Rebekah Noble waited patiently behind leader Briene Simmons. Then she struck, streaking past Penn State’s Simmons into Oregon’s record books and to the top of the national charts.
Biding her time in the 800 meters, Noble made her move along the final curve, sprinting to a meet record of 2 minutes, 3.11 seconds, previously set by Nebraska’s Lisa Graham in 1992. Noble, making her Hayward Field debut, moved into fourth place for Oregon all-time, the fastest in 21 years, and has the fastest collegiate time this year.
“She’s just a composed, confident athlete,” Oregon coach Vin Lananna said. “She knows what she needs to do and she goes out and does it. You know, the sky’s the limit for her.”
The record-breaking performance coincided with the Oregon women’s team win Saturday afternoon in the Pepsi Invitational before 5,004 fans at Hayward Field. Oregon, with 203 points, defeated Penn State (199), Washington (152) and Boise State (95).
Oregon’s win wasn’t decided until the final event, the discus. First-place finishes by Rachel Yurkovich, Lauryn Jordan and Dana Buchanan placed Oregon in position to win.
Jordan, entered in five events, captured first in the long jump, high jump and triple jump with personal marks of 20-1, 5-6 1/2 and 41-4 1/2, respectively. Her left hamstring started to bother her on the jumps, but her adrenaline kept her going, she said.
Jordan made one attempt at 5-8 in the high jump, but with the win secured, her coach, Robert Johnson, decided to shut her down and have her start recuperating for the Mount SAC Relays next week.
The Stockton, Calif., native ran to a third-place finish in the 100 in 11.7 seconds.
Yurkovich opened the invitational with her third consecutive javelin win. She easily outdistanced Penn State’s Heidi Nadeau, 163-10 to 150-7.
Following shortly after, Dana Buchanan made her 3,000-meter steeplechase season debut in style, setting an invitational and school record in a first-place finish of 10:33.77. The Hawaii transfer surpassed her previous mark – 11:14.71 last year in the Western Athletic Conference Championships.
Her newness to the event helps explain the 42-second improvement on her personal record, Buchanan said. Clearing the hurdles completely Saturday, where she stepped on them previously, helped cut time.
Buchanan trailed most of the race, making a late surge, and she needed a final push after she was slowed on the final hurdle.
“With about 500 to go, I made the decision to go after her when I felt (Penn State’s Molly Landreth) getting closer,” Buchanan said.
Saturday’s performances, more than anything, showed the promise of the young underclassmen under Lananna. Noble and Yurkovich, both freshmen, started the day successfully, but two other underclassmen, sophomore Sarah Pearson and freshman Zoe Nelson, came seconds from closing the meet with a win.
Pearson, Nelson and Boise State’s Becky Guyette all took turns leading the 3,000. Nelson, a former state champion from Montana, saw her early lead evaporate as Pearson and Guyette both passed her. Pearson and Guyette ran side by side before the Bronco junior put in a late burst to secure the win over Pearson. Nelson finished third, a few steps back.
Pearson said the pressure evaporated earlier this season when she qualified for regionals in the first race of the season. She met a goal she never reached last year, which allows her to race free and easy, she said.
“To qualify the first race was really really good and it takes a lot of pressure off, so now we can just get better,” she said.
Attention before and after the meet focused on Noble, a native of Spokane, Wash. She nearly resuscitated Oregon’s 4×400 relay team with an all-out push in the fourth leg of the race to bring Oregon within two seconds of Penn State’s winning time of 3:38.52.
Noble, reigning USA junior and Pan-Am junior champion, improved on her mark of 2:03.73 in the 800 set last year in high school – the fastest high school time since 1982.
“I felt so good when I first got out and got right behind here and then the (final) 200, it was going home from there,” Noble said. The words describing her winning performance came easy afterward as she reminisced, “Just looking up and seeing people cheering. I couldn’t stop smiling. It was almost as good as winning Pan-Ams and carrying the American flag.”
Noble shines in Hayward debut
Daily Emerald
April 9, 2006
Rebekah Noble set a Pepsi Invitational record of 2
0
More to Discover