Rupp & Noble Sweep Weekly Pac-10 Track Awards
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. ? In Monday’s third edition of the Pacific-10 Conference Track and Field Athlete of the Week, University of Oregon junior Galen Rupp and sophomore Rebekah Noble were honored for the men’s and women’s track event categories in an announcement by conference commissioner Tom Hansen.
In the women’s 800m, Noble logged a 1.52-second season best (2:03.22) in her Oregon Invitational win in Eugene last Saturday ? a time that only one other collegian had run slightly faster than this season (Katie Erdman, Michigan, 2:02.99). She also ranks third nationally among collegians in the 1,500m currently and sixth all-time for UO with her personal best from the Stanford Invitational (4:17.43) in late March.
Last spring, the Spokane, Wash., native was the first-ever freshman NCAA outdoor 800m champion, and her time from that race (2:02.07) moved her to fourth all-time for UO and fifth all-time among U.S. juniors. She’s also a two-time NCAA indoor 800m runner-up.
Last Friday in the opening evening of the Oregon Invitational, Rupp ignited the Hayward Field crowd with his final lap charge to win the 5,000m by .05 seconds (13:30.49) over Wisconsin senior and three-time NCAA champion Chris Solinsky (second, 13:30.54).
Rupp’s time was a 29.78-second season best and 7.42-second personal best that rewrote his prior PR (13:37.91) from his post-prep summer European jaunt in 2004. That time also moved Rupp to sixth all-time for UO ? his first appearance in the Duck top-10 ? and was the fastest by a Duck since 1982 when Bill McChesney Jr. (13:14.80) and Jim Hill (13:30.52) ran times that still rank them first and seventh in school history.
Rupp’s clocking Friday met the Olympic Trials A standard (13:33.00), and moved him to third nationally among collegians this year. Overall, he is a six-time All-American in cross country (including fifth in ’06) and track (including second in the 10,000m in ’05), and a four-time scorer in the Pac-10 5,000m/10,000m.
Also honored Monday in the field event categories were a pair of Arizona State throwers who competed in the San Diego Triton Invitational last weekend ? freshman thrower Ryan White (shot put national leader 66-6) and sophomore Sarah Stevens (shot put national leader/school record 60-4 1/2).
The Ducks have scored similar honors the past two weeks courtesy of senior javelin thrower Ryan Brandel and junior sprinter Phil Alexander.
Brandel was honored last Monday, April 16 for his 12-foot, five-inch personal best in the Mt. SAC Relays invitational javelin section (238-0, 72.54m) that moved him to third all-time for Oregon behind former Duck NCAA champions John Stiegeler (252-10, 2001) and Art Skipper (251-8, 1992). Alexander was honored the week before on Monday, April 9 after the first-year Duck played a part on two wins (100m, 4x100m) and another runner-up finish (200m) in the Pepsi Team Invitational in Eugene.
Oregon scored three similar honors last year courtesy of current redshirt senior Britney Henry and then-seniors Eric Mitchum and Matt Scherer. Henry was tabbed last April for her 13-foot hammer school record in the Mt. SAC Relays (second, 221-7). Scherer was honored for his wins the following week in the Oregon Invitational 400m (personal best 45.90), 4x100m (41.81) and 4x400m (3:13.23). Mitchum was spotlighted in early April 2006 for three wins (110m hurdles, 13.68W, w:4.1; 400m, 52.09; 4x100m, 40.33) and another runner-up finish (4x400m, 3:11.31) in the Pepsi Team Invitational.
Another current Duck - redshirt senior Tommy Skipper ? received similar honors as a freshman in 2003 after he won the Pac-10 Championships decathlon (7,589) with a mark that still ranks him eighth all-time for UO.
Looking ahead, the Duck men and women will split various contingents to the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Thursday-Saturday, April 26-28, the California Collegiate Challenge in Berkeley, Calif., Friday-Saturday, April 27-28, and the Cardinal Invitational in Stanford Calif., Sunday, April 29. More meet information is located at the www.PennAthletics.com , www.CalBears.com and www.GoStanford.com websites.
The following weekend, the Ducks return home for the Oregon Twilight, Saturday, May 5 at Hayward Field in Eugene.
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