Keshia Baker wants to be part of something big. She wants to put Oregon women’s track and field back on the map and she’s not going to stop working until it gets there.
“The women’s program isn’t known for much, so I want to be a part of something,” she said. “To say that I was part of that team that made Oregon this.”
The sophomore from Fairfield, Calif., is used to running for successful programs. The school she ran at her last three years of high school, Fairfield High, had its share of strong teams. They scored points at the California state meet all three years she was there, including a fifth-place finish in 2006, her senior season.
Baker was third in the 400m at the state meet that year and hasn’t stopped improving since arriving in Eugene. She improved her personal best to 54.43 seconds last outdoor season before breaking through to run an Oregon indoor record 53.52 and earning a berth to last month’s NCAA indoor championships, where she was less than 0.2 seconds away from qualifying for the final.
“I feel that I’m progressing really well,” she said. “I’m doing a lot better in the workouts and I’m a lot better at understanding what coach (Robert) Johnson wants me to do, in the little fundamentals he’s trying to have us learn.”
The coaches have been impressed with her progress as well.
“Keshia’s been a real pleasure to watch develop,” associate head coach Dan Steele said. “She’s got a winning attitude every time she goes out there. She really puts it out there and wants to compete.”
She credits her teammates with pushing her to keep improving.
“They really push me and they really guide me to do everything that I do,” she said. “They push me during all the practices, they make sure I don’t give up and it’s kinda vice versa. We all push each and try to make the best of each other.”
Steele described her as a leader on the team, but Baker shied away from that label.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m a leader on the team,” she said. “They really push me to do it and when I go out there I just happen to run a little bit faster than them but I wouldn’t say I’m a leader on the team or anything. Irie (Searcy) and Leah (Worthen) have still been here, they’ve been in the program, they still kind of show me the ropes and how things need to be done.”
Not always a runner
It wasn’t until her freshman year of high school that Baker even considered running track.
Even then, it wasn’t really her choice.
“It wasn’t inspiration. I got in trouble in school (my freshman year of at Armijo High School in Fairfield) and I was with my godmother and she made me try out for the track team,” she said. “I just happened to run really fast. We had a dirt track and I ran pretty good on the dirt track and they were like, ‘Wow, you need to run the 400.’ So I ended up having to run the 400 and I just started to like it and I got on (the team).”
Success came quickly for Baker, who said she won every race she entered that year.
After transferring to Fairfield High for her sophomore year, Baker found herself amidst some talented teammates who helped her improve.
“I had Dominique Jackson (2007 California state 800m champ) who goes to North Carolina now, there was Sherrina Lofton, she goes to Northridge (2007 Big West 100m finalist), there’s Champelle (Brown, 6th in the California state 400m in 2006), she goes to Cal Poly, so it was all of us and we all made it to state meets and we were all going to good schools so we were all there to push each other,” she said.
Looking forward
Now at Oregon, Baker is excited to be part of a Duck program on the rise.
“I wanted to be a part of it,” she said. “Oregon’s a really great school and it’s known for a whole bunch of things and I just wanted to be another name that, when people think of Oregon they’ll remember my name and how I contributed to the team.”
Steele is confident she will be able to be a key member.
“We want the women’s program to continue to move forward,” he said. “She’s the type of kid that can help us do that. We want to have her to do her thing to score as many points as she can, but we also get some of that Keshia who inspires other kids on the team to step up and do well. You can really rally around a Keshia Baker.”
She is also trying to bring friends from home to Eugene, selling them on Oregon’s future.
“I still keep in touch with a lot of the girls (back home) through Facebook and stuff and I let them know, come here, this is a great place,” she said. “I strongly believe the women’s Oregon program is gonna be something within the next few years and I’m really happy to be a part of that and I tell everybody all the time that they should come to Oregon because we will be something, because we’re Oregon and we’re Track Town.”
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