For all the history at Hayward Field, Andrew Wheating added to its lore by upstaging a presidential candidate.
Wheating ran 1,500 meters in 3 minutes, 38.60 seconds, the fastest American time this year and the sixth-fastest mark in Oregon history.
Wheating, who broke the four-minute mark in the mile in 3:58.16 last week, surprised even himself with his time on Friday.
“I thought when I ran that sub-four mile, they were being kind of generous with that conversion,” Wheating said. “Now, I guess they’re pretty accurate.”
Wheating, though, almost never ran on Friday night. It was Lananna’s idea to have him run.
“Wheating was a question mark. We didn’t really know when he’d get a chance to run the 1,500,” Lananna said.
As for his strategy, Wheating stayed in the middle of the pack for the majority of the race and surged to the front, with what is now is patented finishing kick, with about 200 meters to go – and covered that final distance in about 26.1 seconds.
“He really put himself as a legitimate contender to do something special as the season ends,” Lananna. “Now he’s more or less punched his ticket to go to the Olympic Trials.”
Wheating’s performance drew a louder, albeit shorter, roar from the crowd than the appearance of Senator Barack Obama, who delayed the meet for about 20 minutes as he circled the track while throwing T-shirts, shaking hands, holding babies and jokingly stepping over a hurdle.
“He does have some interest in track,” Lananna said, who guided Obama around Hayward Field. “He heard about what’s going on here for the trials and thought it would a great place to check it out himself.”
Between Wheating’s performance and Obama’s appearance – two unplanned events – things couldn’t have worked out much better for Oregon track.
“Great meet,” Lananna said. “You couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Oregon gains early lead in Pac-10s
Thanks to its decathletes, Oregon jumped to an early lead in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Tempe, Ariz.
Led by Ashton Eaton’s winning 7,604-point performance, the Ducks scored 19 points in the decathlon section of the league finals. Teammates Alexey Shkuratov and Marshall Ackley finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Eaton battled Washington State’s Rickey Moody for the top position as the two often surrendered their leads to each other throughout the weekend.
“Moody is certainly a good athlete and there was nothing easy about this decathlon,” Oregon associate coach Dan Steele said in a press release. “Ashton met with some adversity and overcame it with a great attitude today. To win the decathlon as a sophomore is really an accomplishment and it’s going to be fun to watch him develop and get more consistent.”
The Ducks are hoping their lead will be an early indicator on how the rest of the meet goes, in their bid to repeat as Pac-10 champs.
“The decathletes’ performance typifies the men’s team this year, where we go out and compete at or above our abilities,” Steele said.
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