The Oregon indoor track and field teams will make their fourth trip to Seattle in six weeks this weekend, this time to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships held at the University of Washington’s Dempsey Indoor facility this Friday and Saturday.
The schedule says it’s a championship meet, but to the Ducks, it’s little more than another chance to improve individual marks.
“They keep team scores, but we’ve never really approached the meet as something that we wanted to try to win,” associate head coach Dan Steele said. “We use it as a nice end to the indoor season for most of the kids… and then for the rest of the kids who are trying to get to nationals it’s another good opportunity to improve their marks.”
Ten men’s and women’s teams will be there, some trying to win the meet, others, like the Ducks, just sending athletes looking to improve or attain NCAA qualifying marks.
“It’s kinda a funny meet because the big-time teams that are really trying to do well at the indoor championships never really load up the meet trying to win it,” Steele said. “Some of the teams that are trying to build their programs, it’s a good opportunity for them to try to win the meet and use it as a rallying point.”
Several Ducks go into the meet needing to improve their marks to have a chance to get selected for the NCAA indoor championships.
“A lot of them are on the edge,” Steele said. “You’ve got certain kids like Phil Alexander who’s got a nice time in the 400 (46.96 seconds), but it’s not gonna get in… We know that he’ll need to run mid-46s or better to have any kind of a chance. Anybody with a provisional is on the bubble…”
There are also several athletes who don’t have marks that Steele and the other coaches expect to have big performances this weekend, among them Andrew Wheating and Kalindra McFadden.
Wheating hurt himself a month ago when his shoe came off during his leg of the distance medley relay and got a blister that took a while to heal. “He’s running well again, so we’re looking for him to put in a good time in the 800,” Steele said.
McFadden has had “an unfortunate indoor season up to this point,” Steele said, but is looking better and the coaches are helpful she’ll put together a good meet.
“We do have a few kids that for one reason or another don’t have the good marks yet that we feel are national-class athletes,” he said. “This weekend’s a great opportunity for them to get a nice one out there and still have an opportunity to go to nationals.”
Athletes that do have solid marks, like Ashton Eaton in the heptathlon and Matthew Centrowitz and Mike McGrath in the mile, will be entered in other events. Eaton, for example will get some extra work in the long jump, the 60m hurdles and the 4x400m relay, events that will be important for him at nationals.
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