Nine members of the Oregon Club Sports cycling team returned from a point-harvesting weekend of racing in Seattle, with one first-place and several fourth-place and top-10 finishes.
Oregon’s Steve McFarland rolled into first place in the criterium race Saturday, which was the best individual finish for the Ducks last weekend.
“All week, I could smell victory, so Monday I bought a bottle of champagne,” McFarland said. “Saturday, we drank it.”
Oregon’s only female racer, Ashley Collins, hauled home fourth place on both Saturday and Sunday.
Brian Fuentes took fourth place in the road race but felt he had overtrained the last week, which didn’t allow for adequate rest, he said, “but the weather was really great, and we did well as a team.”
Jim Anderson and Zach Winter also finished toward the top and raced fast, Daimeon Shanks said. Shanks finished fourth in the criterium race, which was his best finish of the trip.
With these results and two more events to go in the regular conference before the regionals, the cycling team is eying a trip to nationals in Ohio five weeks from now.
“There are four teams right now that are vying for two spots, and we’re very close,” Shanks said.
This weekend, the Ducks sported five A-team racers, three B-team racers and one female racer, Shanks said. Oregon competed against Montana State, Oregon State, Idaho, Washington and Washington State.
“Bicycle racing is totally strategic,” Fuentes said.
Different team members have their specialties, he explained. Some are sprinters who rule in criterium races, while others are better at climbing and road racing. For example, team members try to help each other to the best places in their specialties. Racers take turns shielding from wind and other strains, and they try to keep other teams from sprinting off from the pack and into the break-away group of lead racers.
However, the collegiate conference is not as intimidating as the national racing environment. It is more relaxed, and everyone races for the fun and the camaraderie in the conference, Shanks said.
“Everyone is really friendly,” he said. “We train together; we stay together and have a lot of fun as a team.”

Ultimate feels pain of defeat
Losing hurts. Whether the game is a test match or a regular season match, it still hurts. The Oregon Club Sports men’s ultimate frisbee team (15-7) learned just that playing in the Davis Ultimate Invitational this weekend, which will not affect the national standing.
Oregon’s main objective was to get experience for the younger, inexperienced players on the team and rest the veteran players who have suffered injuries from the grueling matches throughout the season.
The Ducks’ A team went 3-2 in the tournament but lost 13-11 to a UC-Davis team that was at full strength.
“There were some great steps by the new players, but we were not happy with the overall outcome,” Joshua Greenough said. “The tournament was a teaching lesson, and I think that our younger players learned the lesson of a close loss too. I hope they will learn from this.”
Oregon will play in the Oregon/North California College Section Tournament, which eventually leads to the national tournament, this weekend.

Baseball can’t overcome

municipal distractions
Head coach Rich Fay was fuming after his team’s 6-2 loss against Southern Oregon on Saturday, but the anger was toward the city’s treatment of the Oregon Club Sports baseball team.
South Eugene High School initially denied Oregon use of the field after the team had arrived, and Fay let the team go home. Later, the school reversed the decision, and the Ducks (3-2) had to play without their clean-up hitter Ty Cademartori and a couple of starting pitchers. Oregon has had trouble getting a field to play on all season.
“I cannot imagine our players to have their heads in the game if something like this keeps on happening,” Fay said. “We have a team that can go all the way to Utah [for the championship], but now the city is against us.”
The Ducks finished with a 1-2 record last weekend.
“I am not as happy as last weekend, but we still have a winning record in the league,” Fay said. “And that’s what matters.”
The Ducks lost 4-2 in the first game of the double-header the following day despite strong performances from Regan Schaller and Zach Ross.
“There is no reason we should have lost the game,” Fay said. “You cannot score two runs and expect to win. We are a lot better hitting team.”
Oregon proved that by scoring 13 runs in the next game, which they won 13-6. The Ducks looked shaky defensively, giving up three runs in the first inning. After the inning, Fay called the whole squad together in front of the dugout and told them that if they wanted to win, they needed to score in the next inning. The Ducks did just that, scoring four runs to get on top. The Raiders tied the game the next inning, but Oregon catcher Keyonosh Maljai’s RBI double in the second inning put the team ahead for good. Maljai finished the game with three hits and five RBIs, including one of three home runs for the Ducks. Center fielder Ross followed Maljai’s two-run home run in the fourth with his second shot of the season, and right fielder Schaller’s two-run shot came in the fifth to make it 13-6.
“I was angry about my defensive performance, so I just took it out on the ball,” Maljai said.
Oregon reliever Matthew Stoffregen, who had a impressive outing yesterday, repeated his stellar performance by using his slider and fastball to keep the batters off balance. He threw four innings, giving up only two runs.
“I learned what the batters wanted to do in the first games, so I tried to trade that to today’s game,” Stroffregen said.
The Ducks play Western Washington this weekend.
Washington “is a long way to go and not win,” Fay said. “We expect to win all three games.”