The Oregon men’s track and field team’s hot start has been noticed by the Pacific-10 Conference.
Decathlete Santiago Lorenzo and thrower John Stiegeler have been named the conference’s track and field Athletes of the Week.
Stiegeler, a sophomore from Coos Bay, owns the nation’s top mark in the javelin with a toss of 245 feet, nine inches. Stiegeler uncorked an automatic NCAA berth on his first throw of the season at the Oregon Preview and threw personal bests in each of his last two outings. The latest was his second place effort on Friday at the Texas Relays, behind only German Olympian Boris Henry.
Stiegeler ranks second all-time on the Oregon records list, behind only 1992 NCAA Champion Art Skipper.
Oregon’s second automatic NCAA qualifier is Lorenzo. The junior from Buenos Aires, Argentina won the Texas Relays decathlon with a personal best 7,726 points, edging unattached entrant Trafton Rodgers by 23 points in the final event — the 1,500 meters. Lorenzo is the Ducks’ first Relays champion since 1949.
The All-American placed fifth at last year’s NCAA Championships and ranks third among collegians this season.
Stiegeler and Lorenzo join redshirt freshman Jason Hartmann in the NCAA automatic qualifying club. Hartmann qualified in the 10,000-meters.

In the polls
Following an impressive performance at the Texas Relays last weekend, Oregon joined the Trackwire.com top-25 poll. The Ducks came in at No. 11, scoring 11 points to tie with Mississippi and Ohio State. The rankings are based on personal bests, NCAA qualifying marks and a progression of marks of a select 15-20 athletes from each Division I school.
The Ducks were previously unranked in outdoor and indoor competition.

Ahead of the curve
With three NCAA automatic qualifiers, six provisional qualifiers and many Pac-10 qualifiers, the Ducks are leaps and bounds ahead of last year’s track team. After three competitions last season, the 1999-2000 Ducks had only three provisional qualifiers and no automatic qualifiers.
“I’ve been pleased with what I’ve seen so far,” Oregon head coach Martin Smith said. “We’ve had some marks that were some pleasant surprises and some we’ve expected. We expected a good mark from John Stiegeler … Jason’s run was unexpected.”

If the season ended today …
If the NCAA track and field championships, which will be held at Hayward Field from May 30 through June 2, were today, Oregon would score 19 points and finish in a tie for 13th place. This mark would be the Ducks’ best since the 1992 season, when they placed fifth.
In the past four years, Oregon has scored no more than seven points at the national meet and placed no higher than 35th.