Were it up to Mac Fleet, he might be competing in a different sport in college than track and field.
“My true love was basketball. Still is,” said the freshman, who counts the Los Angeles Lakers and Duke Blue Devils among his favorite teams.
“I played a little bit my freshman year of high school. I made a pretty big decision that not many people were happy with, to stop playing and focus on cross country and track. Nowadays, unless you’re an absolute phenomenal athlete, you almost have to specialize in a sport if you want to get a full-ride (scholarship).
“I’m only 6-foot-3, and how many of those guys are in the NBA? … Not too many.”
Luckily for Vin Lananna and the Oregon coaching staff, Fleet found himself a new sporting love. The San Diego native had running in his blood: His father, Dale, competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at Washington State and experienced a brief post-collegiate running career — but developed his feelings for running later in high school.
“I was never pushed into running — that’s probably what my dad didn’t want me to do. I just happened to be kind of decent at it. I love it now,” Fleet said. “As much as I love basketball, this is fun.”
Fleet was a California state cross country champion and 1,500 meters champion as a high school senior. A Pan-American Junior Championship in the 1,500m and a U.S. Junior Track and Field national championship at that same distance made him a touted college prospect.
There was no doubt where to go next.
“I believe that this combination of the team, the coaches and the facilities (at Oregon) was the best to take me to the next level,” Fleet said. “I made it pretty difficult for other coaches to get a hold of me, just because I knew I was coming here.
“The idea of being a professional athlete I like, and for as long as I can take it, I will.”
To date, Fleet has made short work of acclimating himself to the college environment and college-level competition. He was named the Pacific-10 Conference Men’s Track Athlete of the Week for his performance at the Penn Relays, and he left positive impressions on teammates at the team’s annual preseason camp in Sunriver, Ore.
“We have tons of guys that are All-Americans and guys that have been on national championship teams,” redshirt junior A.J. Acosta said, also an All-American. “(He was) able to come in right away and really mesh with the team.”
Fleet made occasional appearances for the Ducks in cross country season — he finished 33rd at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships — before cementing himself as an important figure indoors. His mile run of 3:57.70 at the Feb. 13 Husky Classic broke Galen Rupp’s school record, and his runner-up finish in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 13 gave the Oregon men eight critical points toward a second-place finish.
“Mac’s unbelievable,” senior Andrew Wheating said. “He came in here just looking to do big things, and he’s obviously stepping up and being one of our key players.”
The positive momentum has carried over to the outdoor season. At the Pepsi Team Invitational on April 10, Fleet broke the one-minute, 50-second barrier in the 800 meters for the first time in his career, winning the race in 1:49.19. A week later, he set a new personal best in the 1,500m, running 3:46.62 to edge out his teammate Acosta and win a second consecutive race.
At the Penn Relays this past weekend, Fleet took on an unusually heavy workload, competing in the 4xmile relay, the distance medley relay and the 4×800-meter relay. The Ducks won the first two relay races going away. Wheating failed to fight off Virginia’s Robby Andrews in the anchor leg of the latter race, costing the Ducks a win — and Fleet a perfect
outdoor record.
“To triple this weekend is unbelievable,” Wheating said. “For us, on the Oregon side, he
deserves athlete of the meet.
“You can’t ask anything else of the kid. He doesn’t think about it too much, he doesn’t put any pressure on himself.”
The decision to hang up the high tops and lace up the spikes has paid dividends thus far.
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