On a dreary Saturday at Hayward Field, the Oregon women’s track and field team found a few bright spots at its first outdoor meet of the 2001 season, the Oregon Preview.
Duck athletes won 11 of the 19 events that they entered, while scoring multiple Pacific-10 Conference qualifying and NCAA provisional marks along the way.
“The first meet is going to be up and down,” Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said. “We’re just looking for some positives, and we got some.”
Oregon freshman Sarah Malone and senior Holly Speight led the Ducks, scoring NCAA provisional marks in the javelin and pole vault, respectively. Malone easily surpassed the provisional qualification of 152 feet, 7 inches with a throw of 155-3, but still fell short of the automatic NCAA distance of 172-3.
“It was a chance for some of our freshmen to get out on Hayward Field for the first time not in a high school uniform,” Heinonen said, referring to freshmen Malone, Ann Sullivan, who won the 100-meter hurdles, and Eryn Sicora-Fordney, who won the 1,500-meter “B” race.
“It was fun to finally put the jersey on,” Malone said. “I’ve been sitting in the east grandstands for so long growing up, it was a little weird to finally be out here.”
Speight was the surprise winner of the pole vault competition. She cleared the 12-5.5 height in the final round to make the NCAA provisional list, beating out Duck all-American Nikki Reed, who was unable to clear the same height in her first meet of the year.
Oregon alumni almost stole the show from current Ducks Saturday. In the 3,000-meter race, former Olympian Annette Peters squared off with former Oregon standout Marie Davis, along with Oregon senior transfer Hanna Smedstad. Peters pulled out the win over Davis with a push over the final 50 meters.
“It was awesome to be able to kick with Marie like that,” Peters said. “It’s always fun to run at Hayward. That’s the main reason I’m running this year, because nationals are here.”
Later in the day, recent graduate Katie Crabb made an appearance at Hayward Field, pacing the field over the first lap of the 800-meter race.
Still, the day belonged to the athletes, and although the Ducks didn’t score any NCAA automatic marks, they got ready for the season ahead. In fact, Heinonen said, Saturday’s performances could determine who gets to travel to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., over spring break.
“We’re going to solidify our lists for Stanford,” Heinonen said. “A lot of it will depend on what happened today.”
Besides the two NCAA provisional marks, Oregon also scored two Pac-10 qualifying marks besides Speight’s and Malone’s. Charyl Weingarten qualified for the Pac-10s in the javelin with a throw of 143 feet, while Maureen Morrison qualified in the hammer throw.
Senior Amanda Brown also turned in an impressive performance, considering her sheer endurance. She won the long jump, then ran in the 100, the 200 and a relay to finish the day.
Oregon will next compete in the Stanford Invitational March 31- April 1.