WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - In Monday’s third edition of the Pacific-10 Conference Outdoor Track and Field Athlete of the Week award, University of Oregon senior Matt Scherer claimed the men’s track event honor for his Pac-10 leading-time and win in the 400 meters last weekend in the Oregon Invitational (45.90).
In last Saturday’s High Performance Session, the Sumner, Ill., native also ran on UO’s winning 4x100m (41.18) and 4x400m relays (3:13.23). Career-wise, UO’s fourth-ranked all-time 400m runner has broken the 46.00-second barrier five times in his career ? with the previous four in Pac-10, West Regional and NCAA action.
Outdoors in 2006, he is also a regional qualifier and team leader in the 800 meters (1:50.25), and also owns UO’s season best in the 200 meters outdoors (personal best 21.37). Those times also rank him eighth and ninth in the Pac-10 Conference this season, respectively.
Last year the six-time All-American ran on UO’s school record 4x100m and 4x400m relays that placed sixth and third in the NCAA Outdoor Championships (39.20 / 3:00.81). Earlier in the ’05 championship run, he was fourth in the Pac-10 and West Regional 400m (46.11 / 46.52), and ran on the 4x100m and 4x400m relays that both took second in the Pac-10 Championships.
Other student-athletes honored by the Pac-10 this week included Washington discus thrower Will Conwell, Stanford sprinter Chauntae Bayne-Hackett and Stanford hammer thrower Sarah Hopping.
Among other recent UO league honors, redshirt junior teammate Britney Henry was tabbed last Monday as the women’s field event athlete of the week for her 13-foot hammer school record in the Mt. SAC Relays (second, 221-7) on Sat., April 15. The Spokane, Wash., native bettered her previous school record from earlier in 2005 (208-7) and improved upon the previous Pac-10 record (219-5) set by former UCLA thrower Jessica Cosby in 2004. Last week, she also moved to second nationally on the 2006 collegiate list, and only 20 competitors in the world had thrown farther in ’06 prior to the Mt. SAC Relays weekend.
The weekend before, Duck senior Eric Mitchum claimed similar men’s AOW track honors for his part in three wins and another runner-up finish in the Pepsi Team Invitational, Sat., April 8 at Hayward Field. The Calumet City, Ill., native won his fourth Pepsi Team Invitational crown in the 110-meter hurdles (13.68W, w:4.1), and also won the 400-meter hurdles with a regional qualifier (52.09). He also ran on UO’s 4x100-meter relay (first, regional qualifier 40.33) and 4x400-meter relay (second, 3:11.31).
Mitchum is the fourth Duck on the current men's roster to be honored by the conference in recent years, and joins redshirt senior Andrew Young (4/25/05, Oregon Invitational decathlon win, 7,329 points) and junior Tommy Skipper (5/10/03, Pac-10 Championships decathlon win, 7,589).
In recent seasons, the Oregon women have scored similar honors courtesy of former Ducks Sofie Abildtrup (4/12/04, Pepsi Team Invitational wins in 200 (23.94), 400 (54.49) and 4x400 (3:46.92)) and Sarah Malone (5/14/01, Oregon Twilight javelin win and school record, 174-0).
Looking ahead to later this week, the Duck men will send high hurdlers Eric Mitchum and Akobundu Ikwuakor and 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays to the Penn Relays, Thu.-Sat., at Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania campus in Philadelphia. A handful of men’s and women’s distance runners and throwers will also compete in the Western Oregon Twilight Meet, Fri., April 28 in Monmouth, Ore. More meet info is available at the www.PennAthletics.com and http://www.wouwolves.com/tf websites.
The following weekend, the Oregon track and field teams return for the Oregon Twilight, Fri., May 5, and the first event tentatively starts at 4:30 p.m. Also that weekend, the Pacific-10 Conference Championships kick off with a heptathlon and decathlon that run from approximately noon-5 pm, Sat.-Sun., May 6-7. Tickets are required for the Oregon Twilight, while the decathlon and heptathlon are free to the public. More info on the Pac-10 Conference is available at the www.Pac-10.org website.
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