The NCAA championships are still a ways away – June 11-14 in Des Moines, Iowa – but the Oregon men’s and women’s track and field team are gearing for the final collegiate track meet of the year. For many of the Ducks, their season will not be over after the meet, there’s still the Olympic Trials to worry about.
That’s not at the top of their minds. Despite their excitement about the potential of competing against the nation’s best athletes in Eugene, they’re trying to focus on finishing out in what potentially could be the best Oregon track season in a while.
In all, 23 Ducks and the men’s 4×400 meter relay team will be competing. Although the Oregon team is relatively young on both the men’s and women’s sides, no one is using that as an excuse to have lowered expectations about the Ducks’ ability to come home with some hardware.
“The future is now,” associate head coach Dan Steele said. “You don’t know what’s going to come next year…When you’re ready to run, we go after it and go after it hard.”
While the upcoming seasons are when the Ducks are expected to field an even more nationally competitive team, Steele has high hopes for his athletes and believes that competing at a high level this year will season them for future elite competitions.
“This is an important year for them, but we’re excited for the next two years as well,” he said.
Ashton Eaton, who is 100 points shy of the Olympic Trial ‘A’ qualifying standard in the decathlon, isn’t sure how the Ducks stack up against the rest of the nation but knows there is enough talent and enough bodies to do something special. As for himself, Eaton wants to help in whatever way he can – he’ll also be competing in the 4×400 when it doesn’t interfere with his decathlon events – and is confident heading in despite going against his toughest collegiate competition yet.
“Just being part of the Oregon team, there’s always a confidence level,” he said.
Eaton is ranked fourth among the field of 26 competitors and said he’s comfortable being in the spot he’s in, not exactly the top dog, but close enough to the top to give himself a chance to stage an upset. His best mark, 7792 points, is behind Tennessee’s Jangy Addy who is No. 1 with 8,010 points.
Nicole Blood and Rachel Yurkovich are Oregon’s top-seeded competitors in the meet with Blood’s 5,000m time of 15 minutes, 43.82 seconds ranking as the second-best collegiate time in the nation, while Texas Tech’s Sally Kipyego has a time that betters Blood by more than 30 seconds.
“With Sally Kipyego, it’s going to be tough really,” Blood said about her chances of winning the race. “She’s on a pretty high level right now. With the rest of the girls, I can compete with everyone. There’s some good competition right around my time.”
Yurkovich’s best javelin throw ranks second, about three meters shorter than Purdue’s Kara Patterson.
Oregon’s other top entries include middle distance runners Andrew Wheating and A.J. Acosta who are the No. 4 and 3 seeds, respectively in the 800m and 1500m.
Wheating echoed Steele’s statements, saying there’s no better time than to try and win a national championship.
“Oregon’s flying low under the radar,” Wheating said. “They counted us out at Pac-10s, they’re kind of counting us out of nationals…I wouldn’t be surprised if we walked away with any sort of trophy.”
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