Track Teams Look Ahead to Home Outdoor Opener
The tentative meet schedule has the first field event slated for
As with previous Oregon Preview meets, the Duck men’s and women’s squads will enter most of their rosters against a mix of Pacific Northwest university and post-collegiate talent, and Oregon’s tentative entries will be posted midweek or sooner.
In last year’s edition, the UO men and women claimed 11 wins (7W, 4M) and 11 regional qualifying performances (8W, 3M). Top women’s marks came from then-senior Bree Fuqua (shot put, first, 51-3 3/4; discus, first, 156-10) and Britney Henry (hammer, first, 201-2), while top men’s performers included Richard Del Rincon (100, second, 10.4-hand-timed), Jonathan Derby (pole vault, second, 16-6 3/4), then-senior Paul Etter (hammer, second, 203-4) and Matt Adams (javelin, second, 202-5).
Oregon single-day regular season home meet ticket prices for 2006 follow: $ 7 for reserved seats, $ 5 for adult general admission (GA), $ 3 for kids (ages 2-17) and senior citizen GA (ages 62 and older), and $ 2 individually for group rates of 10 or more. Call the Duck ticket office at 1-800-WEB-FOOT or (541) 346-4461 for more information.
The Oregon Preview meet also has a special Bi-Mart 2-for-1 Day ticket offer, where fans can pick up a coupon at area Bi-Mart stores good for two reserved seats for the price of one.
As the outdoor season progresses, Duck fans will have ample chance to witness the revitalization of
The Pepsi Team Invitational follows on Sat., April 8, and renews
Two weeks later, a revamped Oregon Invitational on Fri.-Sat., April 21-22 features a Friday evening distance carnival with many of the nation’s top distance runners, and a Saturday afternoon elite section for the remaining events.
The Oregon Twilight concludes the regular season Fri., May 5, immediately followed by the Pacific-10 Conference Championships Heptathlon and Decathlon, Sat.-Sun., May 6-7.
The following weekend, the Pac-10 Championships return to
More meet information for several home meets is already posted or will be added soon to the SCHEDULE link on the www.GoDucks.com website.
The UO track and field teams come off a strong showing this past weekend in the 2006 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the University of Arkansas, Fri.-Sat., March 10-11. The ?Men of Oregon’ took sixth in the team race with 23 points to match their all-time best finish from ’05, and also notched their third top-10 finish in five years after they also took ninth in 2002. The Duck women claimed their third-highest ever indoor finish (23rd-tie, 10 points), and both teams placed top-25 in the same season for the first time ever.
In the indoor collegiate finale’s seventh straight trip in the Randal Tyson Track Center, the Duck men featured All-America efforts from four of their five entries - junior Tommy Skipper (pole vault, first), senior Eric Mitchum (60 hurdles, third) and freshman Galen Rupp (3,000, sixth; 5,000, fifth). All five of the women’s qualifiers claimed All-America honors and included freshman Rebekah Noble (800, second), and the distance medley relay (seventh) of graduate student Amber McGown, redshirt senior Sara Schaaf, junior Dana Buchanan and redshirt sophomore Irie Searcy.
During the indoor regular season, five men’s indoor school records were broken or tied by redshirt sophomore Michael McGrath (mile, 3:59.25), Rupp (5,000, 13:48.51), Mitchum (60 hurdles, 7.67), Skipper (pole vault, 18-8.75-tied) and redshirt junior Colin Veldman (shot put, 58-8 3/4), while the women scored six school records - Noble (800, 2:04.72), senior Lauryn Jordan (60 hurdles, 8.73), the distance medley relay (11:16.05), redshirt senior Britney Hinchcliffe and redshirt junior Britney Henry (weight throw, 61-1 1/4) and redshirt freshman Kalindra McFadden (pentathlon, 3,929)
On the outdoor scene, current Ducks already hold four school records ? Mitchum (110 hurdles, 13.38, 2004), Skipper (pole vault, 18-10 1/4, 2004), the 4x100 relay of senior Richard Del Rincon, Kedar Inico, senior Matt Scherer and redshirt junior Jordan Kent (39.20), and the 4x400 relay of Kent, Inico, senior Akobundu Ikwuakor and Scherer (3:00.81, 2005). Skipper’s mark was also a Pac-10 record and Mitchum and the 4x400 both stand fifth in league history behind Greg Foster (13.22, 1978) and UCLA’s relay of Lewis, Young, Everett and Thomas (2:59.91, 1988).
For the UO women, Hinchcliffe is a current school record holder in the hammer (199-2), and current Ducks on the Pac-10 all-time lists included the All-America javelin duo of redshirt seniors Elisa (Crumley) Reynoso (fourth, 169-7, 2002) and Roslyn Lundeen (eighth, 166-11, 2002).
Last year, the men placed ninth in the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the third time in five years, and the squad welcomes back nine NCAA veterans in ?06, including multiple NCAA champion Tommy Skipper and a pair of former NCAA runners-up ? senior Eric Mitchum (110 hurdles, 2004) and sophomore Galen Rupp (10,000, 2005). Other Ducks with NCAA experience include 3/4 of UO’s record-setting 4x400 and 4x100 relays that placed third and sixth in the ’05 outdoor collegiate finale in school records (3:00.81/39.20), and a quartet of seniors ? Scherer (400), Ikwuakor (110/400 hurdles), Jonathan Derby (pole vault) and Andrew Young (decathlon). Mitchum and Skipper are also former Pac-10 and West Regional champions and are among 13 Duck veterans that have already scored top-10 league finishes in individual events.
Entering 2006, the Duck women boast the top returning hammer thrower based on ’05 season bests ? junior newcomer Britney Henry (223-8) ? among their six NCAA outdoor veterans. NCAA heptathlon returnee and senior Lauryn Jordan scored the most top-eight individual finishes of any athlete in the Pac-10 finale last year with her points in the high jump (second), heptathlon (fourth), triple jump (fifth) and long jump (eighth). Other key women to watch include two-time All-Americans Reynoso and Lundeen and three fellow NCAA veterans ? junior Emily Enders (pole vault) and redshirt seniors Hannah Moore (pole vault) and Brittany Hinchcliffe (hammer). At the Pac-10 level, Lundeen and Jordan are former Pac-10 runners-up in the javelin and high jump, and are among six Duck veterans that have scored previous top-eight Pac-10 placings.
A host of talented new faces will add ammunition in UO’s championship runs. The Duck women’s newcomer class was ranked best in the nation by Track and Field News and featured a pair of national prep leaders and
The men’s newcomer list welcomes back redshirt sophomore Michael McGrath who was an NCAA qualifier indoors in ’06 thanks to his first career sub-4:00 mile in early March (3:59.25). Also in the distances, redshirt freshman Christopher Winter is a two-time World Junior Championships qualifier in both the 3,000-meter steeplechase and in cross country. Freshmen Matthew Maloney and Alex Wolff ranked first and fourth nationally in the prep javelin in ’05 and placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 2005 USA Junior Championships. Freshman Jared Huske ranked second among preps in the 110 hurdles in ’05 (13.71), while freshman cornerback Walter Thurmond III stood third on the squad indoors in the 60-meter hurdles (8.15) in ’06 behind a pair of NCAA outdoor high hurdles veterans. Redshirt junior Colin Veldman was an NCAA provisional qualifier in the shot put in ?06 with his indoor school record (58-8 3/4), and freshman Alexey Shkuratov will contend for Pac-10 duty in the decathlon, 110 hurdles and long jump and owns bests of 14.53, 6,708 and 23-6, respectively.
Associate Athletic Director and Director of Track and Field Vin Lananna will make his outdoor home debut this weekend, and is already familiar with the confines of Hayward Field. The former Stanford head coach guided the league rival Cardinal men’s and women’s cross country and track and field programs to five NCAA team titles and 35 top-10 NCAA team finishes in his 11-year career from 1992-2003.
Other members of the 2005-06 track and field staff include assistant athletic director Michael Reilly, assistant coaches Kelly Blair LaBounty (women’s hurdles, heptathlon, first year), Lance Deal (throws, fourth year), Robert Johnson (jumps, women’s sprints, first year), Andy Powell (men’s distances, first year), Dan Steele (men’s sprints, hurdles, decathlon, fourth year), and volunteer coaches Piotr Buciarski (pole vault, first year), Kayla Mellott (men’s sprints, first year), Maurica Powell (women’s distances, first year) and Mark Vanderville (pole vault, seventh year).
At the heart of the recent buzz in
Over the course of the 2006 outdoor campaign, Duck individuals will try to meet regional qualifying event standards as they bid for invitations to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Regional event standards are based on the 100th best performance nationally from 2005, while all conference champions are also automatically invited to their respective regional. Qualifiers then compete head-to-head in their respective regional among four national sites that host two-day meets on Fri.-Sat., May 26-27, with the Ducks traveling to Provo, Utah for the West Regional.
Except for the 10K and heptathlon/decathlon (which still operate on an automatic/provisional standard system similar to the indoor season), the top-five finishers from each individual regional event and top three relay placers automatically advance to the NCAA Championships, nearly two weeks later (June 7-10 in Sacramento, Calif.). Besides the automatic advancers from each regional, an additional 6-8 athletes nationally per individual event are invited by the NCAA Championships selection committee based on a season performance list (in case of injury, illness, etc.) as long as that athlete finished top eight in the regional.
A list of various regional and national qualifying standards is available in the STATISTICS dropdown link at the top of the www.GoDucks.com track and field page.
Saturday, March 18
Hayward Field,
Check www.GoDucks.com on Thursday, March 16 for a final time schedule.
- www.GoDucks.com ?
