On a lukewarm weekend for the Oregon women’s track and field team, Eri Macdonald and Maureen “Mo” Morrison saved the Ducks from embarrassment in California.
Macdonald shone at the Cardinal Invitational Friday and ran a personal best time in the 800 meters to become the second Oregon runner to make the NCAA provisional list. Her time of 2 minutes, 7.08 seconds met the NCAA provisional time by almost a half-second.
Morrison kept her improvement steady in the hammer throw, tossing the hammer 186 feet, 6 inches at the Steve Scott Invitational Sunday. The throw was a personal record and landed the senior on the NCAA provisional list for the first time in her career. Morrison also upped her season best in the discus, throwing 159-9 in the event to finish second.
Other than the performances of Morrison and Macdonald, the Ducks had a disappointing weekend.
Sophomore Mary Etter and senior Hanna Smedstad were the only athletes besides Morrison and Macdonald to score season bests. Etter threw the shot put 47-11 3/4, more than a foot beyond her previous season best. Smedstad ran a 16:52.95 in the 5,000, which was nearly 10 seconds faster than her previous season best.
Both those marks, however, merely improved on old Pacific-10 Conference marks for both athletes. Smedstad missed the NCAA provisional list by five seconds, while Etter threw a foot short in the shot put.
The javelin unit performed well at the Steve Scott on Sunday, although they didn’t score very high marks. The team of freshman Sarah Malone, sophomore Charyl Weingarten and senior Sara Dinsmore swept the top three spots. Malone finished first with a throw of 157-5, Weingarten was second at 143-8 and Dinsmore was third at 136-1.
While the javelin unit didn’t face very tough competition, star pole vaulter Niki Reed did on Sunday. Reed competed in the “elite” pole vault competition against four professional vaulters. The result was a fourth-place finish and a vault of 12-6 3/4. That jump was almost a foot lower than her season best.
Two other Oregon pole vaulters, competing in the regular field, had some success. Senior Holly Speight matched her season best of 12-6 to tie for second at Sunday’s competition, while freshman Kirsten Riley jumped 12-0 to finish third.
“We had several really good performances on the field,” Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said, “led by Mo’s hammer.”
On the track, Cameo Davis finished third in the 400 hurdles with a time that was close to her season-best Pac-10 qualifying mark of 1:01.98. Freshman Ann Sullivan finished second in the 100 hurdles, with a time of 14.30. Macdonald competed in the 800 again Sunday, but ran a 2:15.31, more than eight seconds slower than her Friday time.
In other field events, freshman Rachael Kriz met her season best in the high jump and finished fourth in that event. Etter finished second in the discus and ninth in the hammer throws to complement her season best in the shot put.
The Ducks will return home next weekend for the Oregon Twilight, while Sullivan and junior Jenny Kenyon will head down to Berkeley, Calif., for the Pac-10 heptathlon.