Hayward Field was host to a day of rain and shine, where athletes from all over came to compete in one of the biggest days of the Eugene track and field season: the Oregon Invitational.
For the Oregon women, the day consisted of Pacific-10 Conference qualifying marks, NCAA qualifying marks and even a new school record. The Ducks were able to have high showings across the board.
“I thought people competed hard and they went after it,” Oregon women’s head coach Tom Heinonen said. “We looked a little shaky early and then we came on really strong at the end.”
Highlighting the Ducks’ day was freshman javelin thrower Sarah Malone, who broke the school record by more than a foot with a personal best heave of 169-03. The Newberg native is ranked sixth nationally.
“I just felt really good and I love throwing here,” Malone said. “I hope I can do it again and hopefully maybe throw a little bit further next time.”
As for the events on the track, Oregon won both the 4×100- and 4×400-meter relays, edging out Montana State in each race with season bests. Sophomore Eri Macdonald, who already qualified for the Pac-10 meet in the 1,500, qualified herself in the 800-meters with a fourth-place finish in a season-best time of two minutes, nine seconds.
The younger Ducks on the team showed their talents with some impressive performances. Freshman Ann Sullivan earned herself a Pac-10 qualifying mark in the 400 hurdles with a fourth-place (1:02.03). Before that mark, Sullivan won the 100-meter hurdle finals in a time of 14.00, which is one hundredth of a second off her personal best of 13.99.
“I felt really good,” Sullivan said. “I think we are doing awesome, and we are just progressively getting stronger.”
The Oregon throwing team proved themselves to be a vital part of the scoring for the Ducks. Oregon’s throwers are currently ranked third in the Pac-10 behind Southern California and UCLA.
Sophomore All-American Mary Etter, who is already qualified for the NCAAs, won the discus in a throw of 163 feet, seven inches, and is ranked fifth nationally in that event. Etter also placed third in the shot put with a throw of 46-06.75. Senior Maureen Morrison took second behind Etter in the discus with a toss of 147-07, and also took fifth in the hammer throw. Morrison has thrown a seasonal best of 182-8 in the hammer and needs to throw 183-6 to qualify for nationals.
“We have a real strong mixture and have been scoring a significant number of the points this year,” Oregon’s throwing coach Sally Harmon said. “We have some big hearts and if they can just dig in a little deeper I think it is going to happen, but time will tell.”
Another strong performance in the throws came from sophomore Jordan McDaniels, who placed fourth in the discus with a mark of 144-03, and took 10th overall in the hammer.
The women’s jumping events also proved to be solid for the Ducks with freshman Kirsten Riley and redshirt sophomore Georgette Moyle both finishing tied-for-sixth overall in the pole vault with personal bests of 12-1 1/2. Those marks just equal the Pac-10 qualifying mark. Junior Niki Reed vaulted an NCAA provisional mark of 12-9 1/2.
In the high jump, sophomore Jenny Brogdon and freshman Rachael Kriz earned third and fourth, respectively, with a height of 5-6. In the long jump, sophomore Amanda Brown earned third-place with a jump of 18-10. Other Duck performances came from sophomore Janette Davis (400, fourth, 55.81), senior Hanna Smedstad (1,500, ninth, 4:26.79) and sophomore Heather Murtaugh (100, third, 12.40 w:-0.9).
Now, the women will close this chapter of the season and look to separate Invitationals in Texas and Irvine, Calif., next weekend with some of the distance women competing in the Stanford Invitational Friday.
“We want to just keep getting better,” Heinonen said. “We have got a long ways to go but we have come a long way from last year.”