Dana Buchanan flew into the great unknown last summer: no place to live, new teammates and no more tropical weather.
Hawaii distance coach Andy McGinnis had decided to return to Canada last summer and left Buchanan with a quandary – stay at Hawaii or join the exodus of athletes leaving Honolulu.
Time was dwindling. June passed and then came July.
Decision time arrived and Buchanan made a leap of faith.
The native Canadian left behind Hawaii’s track program and headed for Eugene and Hayward field. Buchanan talked to volunteer distance coach Maurica Powell regularly and felt comfortable with her decision.
“Maurica and I laugh about it now, about what a chance I was taking,” Buchanan said.
The distance runner joined an Oregon program in the midst of its own transition from Martin Smith to Vin Lananna.
“I knew (Lananna and Powell) were going to be here and that was enough for me,” Buchanan said.
Friday night Buchanan is running the Oregon Invitational under the lights in one of two 1,500-meter races.
Buchanan came to Eugene last year to compete in the West Regional, where she finished ninth in the 1,500. She saw the following of track and Oregon athletes and started thinking. When McGinnis left Hawaii, Buchanan knew going to Eugene would give her more opportunities to face elite competition.
Competitions on the Honolulu-based campus consisted mainly of intrasquad meets because of the location, Buchanan said.
Lananna talked to Buchanan by phone last summer and when she arrived, he saw a conditioned long-distance athlete accustomed to the 800 and 1,500. Since January, he tossed around the idea of placing Buchanan in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, an event complete with hurdles and a sloped water pit.
Her previous steeplechase experience consisted of a third-place finish for Hawaii in the Western Athletic Conference Championships.
When she made her steeplechase debut two weeks ago, Buchanan surprised even herself when she zipped around Bowerman’s corner and across the finish line in 10 minutes, 33.77 seconds – good for first place in the Pepsi Invitational. No longer did she need to climb the hurdles as she did in Hawaii. Buchanan glided across hurdles and jumped through the water pit to make a 42-second improvement on her personal record.
“It’s a good beginning in an event which might make a lot of sense for her,” Lananna said.
Compared to long-distance races, steeplechase carries added intrigue with its obstacle-course-like feel, which grabbed Buchanan’s attention.
“The distance never seems to be an issue in the steeplechase for me,” she said.
Buchanan envisions herself running 1,500s and an occasional 800 to train the rest of the season.
The next time she runs the steeplechase again is unclear, but she said it could happen at the Pacific-10 Championships in Eugene. If it did, Buchanan would be making an encore performance in front of her parents, who plan to be in attendance. They’ve only seen her compete twice in person, once in Hawaii and last year when Hawaii competed in California.
“They’ve never been to Oregon so I’m excited for them to come,” Buchanan said.
Buchanan started running track in her small hometown of Beachburg, Ontario. Located along the Ottawa River and with a population around 900, the tourist town draws people with its warm summers.
Buchanan’s latest move placed her in Track Town USA. She tried describing her experience in the Pepsi Invitational to her parents. Somehow the words escaped her.
“It’s just so hard to even try to explain it,” Buchanan said. “It’s really unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”

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