Oregon Heads to NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships
A large contingent of Ducks will head to the NCAA Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday on the campus of Texas A&M. Competition for Oregon will get underway Friday morning with Brianne Theisen and Kalindra McFadden in the pentathlon and Ashton Eaton, the 2008 NCAA decathlon champion, in the heptathlon. Finals on Friday include the men’s and women’s 5,000 meters, both distance medley relays and the women’s long jump. Preliminary heats for Oregon on Friday include the mile, 800 meters, 400 meters and 60 meters. Saturday, Eaton will conclude the heptathlon, while Melissa Gergel will be in the women’s pole vault. On the track, all races are finals. The later stages of the meet will find 2008 NCAA cross country individual champion Galen Rupp in the men’s 3,000 meters; Rupp is also entered in Friday’s 5,000 meter race. The meet concludes with the women’s 4x400 meter relay.
BROADCAST INFORMATION
ESPN360.com will stream the championships live both days (www.ESPN360.com). Additionally, ESPN2 will air a 90 minute recap at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, March 23.
OREGON ENTRIES
A total of 19 competitors, plus three relay teams, will be headed to College Station. That breaks down to eight individuals and the distance medley relay team for the men, and 11 individuals and both relay teams for the women. Galen Rupp enters the meet as the No. 1 seed in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, while Ashton Eaton is the No. 1 seed in the heptathlon and Andrew Wheating is No. 1 at 800 meters. Other Oregon entries in the top eight include Lindsey Scherf (No. 3, women’s 5,000), Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (No. 5, men’s 5,000), Brianne Theisen (No. 5, pentathlon), Matthew Centrowitz (No. 6, men’s mile), Kiptoo-Biwott (No. 6, men’s 3,000), Centrowitz (No. 7 men’s 3,000), Melissa Gergel (No. 7, women’s pole vault), Keshia Baker (No. 8, women’s 400), Alexandra Kosinski (No. 8, women’s 3,000), Luke Puskedra (No. 8, men’s 5,000), men’s distance medley relay team (No. 2) and the women’s distance medley relay team (No. 4).
A complete list of entries can be found at www.ncaa.org.
SCORING
Standard 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 format.
RESULTS
Schedules, heat sheets and results for the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships can be found on line at www.aggieathletics.com. Final results will also be posted on www.goDucks.com.
OREGON IN THE INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
Both Oregon teams will be making their 12th appearances in the NCAA Indoor Championships. The men’s best indoor finish was sixth in 2005 and 2006. Oregon has three current team members who have scored at previous indoor meets, Galen Rupp, a four-time indoor All-American (3,000 meters/5,000 meters, 2006 and 2007), Ashton Eaton (heptathlon, 2008) and A.J. Acosta (mile, 2008). Oregon has one NCAA men’s indoor individual champion in its history, pole vaulter Tommy Skipper, two-time winner in 2005 and 2006.
The women’s best finish was a tie for 13th in 1996. Pole vaulter Melissa Gergel is the lone current team member who has scored at the NCAA indoor meet. She tied for eighth in the pole vault as a freshman last season. The women also have one individual NCAA indoor champion in school history, Melody Fairchild in the 3,000 meters in 1996.
IN THE INDOOR RECORD BOOKS
The number of Oregon indoor records that have fallen in 2009 continues to rise. That tally stands at 15 entering the NCAA Indoor Championships. Every men’s indoor record between 800 meters and 5,000 meters has fallen in 2009, while on the women’s side every record from 60 meters to 400 meters fell. That list includes Galen Rupp’s three records: his American indoor 5,000 meter record of 13:18.12 that he ran Feb. 13 at Fayetteville - which also set a collegiate record and broke Alberto Salazar’s 1981 school record (13:22.6) - his American collegiate record at 3,000 meters Feb. 7 at the Reebok Indoor Championships in Boston, running 7:44.69, and the 3:57.86 he ran in the mile March 7 at Seattle.
Other records on the men’s side include the 800 meters (Andrew Wheating, 1:47.03), heptathlon (Ashton Eaton, 6,174 points) and distance medley relay (Jordan McNamara, Chad Barlow, Wheating, Rupp/9:29.39).
For the women, records have come in the 60 meters (Amber Purvis, 7.34), 200 meters (Purvis, 24.15), 400 meters (Keshia Baker, 53.38), 5,000 meters (Lindsey Scherf, 15:55.67), 60 meter hurdles (Brianne Theisen, 8.65), 4x400 meter relay (Jamesha Youngblood, Purvis, Leah Worthen, Baker/3:36.52), distance medley relay (Nicole Blood, Baker, Zoe Buckman, Alexandra Kosinski/11:05.08), long jump (Youngblood, 20-9.25) and heptathlon (Theisen, 4,181).
FAST FRESHMAN
Oregon’s Amber Purvis, who set the school record by running 7.34 in the 60 meters Feb. 6 in New York City, has a claim to being the fastest freshman in the nation. She’s the only freshmen entered in the 60 at the NCAA Indoor Championships and is seeded 15th overall.
NCAA QUALIFIERS
Oregon totalled 43 NCAA Indoor Championships qualifying marks in 2009. That was 25 for the men and 18 for the women. Of those, 10 men’s marks and four women’s marks met the NCAA automatic standards.
RUPP NEARS ALL-AMERICA MARK
With nine career All-America awards (six track, three cross country), senior Galen Rupp is within striking distance of becoming the most honored student-athlete in school history. The University leader is Leann Warren, who earned 10 All-America awards combined between women’s track and cross country. On the track-only list, his six career All-America awards trail only Warren and Matt Scherer, who each earned eight on the oval.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
* Oregon’s four entries in the men’s 5,000 match the most for any school in a single event. The Ducks have Galen Rupp, Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott, Luke Puskedra and Scott Wall entered in Friday’s final. Host Texas A&M has four competitors in the triple jump.
* Oregon’s Alexandra Kosinski is the only sophomore entered in the women’s 3,000. The upper class-dominated field includes seven seniors, seven sophomores, a pair of freshmen and Kosinski.
*Senior Lindsey Scherf is back at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time since 2006. The Scarsdale, N.Y., native was an indoor All-American for Harvard in 2006 (9th, 3,000 meters) and 2005 (seventh, 5,000 meters).
*A number of Duck upperclassmen are being rewarded with their first trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships. That list includes senior Scott Wall (men’s 5,000), senior Kalindra McFadden (pentathlon), senior Leah Worthen (women’s 4x400 meter relay), senior Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (men’s 3,000 and 5,000), junior Mattie Bridgmon (women’s 3,000 and 5,000),
TWO DUCKS EYE TRIP TO IAAF XC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Following their impressive performances at the 2009 USA Cross Country Championships, senior Lindsey Scherf and freshman Luke Puskedra have their sights set on the IAAF World Cross Country Championships March 28 in Amman, Jordan.
Puskedra, from Ogden, Utah, finished third in the junior men’s race to automatically qualify for a spot on Team USA. Puskedra ran 23:53, trailing only German Fernandez of Oklahoma State (23:20) and Chris Derrick of Stanford (23:39).
The top six finishers from each race at the 2009 USA Cross Country Championships, held Feb. 7 in Derwood, Md., were automatically eligible for selection to Team USA.
Scherf, from Scarsdale, N.Y., finished seventh in the Women’s Senior Championship, meaning she is the first alternate for Team USA, should any of the first six finishers drop out. Scherf’s time was 28:07.
Scherf would become the first Oregon runner in the women’s senior race since Milena Glusac in 2002. Nicole Blood was a junior participant for Team USA in 2006.
Puskedra will be the fourth Duck in the junior race in the last five years. Chris Winter ran for Canada in 2004, while he and Galen Rupp (USA) were both in the 2005 race. Kenny Klotz was a 2007 representative for Team USA.
MEN’S TRACK SIGNS FIVE
Five multi-talented high school student-athletes from across the country have signed national letters of intent to compete for the University of Oregon next season, as announced by Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna. The five are Ben Dejarnette of Mechanicsville, Va., Mac Fleet of San Diego, Calif., Elijah Greer of Lake Oswego, Ore., Mitchell Hunt of Fremont, Neb., and Elliott Jantzer of Medford, Ore. Greer set a personal best of 1:47.68 to win the 800 meters at the 2008 USATF Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Not only did his finish earn him a spot on the U.S. Junior World Team, but his time led the nation’s prep ranks and was the fourth-fastest ever by a high school runner in the United States. Fleet cemented his status as one of the nation’s top prep runners by winning the junior mile at the Feb. 7 Reebok Boston Indoor Games. A Nike Cross Nationals qualifier, Jantzer is a six-time Oregon state champion over an impressive range of distances. Competing for Atlee High School, Dejarnette finished second in both the 1,600 meters and the 3,200 meters at the 2008 Virginia state meet. He ran 4:14.84 in the 1,600 meter race and 9:25.18 at 3,200 meters. Hunt was the 2008 Nebraska state champion at 3,200 meters where he ran 9:25.32, after finishing sixth in the 3,200 meters as a sophomore (9:53.08).
WOMEN’S TRACK SIGNS EIGHT
The Oregon women’s track and field team signed eight talented high school athletes to national letters of intent during the February signing period.
The eight are led by Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year Jordan Hasay of San Luis Obispo, Calif. She is joined in the Ducks’ 2009 recruiting class by Laura Bobek of Astoria, Ore., Becca Friday of Bellingham, Wash., Alexandra Jones of Lake Oswego, Ore., Sarah Penney of Paradise Valley, Ariz., Chloe Steinbeck of Beaverton, Ore., Melanie Thompson of High Bridge, N.J., and Taylor Wallace of Klamath Falls, Ore.
