Poised to perform during crunch time, the Oregon men’s track and field athletes are hitting their peaks as the Ducks kick off the postseason with the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Palo Alto, Calif. this weekend.
Oregon will field 28 athletes in the men’s events, half of which are distance runners.
Junior standout Galen Rupp headlines the Ducks’ distance contingent, and could possibly run both the 5,000m and 10,000m.
“We haven’t made the decision of whether (Rupp) will double, but certainly it’s in the realm of possibility,” Oregon Director of Track and Field Vin Lananna said. “We will be heavily laden on the men’s side with distance runners. Which is completely opposite from last year.
“Last year we had four, five, maybe six distance runners. This year 14 of the 28 are competing in 800m and above. And many of them are young, so we’ll see how that all plays out.”
Freshman Andrew Wheating is one of the young distance runners who will be competing in his first Conference championship meet.
Wheating is coming off a good weekend at the Oregon Twilight, where he ran a season-best 1:50.17 in the 800m, which met regional qualifying standards.
“I was sitting at the back of the pack for the first lap, and coach was screaming ‘wake up,’ and I just kicked it in,” Wheating said. “I was probably the fastest guy running the last 80 meters. It was my kick. I’ve always just got it at the end of every race.”
Months of training have served their purpose, and Wheating says he’s now feeling better than ever.
“I feel incredible. I can’t believe I’m in as good of shape as I feel because we’re running some seriously hard workouts here, and I think six or seven months ago, I’d probably be collapsing in my bed and wouldn’t be able to get up in the morning,” he said. “But right now I feel phenomenal. I feel like I can run any time the coach throws at me.”
The sprinters are also hoping to score points for the Ducks.
Junior Marcus Dillon had a rough day on the track last week when he came within .04 of qualifying for regionals in the 200m race. Dillon ran a 21.23 season-best, but was not satisfied with the result.
“It’s probably partly because it was cold and there was no competition,” he said. “From what I hear, everyone was like 20m behind me. If I’d had somebody with me, I probably would have been pushed a little further.
“Feeling, knowing someone’s next to you makes you push yourself. But hell, when you lead and there ain’t nobody behind you and you can’t see no one or hear no one, you are just running through the air pretty much.”
Dillon believes that he tends to “do big things at big meets” and is hoping for a breakthrough in the 200m and both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays this weekend.
“We’re gonna do well on both (relays). Got the freshman Chad Barlow and the 47 he run (in the open 400m) last week. Hopefully he can take it to the relay,” Dillon said. “We just have to bring 45s and 46s and we should be solid.
“We’re a young group competing against juniors and seniors, and we all tend to step up when it’s time for a big meet.”
While they did not compete in either relay, the Oregon men’s sprint corps won four events at the Oregon Twilight last week.
Dillon and Barlow won the 200m and 400m, respectively, junior Phil Alexander took the 100m in 10.50, and sophomore hurdler Jared Huske finished the 110m hurdles in 14.19.
Freshman decathlete Ashton Eaton also gave the Ducks a head-start in the Pac-10 championships by finishing second (7,123 points) in the Multi-Events Championship last weekend.
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