It can be attributed to the indoor track and field national championship, offseason preparation or excellent coaching, but the fact speaks for itself. Two weeks into the outdoor track and field season, the Oregon men and women have a combined 33 qualifiers for the NCAA West Regional. At the same time last year, the Ducks had 22 qualifiers.
“We’re rolling along,” Dan Steele, associate director of track and field, said in a media release. “We performed at an exceptional level and it’s looking very clearly like we’re going to have two very good teams.”
Oregon Preview (March 21)
Eighteen individuals and one relay recorded wins at the Oregon Preview on March 21 at Hayward Field, but the top billing of the day went to the throwers. Senior Ashley McCrea set the third-best mark in school history with a javelin throw of 172 feet, 2 inches for her first win at Hayward Field, a personal best by more than five feet.
“Today was huge for me given my past,” said McCrea in a media release. “Last season I was stuck in the 50s (meters) and so this meant a lot. I wanted to leave everything out there on the field.
“I’ve never run (a victory lap) before. It was fun.”
Junior Cyrus Hostetler won the men’s javelin with a throw of 218 feet, 11 inches in his first meet in an Oregon uniform. The Lane Community College transfer, who competed in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, is expected to be a key contributor for the Ducks as the season progresses.
Redshirt junior Rita Santibanez (shot put; 48 feet, 10.75 inches) and senior Lucy Cridland (discus; 164 feet) both set personal bests, and Oregon got a first- and third-place finish in the men’s hammer throw out of sophomore Jordan Stray (195-8) and senior Steven Johnson (187-11).
Junior Zoe Buckman (4:21.68) led a 1-2-3 Oregon sweep in the 1,500m race with junior Nicole Blood (4:22.07) and redshirt junior Mattie Bridgmon (4:27.12) behind her. All three women hit regional qualifying marks.
Freshman Amber Purvis won the 400m in 54.27, a meet record and the 10th-fastest time in school history. Redshirt senior Dana Buchanan, granted a sixth year by the NCAA because of medical hardship, won the 3,000m steeplechase (6:55.27) in her first action for the Ducks since the 2006 NCAA West Regional.
Big Green in the Desert (Wednesday-Thursday)
The Oregon women swept the top three heptathlon positions, while the Oregon men finished 1-2, in the multi-events competitions at the Big Green in the Desert meet, hosted by Dartmouth at Mesa Community College in Arizona.
A 142-foot, 5-inch javelin throw propelled sophomore Brianne Theisen to victory. Her 5,643 points automatically qualifies her for June’s NCAA Championships. Redshirt senior Kalindra McFadden (5,343 points) took second with a provisional Championships qualifying mark, and junior Erin Funkhouser (4,744) set a personal-best heptathlon score in finishing third.
Junior Marshall Ackley closed out a win in the decathlon with an 11-second personal best in the 1,500m (4:33.41) en route to 6,702 points. In his first decathlon, junior Aaron McVein took second behind Ackley with 6,501 points.
Stanford Invitational (Friday-Saturday)
Hostetler and Rachel Yurkovich provided initial fireworks for the Ducks at the Stanford Invitational at Cobb Track and Angell Field in Palo Alto, Calif. Yurkovich, in winning the women’s javelin, nearly broke her school and Pacific-10 Conference record with a throw of 190 feet, 11 inches. Hostetler set a four-foot personal best with his first throw to win the men’s javelin; his 245-foot, 3-inch throw is the school’s third-best mark.
The men’s 10,000m saw three separate times etched into the school record book, led by redshirt senior Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (28:28.83, seventh place). Kiptoo-Biwott’s mark ranks fourth in school history, and the times of redshirt sophomores Diego Mercado (28:48.54, 12th) and Danny Mercado (28:53.02, 14th) are the eighth- and 10th-best times, respectively.
Two school records were set over the weekend: the women’s 4x400m relay (44.64, breaking a 16-year-old mark) and the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, as sophomore Claire Michel (10:23.14, 10th place) bested her own record.
Oregon resumes its season with the Pepsi Invitational on Saturday. Its opponents will be Indiana, Kansas State and Utah State.
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