 4x400 relay to help Oregon capture the Pepsi Team Invite team crown.
Mary Officer Hight Point Award - Abby Andrus. The second-year Duck from Peoria, Ariz., is an NCAA qualifier outdoors in the heptathlon (5,325) and indoors in the pentathlon (3,908). In the recent Pac-10 Championships, she placed third with a 22-point heptathlon personal best (5,325) - also a mark that ranks her 13th nationally and fifth all-time for the Ducks. She came back the following week and took third in the 400 hurdles (59.29) with a personal best that moved her to fifth all-time for UO. She also leads the Ducks this season in the 100 hurdles (14.04) and long jump (18-11 1/4w) and ranks second in the high jump (5-7).
Coaches Most Improved Award - Emily Enders. The freshman from Snohomish, Wash., has flourished in the outdoor postseason and earned an automatic invite for the NCAA Championships in the West Regional pole vault (fifth, 13-1 3/4). In the Pac-10 Championships, she cleared a personal best (fifth, 13-2 1/4) that ranks her 20th entering the NCAA finale in Austin, Texas. On the all-time Duck list, she ranks fifth for the Ducks behind a quartet of NCAA veterans, and also owns the Duck freshman pole vault record. Indoors, she owned a season best of 12-5 1/2. Prior to her collegiate career, she was a Washington prep state champion as a junior (then-PR12-6) and runner-up as a senior (12-3), and her senior best of 12-7 ranked her 10th nationally among preps in 2003.
Lynne Winbigler Performer of the Year - Sarah Malone. The Ducks’ javelin school record holder upped her personal best by five inches to 179-7 in the Texas Relays in April - a mark that ranks her fourth in the U.S, third nationally among collegians and second in the Pac-10 and West Region. In the recent championship slate, the Olympic Trials ?A’ qualifier won the West Regional crown (173-10), and took second for the third time in the Pac-10 Championships (171-5). Altogether this season, the redshirt junior from Newberg, Ore., has topped 170 feet in five of her seven contests, and was above 167 feet in the other two.
Cross Country Award - Magdalena Sandoval. One of the track and field squad’s most improved athletes, she handily led the Duck harriers in all five of her contests last fall. She claimed Pac-10 First-Team reviews thanks to her fifth-place Pac-10 finish for the fifth-place Ducks, then added ninth in the West Regional - both much improved over her 2003 placings of 36th and 30th, respectively. In the NCAA finale, she overcome a hard fall in the opening quarter-mile to still pass more than half the field and eventually place 105th. On the indoor oval this winter, the Los Alamos, N.M. native chopped 41 seconds off her 5,000 personal best to climb to eighth all-time on UO’s heralded all-time list with her mid-February effort (16:04.40). She is also a Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention in cross country and track and field this season.
MEN’S AWARDS
Dow Wilson Most Inspirational Award - Eric Mitchum. The sophomore from Calumet City, Ill., native broke the school 110 hurdle record with his clocking in the Mt. SAC Relays in April (13.53), and also ranks third nationally with his wind-aided clocking (13.50w, w:3.0) from the Texas Relays two weeks before. In the recent championship slate, he won the Pac-10 (13.62) and West Regional titles (13.72), and also scored for the Ducks in the league finale in the 400 hurdles (fifth, 51.27) with a mark that put him ninth all-time for UO. Indoors in March, he earned his first NCAA All-America honor in the 60 hurdles (sixth, 7.74) and broke the school record in the prelims (7.69).
Harry Ritchie’s High Point Award Winner - Award won’t be awarded until after NCAA results are tabulated.
Perry Holloman Most Improved Award - 4x400 Relay. The Duck 4x400 quartet of Travis Anderson, Brandon Holliday, Kedar Inico and Matt Scherer took second in a school record in the Pacific-10 Conference Championshipss (3:03.49), and also broke 3:04.00 in the recent West Regional (second, 3:03.93). Indoors, the quartet of Anderson, Roderick Dotts, Holliday and Scherer added their first school record of the season in mid-February in the Iowa State Classic (3:06.54) - an NCAA automatic clocking that ranked them seventh nationally, and earned an NCAA invite. Coming into this season, the previous school record was 3:06.73 run by Anderson, Holliday, Scherer and Jordan Kent in the 2003 NCAA Champs prelims.
George Scharpf Outstanding Athlete Award - Tommy Skipper. The Duck freshman leads the collegiate outdoor national qualifying list with his school and Pac-10 record in the West Regional (18-10 1/4) last weekend. The Sandy, Ore., native also met the Olympic Trials A qualifying standard indoors with the nation’s top collegiate indoor mark and then-school record (18-8 3/4), and then posted his then-second best mark indoors in the NCAA Championships (second, 18-4 1/2). In May, he helped the Ducks to a Pac-10 runner-up finish with wins in the pole vault (18-3 1/4) and decathlon (NCAA automatic 7,589, and #8 all-time for UO) and fifth-place finish in the javelin with a personal best (215-2).
Bill Dellinger Cross Country Award - Eric Logsdon. The redshirt junior from Canby, Ore., posted his second All-America award on the trails last fall in the NCAA Championships (29th) and led the Ducks to 21st place as a team. Earlier in the season, he claimed Pac-10 Second Team honors (eighth) as the second finisher for the runner-up Ducks, and also led the squad in the West Regional (12th) and Pre-NCAA Invite (21st). He is also a Pac-10 All-Academic second-team pick in cross country and track and field this season.
OFFICIALS RECOGNITION
Hayward Award - Ed Coleman. A veteran of Oregon track meets for 32 years as a starter and lane inspector, Ed Coleman is one of the most familiar faces among officials at Hayward Field, and is also a former faculty member.
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