What appeared to be a laid-back Saturday evening track meet was actually a last-chance, desperation meet for the Oregon men’s track and field team.
With those athletes who have already qualified for the Pacific-10 Conference and NCAA Championships resting up for next week, the Ducks that were on the verge of a qualifying mark had one last chance to prove themselves at the Oregon Twilight at Hayward Field Saturday.
Unfortunately, qualifying marks didn’t come easy at the chilly and windy meet.
Junior Jason Boness was unable to clear an NCAA automatic bar of seven feet, two and 1/4 inches in the high jump.
“The 2.20 [meters] is what I wanted to get but it was pretty cold and windy,” Boness said. “I’m not too worried about getting into nationals. At the conference meet, it’s a whole new ballgame.”
Boness, who ranks 16th in the nation, won the high jump on Saturday with a leap of 7-1 1/2, barely missing on his last attempt at 7-2 1/4.
Cool temperatures and wind also had its effect on the highlighted event of the meet — The Bill McChesney Mile. Portland native Mike Miller won the annual event in 3:57.1, but was the only runner to break the four-minute barrier. Five runners, including former Duck Steve Fein, accomplished that feat a year ago in better conditions.
“It was a blast,” Miller said. “The fans are awesome. Last year I broke four here and it was great. It always feels like my home track here.”
Olympian Jason Pyrah was unable to repeat as McChesney Champion as he faded to sixth in a time of 4:06.2.Inching closer to an NCAA provisional mark in the 100-meters was Oregon sophomore Samie Parker. The football player was out-leaned in the sprint but still ran a personal best 10.40 seconds, just 16-hundredths of a second off a provisional mark. Parker’s time is the sixth fastest 100 in school history, however, the mark will not go into the record books because it was wind aided.

Falling short of a last chance mark was freshman Trevor Woods. The NCAA provisional qualifier in the pole vault missed three straight attempts at 16-8 3/4, well short of the NCAA automatic mark of 18-2 1/2.
Former All-American Duck Piotr Buciarski returned to the Hayward Field vault runway to win with a leap of 17-9 1/4.
The only other Duck to capture a win was junior John Bello in the discus. The former football player won the discus with a toss of 177-9, an hour after finishing second in the shot put in 58-4 1/2.
Oregon’s only other personal best came from sophomore Adam Kriz in the discus. The Toledo native placed second in a Pac-10 qualifying length of 194-4.
Four Ducks competed in the 17-runner 1,500-meter race. True freshman Eric Logsdon paced Oregon with a fifth-place finish in 3:57, followed by Ryan Andrusin seventh, senior Lincoln Nehring in ninth and freshman Noel Paulson in 11th.
The Ducks travel to Berkeley, Calif., next Saturday and Sunday for the Pac-10 Championships.