Ducks Set for Mountain Pacific Indoor Track Championships
Friday’s competition gets underway at noon with the start of the women’s pentathlon and 20-lb. weight throw, and is scheduled to conclude with the start of the finals of the women’s distance medley relay at 7:45 p.m. Saturday’s schedule will begin at 10 a.m. with the men’s heptathlon 60-meter hurdles and will end with the women’s 4x400-meter relay.
Pacific-10 Conference schools Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and Washington State will be joined by Cal State Northridge and Long Beach State, with the Huskies claiming last year’s men’s team title and the Sun Devils winning the women’s championship.
The Ducks will approach the meet as an opportunity to better the marks of several entries as they jockey for position on provisional qualifying lists for next month’s NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., according to Associate Head Coach Dan Steele.
"We always strive to do as best as we can but we will approach this meet much like any other as we look ahead and point towards the NCAA championships as well as preparing for the outdoor season," Steele said.
Sophomores Ashton Eaton and Nicole Blood already have earned automatic qualifying berths for the NCAA indoor championships in the men’s heptathlon and women’s 3,000 meters, respectively, with nine additional men’s entries and eight more women’s sitting on provisional qualifying lists.
Eaton, who owns the second-best mark in the country in the heptathlon with a school-record 5,859 points, is scheduled to compete in this weekend’s 60-meter hurdles and long jump. Blood has turned in the nation’s second-fastest time in the 3,000 of 9-minutes, 8.44 seconds, and is entered in both Saturday’s mile run and 3,000.
Oregon’s two distance medley relay contingents probably offer the best chances of assuring themselves spots in the NCAA championships. The men’s contingent possesses the fifth-fastest time in the country of 9:34.06, only six one-hundredths of a second shy of the NCAA automatic qualifying standard, while the women own the nation’s sixth-best mark of 11:10.48, less than two second short of the automatic mark (11:09.00).
On the men’s side, sophomore Derrick Jones has been clocked as the second-fastest entry in the 60 meters (6.77), its 4x400 relay foursome has run the second-fast time (3:09.11) behind only Arizona State, and senior Phillip Alexander’s 46.96 in the 400 ranks third in the MPSF.
Sophomore Chad Barlow also is entered in the 400 after finishing second in the event at last year’s MPSF championships, while senior Michael McGrath is slated to run the 800 after placing second in last year’s mile. McGrath already has provisionally qualified for this year’s NCAA indoor meet in the mile with a season best of 4:00.61.
On the women’s side, sophomore Keshia Baker has turned in the MPSF’s fastest time in the 400, posting a school-record 54.25 as she seeks to improve her NCAA provisional qualifying time. In addition, sophomore Zoe Buckman owns the meet’s second-fastest time in the 800 (2:08.70) and freshman Melissa Gergel the third-best mark in the pole vault (13-5.75). The women’s 4x400 time of 3:38.56 ranks as the event’s fastest entry after the Ducks finished second a year ago.
(all events finals unless listed otherwise)Oregon Entries
Friday
12:00 p.m. -- Women’s Pentathlon 60 Hurdles (Erin Funkhouser)
12:00 p.m. -- Women’s Weight Throw (Lucy Cridland, Megan Maloney)
12:20 p.m. -- Men’s Heptathlon 60 Meters (Alexey Shkuratov)
12:40 p.m. -- Women’s Pentathlon High Jump (Erin Funkhouser)
12:50 p.m. -- Men’s Heptathlon Long Jump (Alexey Shkuratov)
2:05 p.m. -- Men’s Heptathlon Shot Put (Alexey Shkuratov)
2:30 p.m. -- Women’s Long Jump (Amy Skofstad, Jemesha Youngblood)
3:10 p.m. -- Women’s Pentathlon Shot Put (Erin Funkhouser)
3:20 p.m. -- Men’s Heptathlon High Jump (Alexey Shkuratov)
4:30 p.m. -- Women’s Pentathlon Long Jump (Erin Funkhouser)
5:00 p.m. -- Women’s Pole Vault (Melissa Gergel)
5:30 p.m. -- Men’s Weight Throw (Steven Johnson, Jordan Stray)
5:45 p.m. -- Women’s Pentathlon 800 Meters (Erin Funkhouser)
5:55 p.m. -- Men’s 60 Hurdles Prelims (Ashton Eaton, Jared Huske)
6:00 p.m. -- Women’s 60 Hurdles Prelims
6:10 p.m. -- Men’s 60 Meters Prelims (Derrick Jones)
6:15 p.m. -- Women’s 60 Meters Prelims (Ashley Bridenbeck, Amy Skofstad, Mandy White)
6:25 p.m. -- Men’s 5,000 Meters (Daniel Mercado, Diego Mercado, Isaac Stoutenburgh)
6:30 p.m. -- Men’s Long Jump (Ashton Eaton, Vernell Warren)
6:45 p.m. -- Women’s 5,000 Meters (Zoe Nelson, Sarah Pearson)
7:10 p.m. -- Men’s 200 Meters
7:20 p.m. -- Women’s 200 Meters (Ashley Bridenbeck, Irie Searcy, Mandy White)
7:30 p.m. -- Men’s Distance Medley Relay
7:45 p.m. -- Women’s Distance Medley Relay
Saturday
10:00 a.m. -- Men’s Heptathlon 60 Hurdles (Alexey Shkuratov)
11:00 a.m. -- Women’s Triple Jump
11:00 a.m. -- Men’s Heptathlon Pole Vault (Alexey Shkuratov)
11:00 a.m. -- Men’s High Jump (A.J. Oconnell, Vernell Warren)
11:00 a.m. -- Women’s Shot Put
12:00 p.m. -- Men’s Mile Run (James Withers)
12:20 p.m. -- Women’s Mile Run (Nicole Blood, Alexandra Kosinski)
12:40 p.m. -- Men’s 60 Hurdles (Ashton Eaton, Jared Huske)
12:45 p.m. -- Women’s 60 Hurdles
12:55 p.m. -- Men’s 400 Meters (Phillip Alexander, Chad Barlow, Marcus Dillon)
1:05 p.m. -- Women’s 400 Meters (Keshia Baker, Irie Searcy)
1:15 p.m. -- Men’s Pole Vault (Colin Witter-Tilton)
1:20 p.m. -- Men’s 60 Meters (Derrick Jones)
1:30 p.m. -- Women’s 60 Meters (Ashley Bridenbeck, Amy Skofstad, Mandy White)
1:30 p.m. -- Women’s High Jump (Jasmine Kelly)
1:30 p.m. -- Men’s Shot Put (Mark Lewis)
1:30 p.m. -- Men’s Triple Jump
1:35 p.m. -- Men’s Heptathlon 1000 Meters (Alexey Shkuratov)
1:45 p.m. -- Men’s 800 Meters (Alexander Casteel, Michael McGrath, Andrew Wheating)
2:00 p.m. -- Women’s 800 Meters (Zoe Buckman, Kasey Harwood, Alexandra Kosinski)
2:15 p.m. -- Men’s 3000 Meters (Chad Hall, Kenny Klotz, Daniel Mercado, Diego Mercado, Isaac Stoutenburgh, Scott Wall, Chris Winter)
2:30 p.m. -- Women’s 3000 Meters (Elizabeth Bies, Nicole Blood, Claire Michel, Zoe Nelson, Sarah Pearson)
2:45 p.m. -- Men’s 4x400 Relay
3:00 p.m. -- Women’s 4x400 Relay
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