It will be known as the breakthrough year. It was the year the Ducks made their return back to the track and field elite.
The 2001 Oregon men’s track and field season was exciting from start to finish.
It all began last fall when Track and Field News magazine called coach Martin Smith’s recruiting class one of the best in the country.
Hayward Field fans got an early taste of things to come at the Oregon Preview on March 17. Redshirt sophomore John Stiegeler uncorked the nation’s best throw at 236 feet, three inches, and never looked back from there. Four personal bests and two-and-a-half months later, Stiegeler was a national champion — Oregon’s first since 1992.
Junior transfer Micah Harris made his debut in an Oregon uniform that day, running the seventh-best 110 hurdle time in school history. Over the season, Harris climbed the Duck record book and eventually became the school record holder at 13.73 seconds.
Three weeks later, junior Santiago Lorenzo competed in the first of only three decathlon competitions of his season at the Texas Relays, where he captured first-place.
At the NCAAs, Lorenzo did it again. The Buenos Aires native out-kicked Tennessee’s Stephen Harris and Georgia’s David Lemen to climb from third to first for Oregon’s second title of the meet.
Redshirt freshman Jason Hartmann competed in his trademark event only twice during the season: earning an NCAA qualifying mark in 10,000 meters at Stanford and at the NCAAs. Hartmann ran an inspired race, finishing third for his third All-American honor.
The Ducks were the only team in Oregon athletics to go undefeated. Oregon defeated Washington 87-75 in its only dual meet of the season.
One of Smith’s goals before the season was to finish in the top half at the Pacific-10 Conference meet. Oregon placed fifth at Pac-10s, its highest finish since 1998. Stiegeler and Lorenzo won Pac-10 titles while Harris and junior Jason Boness earned runner-up honors.
That set up Oregon final performance of the season at home for the NCAAs. Stiegeler’s win and Hartmann’s third-place finish put the Ducks in the early lead for day one. Lorenzo’s win and an eighth-place finish by junior Billy Pappas on day two kept Oregon in the lead, but without any placers for the final two days, the Ducks faded to ninth, still a respectable finish.
The future looks even brighter, as all of Oregon’s NCAA point-earners return to repeat their performances.