Sprinters Marcus Dillon, Phil Alexander and Ashton Eaton typically double up and run both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays for the Oregon men’s track team.
But every successful science experiment needs a good blend of fixed and variable factors. In the case of the Oregon men’s relay teams, freshman sprinter Chad Barlow and sophomore hurdler Jared Huske are the two variable factors in the Ducks’ success.
Barlow is the fourth link of the 4x400m team while Huske has been Oregon’s anchorman in the 4x100m relay.
Compared to last year’s veteran core of seniors – Matt Scherer, Richard Del Rincon, Jordan Kent and Eric Mitchum – this year’s relay runners are relatively inexperienced. Dillon and Alexander are junior college transfers, and Eaton and Barlow are freshmen.
But both teams have turned in good performances this year, with the 4x100m and 4x400m teams finishing third and fourth in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, respectively.
“With these guys, their naiveté is playing in their favor. They don’t know that they’re supposed to be really intimidated by some of these other teams,” Oregon sprints coach Dan Steele said. “This is their first experience running for Oregon. Oregon was winning in these races when they were recruited, and it’s a natural thing for them to keep winning.
“If you’re watching your team lose year after year, you learn that losing is what we do. But these guys don’t have that, they’re competing really well, and I think they’re outcompeting all the other Pac-10 teams right now, and I think they’ve done a great job competing like veterans and getting mentally and physically prepared for the races.”
At the NCAA West Regionals two weeks ago, Barlow, a freshman from Colorado, pulled out a clutch performance for the Ducks when he anchored the 4x400m team to a third place finish and clocked a 46.90 split on the final leg of the race.
“I was really happy with that. That was the second best 4×400 split I’ve ever run,” Barlow said. “My personal best is 46.8, so that’s only a hundredth off my PR.”
Barlow failed to qualify for regionals in the open 400m event, but he says he’s always run better 400m times in the relay anyway.
“When I have the baton in my hand, I just run better,” Barlow said. “Even when I’m in the open event, I feel like I can let my team down, but in the 4×400, I feel like I can let my team down a whole lot more because there’s three other guys who are busting their butts for me.
“So it doesn’t matter how I feel; I have to run fast for them.”
Veteran influence on a rookie squad
With transfers and freshmen forming the core of Oregon’s new-look sprint corps, Huske has found himself in the position of having to provide veteran leadership – as a sophomore.
Huske, the Ducks’ top hurdler this year, spent last season playing second fiddle to more established sprinters like Scherer, Mitchum and Akobundu “A.K.” Ikwuakor. While he had a rough time trying to find his place within a cast of stars, he says he’s a better athlete for having trained with them.
“We talked a lot of smack last year,” Huske said. “We do it a little bit this year, but it was nothing like last year. And especially with me being the only freshman, I heard a lot of it.
“But in the long run, that kinda motivated me to try and beat (fellow hurdlers Mitchum and Ikwuakor) and go faster. I think in the long run that actually helped me for this year because now I have the same work mentality I had last year.”
The Topeka, Kan. native came to Oregon as the Kansas Relays MVP and with five state titles, and he struggled to make the transition from high school star to Division I backup.
“The good thing about Jared being a freshman when they were seniors is that he got to see how it’s supposed to be done and to get indoctrinated to the culture of Oregon and what it was to be an Oregon sprinter and hurdler,” Steele said. “At the same time, he became small fish in a big pond.”
Huske’s struggles to find his place at Oregon were reflected in his results. He qualified for the Pac-10 Championships but failed to make it to regionals. He functioned as an alternate on the Ducks’ 4x100m relay team and managed to get into a couple of races that Del Rincon missed due to injury.
“Coming in, there was a lot of hype and I was supposed to do really, really good,” Huske said. “But I think being around Eric and A.K. and all these All-Americans intimidated me a little bit. I kind of lost my drive and attitude because I knew they were a lot better than me.”
This year, things are better for Huske.
With Mitchum and Ikuwuakor gone, Huske is the Ducks’ de facto hurdles specialist, and he’s also gotten faster and stronger.
“Overall this season was a lot better than last year,” Huske said. “I ran four-tenths faster than last year in the highs and a second and a half faster in the 400m hurdles than last year. Coach Steele was watching tape and he saw something a week or two before Pac-10s that he wanted me to change in my hurdles, so we’ve been working on that ever since.”
Huske qualified for the regional finals in the 110m hurdles with a 14:02 qualifying time, and ran the prelims in the 400m hurdles but narrowly missed out on the finals.
The small fish has finally grown into his own, and this week, Huske will anchor the men’s 4x100m relay team at the National Championships.
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