Malone Wins Pac-10 Javelin Title
LOS ANGELES ? The University of Oregon men’s and women’s teams ended the first day of the Pacific-10 Conference Championships Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium in first and fifth place with 63 1/2 and 36 points, respectively.
With eight of 21 events now complete, the Duck men sat 14 1/2 points ahead of Arizona State (second, 49), UCLA (third, 45), California (fourth, 38), Arizona (fifth, 34), Washington (sixth, 26), Stanford (seventh, 25), USC (eighth, 19) and Washington State (ninth, 12 1/2)
On the women’s side, Stanford led after seven events with 61 points, ahead of Washington State (second, 54 1/2), UCLA (third, 46), Arizona State (fourth, 43), Oregon (fifth, 36), California (sixth, 15), Washington (seventh, 10 1/2), Arizona (eighth, 6) and USC (ninth, 1).
Redshirt senior Sarah Malone won her first Pac-10 javelin women’s title (170-9) after she had finished second her previous three appearances.
The Ducks featured three other top-nine finishers in the 18-point event ? redshirt juniors and All-Americans Roslyn Lundeen (third, 4 foot 8-inch season best 162-8) and Elisa Crumley (ninth, 144-3), and redshirt senior Rachael (Kriz) Wallace (seventh, 4 foot 1 inch personal best149-10).
In the high jump, redshirt junior Lauryn Jordan cleared a two-inch personal best to finish second (5-10) behind the victor, Robin Mikesh of Washington State, who had one fewer miss at the same final cleared height.
Other UO women’s points came from redshirt senior Bree Fuqua who scored for the second straight season in the shot put (sixth, 50-9 1/4). Redshirt junior Mandi Fitz-Gustafson also competed in a final Saturday and took 14th in the steeplechase (11:28.54).
Looking ahead to Sunday’s final day action in track event finals, UO women that advanced with Saturday’s marks included senior Sofie Abildtrup (400, fourth, .91-second season best 53.48), redshirt junior Sara Schaaf (800, fourth, 2:08.81) and senior Kayla Mellott (400 hurdles, sixth, .49-second season best 60.24).
Duck women’s results from track prelims Saturday that didn’t advance to Sunday included senior Michelle Donovan (400, 10th, 56.71 - .96 seconds from last qualifier and .11 seconds off PR), freshmen Julie Schmidt-Scherer (400, 11th, 56.85 - .20 seconds off season best), Irie Searcy (400, 13th, season debut 57.77) and Kasey Harwood (400 hurdles, 12th, 62.69).
The Men of Oregon’s major event point-getter Sunday was the 10,000 as freshman Galen Rupp and redshirt senior Eric Logsdon took second (29:28.09) and fourth (29:34.16) in the 25-lap race as the sun set but still offered 70-degree conditions.
Eventual winner Robert Cheseret of Arizona (first, 29:16.48), the Duck duo and Stanford’s Nef Araia (third, 29:32.83) broke away from the rest of the 15-man field in the first 1/3 of the race and ran solo until the last mile when Rupp reeled off a 62-second lap that only Cheseret responded to. The returning NCAA 10K champion Cheseret stalked Rupp for the next 2 1/2 laps, then seized the lead for good with 500 meters remaining en route to a 20-meter win, while Rupp eased off in the final lap.
Other top men’s scoring efforts came from Paul Etter (hammer, second, 201-11), Lars Mueller Laursen (javelin, season debut, regional qualifier and UO #9 all-time 222-2), Leonidas Watson (long jump, third, 25-0 1/2 ? 10 1/4 inches off personal best), Jordan Kent (long jump, fifth, 24-3 3/4 ? six inches of season best), Brett Holts (steeplechase, fifth, 8:48.84 ? 1 1/2 seconds off his season best), Kyle Alcorn (steeplechase, seventh, 8:56.11 ? 2.33 seconds off personal best).
The Ducks’ lone disappointment of the day was a pole vault no-height by sophomore Tommy Skipper no-heighted at his opening bar of 17-4 1/2. The Ducks still featured three scorers in the event as redshirt junior Jon Derby took sixth and tied his season best (16-6 3/4) and redshirt sophomore David Moore and redshirt junior Andy Young tied for eighth (16-0 3/4). Derby and Moore scored in their league debuts after they entered the meet in a two-tie for fifth and four-way tie for 22nd, respectively, based on 2005 indoor and outdoor season bests, while Young made his second Pac-10 appearance after he took 12th last year in Tucson (16-5 1/2).
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He then skipped his three chances in the javelin final to focus on the pole vault that featured often-changing tailwinds that occasionally died unexpectedly. Nearly all of Saturday’s pole vault marks were off since the previous three champions since 2002 had jumped between 18-0 1/2 and 18-3 1/4, while the eighth and final scoring place those same three seasons was between 16-11 1/2 and 16-6 3/4 (while in 2002 it took a clearance of 17-3 1/2 to finish eighth place). Decathletes who competed on the same runway the week before were equally effected by the oft-changing breezes which led to several low heights and a no-height.
The returning Pac-10, West Regional and NCAA outdoor champion Skipper had missed nine weeks of outdoor competition previous season after he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in mid-March to repair a torn meniscus in the left knee that he competed on in three indoor meets ? including his NCAA title and USA Championships indoor finishes in March and February, respectively. The Pac-10 pole vault record holder (18-10 1/4) had opened his outdoor slate last weekend at home in the Oregon Twilight (17-0 3/4), and had been practicing on the outdoor pole vault runway for less than two weeks before Saturday.
In men’s preliminary action on the track, Duck advancers included Kent (100, seventh, 10.41, w:-0.3 - .05 second personal best and now tied for #7 all-time at UO; 200, fifth, 20.82, w:-0.5 ? now #5 all-time at UO), Richard Del Rincon (100, ninth, season best 10.50, w:-0.3 - .02 seconds from UO all-time top-10 list (10th is 10.48); 200, ninth, 21.10, w:1.4 - .17 seconds off season best), Kedar Inico (400, second, 45.89 - .personal best and third all-time at UO, and 02 seconds Saturday behind the event leader Craig Everhart of UCLA (45.87)), Matt Scherer (400, fourth, 46.47), Roderick Dotts (800, ninth, 1:50.78 - .28 seconds off season best), Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, first, 13.69, w:0.6 - .13 seconds off season best; 400 hurdles, fourth, 52.18 - .03 seconds off season best) and A.K. Ikwuakor (110 hurdles, sixth, 14.21, w:0.6 - .28 seconds off personal best; 400 hurdles, sixth, 52.35 ? 1.36 seconds off personal best).
Complete results are available at the www.UCLAbruins.com website.
DUCK ATHLETE & COACH QUOTES
Lauryn Jordan, Women’s High Jump (Second Place) / Long Jump (Eighth Place-tie)
“The whole high jump field was cheering for me and that helped get me going. They were saying I was getting great height, but I just needed to arch my back. I was a little surprised I went that high because I hadn’t even practiced it this week. Coach (Light) said I was ready to go and said to be aggressive. I was really relaxed coming in although it was a little nerve-wracking when I needed third attempts to make my final two bars. On the long jump, my approach was off so it put me in an awkward take-off position. But, I still got my regional qualifier so I can’t be too disappointed.”
Sarah Malone, Javelin (First Place)
“I’m a little rusty since I haven’t done as much in practice as I would have liked the past two weeks, but that’s not an excuse. It’s nice to finally have a chance to win, although it’s not as big a deal for me. It’s more an honor for all the people who have gotten me here ? my parents who were here again cheering me on today, coaches, and all my friends.”
Bill Lawson, Assistant coach
“It’s going to be an exciting (men’s) team race and there are a lot of good teams in the hunt. Tommy’s more disappointed than anyone about the misfortune in the pole vault, but he tried to come back from knee surgery in March and put us in position to challenge in the team race. Unfortunately it didn’t work out as expected, but this a meet that depends on the entire 24-person roster in 21 events, and other two vaulters scored in that event so they deserve some credit against the nation’s deepest pole vault field. We know the task ahead of us, and we’ll come together and give it our best again Sunday. Some of the implements like the javelin and hammer stepped up so we’re still sitting in good shape, and I like our chances tomorrow.
Galen Rupp, Men’s 10,000 (Second Place)
“I knew it would be tactical coming in, so I tried to be patient and stay back, although it was a little hard to wait so long. I wanted to test him (Arizona’s Robert Cheseret) sometime near the end to go for a chance (at the win) and see how he would react. He’s strong, tough and fast, and he showed it at the end. After he passed me, I knew I had to be smart and not push it too hard so I could come back and give it my all tomorrow. I had planned to go with a mile to go, and that’s when I went.”
Eric Logsdon, Men’s 10,000 (Fourth Place)
“(In the middle of the race) I didn’t realize that the pace slowed that much (77 and 78 second laps), but we put a surge in early, so we did our part to get a reasonably safe cushion. I wanted to run smart and be up front and be ready to cover any breaks. Coming in, I was planning on doubling so I’m ready to do whatever the team needs me to in either the 5,000 or 10,000, tomorrow or today.”
