Oregon Preview Opens Outdoor Season
Single Meet Tick ets - Reserved: $15; General Admission: $12 Adults, $10 Children/Seniors.
Promotions - Meet the Ducks - 2011 Track & Field posters will be given away.
Free Youth Clinic - Sponsored by the City of Eugene, there will be a youth clinic prior to the Preview. Kids should meet at 10:15 a.m. at the corner of 17th and Agate.
Hayward Field Ticket Window - Opens at 11:30 p.m.
Gates Open - 12:00 p.m.
THIS WEEK
Oregon opens the 2011 outdoor track and field season by hosting the Oregon Preview on Saturday at Historic Hayward Field. The first events start at 1 p.m, with the feature events beginning at 1:30 p.m.
OREGON ENTRIES
The 2011 Oregon Preview will be a chance to meet several Duck newcomers making their Hayward Field debuts, with more than 30 Oregon newcomers are entered in the meet. For the women, watch for English Gardner in the 400 meters, Devin Gosberry, Chizoba Okodogbe and Megan Patrignelli (unattached) in the 800 meters, Lauryn Newson in the 200, Laura Roesler and Phyllis Francis in the 1,500 meters, redshirt freshmen Sarah Penney and Lanie Thompson in the 3,000 meters, Olivia Ferrara in the 100 and 400 meter hurdles, Kortney Ross and Sammie Clark in the pole vault, and five rookies in the throws: Laura Bobek (redshirt freshman), Rachel Perry, Jill Fogelstrom, Hannah Picknell and Carolanne Powers.
On the men's side look for Boru Guyota, Elliott Jantzer and Brian Schrader (unattached) in the 1,500 meters, Kelley Beck in the 400 meters, Mike Berry, Bryan Harper and Cole Watson (unattached) in the 800 meters, Parker Stinson, Tim Costin and Guyota in the 3,000 meters, Justin Frick and Kevin Godfrey in the high jump, Dakotah Keys in the shot put and discus, Tanner Harris in the hammer and Josh Heidegger and Ethan Powell in the javelin.
The Preview also has a number of Duck veterans, OTC Elite and post-graduate entrants. The women's 1,500 meters should be entertaining, with OTC Elite's Nicole Blood and Geena Gall joining Becca Friday, Claire Michel and Taylor Wallace of Oregon, plus Zoe Buckman, competing unattached. All-American Jamesha Youngblood is in both the 200 meters and the triple jump, All-Americans Amber Purvis and Mandy White are in the 400, OTC's Sally Kipyego in the 3,000 meters and Brtiney Henry of adidias is in the hammer.
On the men's list, former Ducks Chad Barlow and Marshall Ackley are in the 400 meters, Tyler Mulder of OTC Elite is in the 800, Kevin Chelimo of OTC Elite is in the 1,500, Oregon's Eric Hersey is in the 110 meter hurdles and OTC Elite's Ben Bruce and Stephen Pifer are in the 2,000 meter steeplechase.
In the field events, Danny Marconi of Oregon will be joined by Oregon State's Obum Gwachum and former Ducks Ashton Eaton and Kyley Johnson in the high jump and All-American Jordan Stray opens up in the hammer.
RESULTS
For live results, schedules and accepted entry lists, check www.goducks.com. Final results will also be posted on www.GoDucks.com.
TELEVISION/WEB CAST
The Oregon Sports Network with webcast the Oregon Preview on www.GoDucks.com beginning at 1 p.m. Former Duck track coach Tom Heinonen will handle the announcing duties. A subscription to the O-Zone is required to watch the webcast.
GREEN MILE: NCAA INDOOR RECAP
Brianne Theisen won the pentathlon with a record-setting performance and Jordan Hasay claimed titles in the mile and 3,000 meters as the Women of Oregon won their second straight NCAA Indoor Track and Field national championship March 11-12 in College Station, Texas.
Theisen scored the first 10 points of the meet for the Ducks by tallying an NCAA record 4,540 points to win the pentathlon.
The junior from Humboldt, Sask., set scores of records in the process. In spite of a sore back brought on by a marathon study session, Theisen set championship meet, collegiate, Gilliam Indoor Stadium and University Oregon records with her personal-best pentathlon total of 4,540 points.
Theisen opened the day by setting a combined events personal best in the 60 meter hurdles, running 8.35 seconds. That matched her overall PR and school record set at the 2011 MPSF Championships. Theisen was exceptionally impressive in the high jump where she made five straight first attempt clearances to set a pentathlon personal best at 6-0.5/1.84m. That mark did three noteworthy things - set the collegiate pentathlon high jump record, set the NCAA Championships pentathlon high jump mark and broke the Oregon indoor school high jump record that Theisen previously shared with Laurel Roberts.
Theisen then struggled with her next two events, throwing 40-7.5/12.38m in the shot put and going 19-6.75/5.96m in the long jump.
She then closed with an all-conditions PR in the 800 meters, running 2:11.82. Her score was just 10 points shy of the Canadian national record (4,550, Jill Ross-Giffen, 1982).
In the first race of day two, the Ducks used a dominating 1-3-4 finish in the mile by Hasay, Zoe Buckman and Anne Kesselring to all-but-lock up the 2011 crown. Oregon made it official when Amber Purvis finished fixth in the 60 meters, and then enjoyed the rest of the meet, including a punctuating win by Hasay in the 3,000 meters.
In the mile, Buckman led from the opening gun, while Hasay settled in behind her with 400 meters to go. Hasay then moved around her teammate with 100 meters remaining and ran to her first NCAA title in 4:33.01. In the process, the sophomore broke one of the most hallowed records in Oregon history, Leann Warren's 1982 mile time of 4:33.26.
Buckman held on for third in a personal-best 4:33.76 (No. 3 all-time at Oregon) and Kesselring also came from deep in the pack to hit a PR in a fourth-place finish in 4:34.96 (No. 4 all-time). That gave the Ducks 21 points in the mile.
Hasay made it a double-title day by winning a riveting battle with Shelia Reid of Villanova in the 3,000 meters. She bided her time for most of the race, floating between fourth and sixth place. Then Hasay, Reid and Lucy Van Dalen of Stony Brook broke from the pack on the final two laps.
The sophomore from Arroyo Grande, Calif., made a gutsy move by darting between Reid and Van Dalen with 250 meters to go and then held off a furious try by Reid to pass her on the outside.
Hasay won in 9:13.71, followed by Reid in 9:13.86 and Van Dalen in 9:14.12.
She became just th fifth person to win both the mile and 3,000 meters at the same NCAA Championships.
Oregon also saw a gutsy performance in a runner-up finish by the women's distance medley relay team that ran a school-record 10:52.90. The runners for Oregon were Kesselring (3:20.52), Chizoba Okodogbe (53.88), Becca Friday (2:08.05) and Hasay (4:30.47). The Ducks led for much of the race before Villanova went ahead on the final lap to win in 10:52.52, though Oregon still claimed eight team points.
Other scorers for the women included Jamesha Youngblood, who had an impressive series in the long jump to finish third and score six team points. She went 20-2.25/6.15m on her final attempt in the preliminaries to advance to the final round. In the finals, she improved to 20-3.75/6.19m on her fourth attempt and 20-6.5/6.26m on jump number five before hitting a season-best 20-11.75/6.39m on her final leap.
Gergel added a fourth-place finish in the pole vault with a clearance at 14-3.25/4.35m, which scored five points for the team.
Purvis scored in two events, taking fifth in the 60 meters (7.22) and seventh in the 200 meters (23.26) The junior from Hercules, Calif., ran 23:17 in the preliminaries to break her own 2010 school 200 record of 23.21 and had another school mark, 7.20, in the preliminaries of the 60 meters.
The Ducks added one more point with an eighth-place finish in the 4x400 meter relay. The team of Okodogbe, Theisen, Purvis and Laura Roesler finished in 3:34.98.
The Ducks won with 67 points. Texas was second with 38, followed by Louisiana State with 37, Arkansas with 35 and Texas A&M with 32.
The NCAA title was the 18th in school history and the fifth women's NCAA crown for the University of Oregon.
"It was a great team effort," said Associate Athletic Director Vin Lananna. "All the student-athletes did a fantastic job and the coaching staff did a great job setting the tone."
For the men, David Klech had terrific meet with a sixth place finish in the heptathlon with 5,831 points.
Competing in just his second career heptathlon, Klech had four heptathlon PRs.
His first day highlight was a combined events personal best clearance at 6-11/2.11m in the high jump. The senior from San Ramon, Calif., also set a personal best with a shot put of 35-0.5/10.68m. On day two, he ran a personal-best 7.88 in the 60 meter hurdles, which was also fourth-fastest 60 hurdle time in school history.
He hit another PR in the pole vault, clearing 13-9.25/4.20m. Klech finish second in the 1,000 meters in 2:32.15 to move up to sixth in the final standings with 5,831 points. That was the second-best score in school history. His 146-points PR got the men are on the board with three points.
The men also got five points from Matthew Centrowitz, who was fourth in the 3,000 meters in 8:04.88 a day after losing a shoe and suffering a severe cut on his heel in the distance medley relay.
Track To Host Free Youth Clinic Saturday
EUGENE, Ore. - The University of Oregon and the Oregon Track Club Elite, in conjunction with the City of Eugene's Recreation Services, are sponsoring a free kids clinic for children ages 5-12 Saturday at 11 a.m. at Hayward Field prior to the Ducks' outdoor season opener, the Oregon Preview.
Kids will be instructed by OTC and UO athletes and coaches in running, long jump, hurdles and the "turbo" javelin.
All children will receive a ribbon, meet bib, snack, and free entrance to the Oregon Preview, in addition to being able to participate in a special autograph session.
Those kids interested in participating are asked to bring their own running shoes, and check in beginning at 10:15 a.m. at the Agate Street entrance between Gates 8 and 9.
Participants will be sorted into Green (10-12), Yellow (7-9) and White (5-6) age groups.
The first part of the clinic will feature three rotating stations of the turbo javelin, long jump and hurdles, and will then conclude with running on the Hayward Field track. An autograph session will follow. In case of heavy rain, the clinic will be moved under the West Grandstand.
Among those from OTC elite participating include Ashton Eaton, Nicole Blood, Lauren Fleshman, Russell Brown, Sally Kipyego, Ian Dobson, Jemma Simpson, Ben Bruce, Stephen Piper, Bridget Franek, Julia Lucas, Kevin Chelimo, Tyler Mulder, Seth Summerside, Chris Thompson and Jordan McNamara, as well as coaches Mark Rowland and Harry Marra.
The University will have NCAA Champions Brianne Theisen, Jordan Hasay and Michele Williams at the clinic, as well as All-Americans Matthew Centrowitz, Elijah Greer, Alexandra Kosinski, Luke Puskedra, Anne Kesselring, Mac Fleet, Zoe Buckman, Melissa Gergel, Laura Roesler, Chizoba Okodogbe and Becca Friday, and among others.
-www.goducks.com
