Make no mistake, it’s only April 14. The 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships — hosted by Oregon — start June 9. It’s too soon to make sweeping judgments on the state of the Ducks’ track and field teams.
And yet, after Saturday’s Pepsi Invitational, I feel like we learned an awful lot about both the men and the women track teams.
Let’s start with the women, who delivered a statement with 212 points in a track meet’s equivalent of a start-to-finish victory. Up against the top-ranked women’s team in the nation in Texas A&M, the Ducks more than held their own when directly matched up to the Aggies, mostly in sprint competitions.
It’s telling when the women’s 4×100-meter relay team (Mandy White, Amber Purvis, Keshia Baker and Jamesha Youngblood) sets a new school record, completing the relay in 44.17 seconds — and still loses to the Aggies’ new meet record of 43.89. The Aggies are extremely talented in the sprints, and put it on display — at less than full strength — Saturday. But Amber Purvis swept the 100 meters and 200 meters, and White came in a surprising third at 200m to give the Ducks valuable points. Keshia Baker took second in a fast 400 meters against Jessica Beard, who has a gold medal from the 2009 World Championships (4×400-meter relay) under her belt.
Oregon won nine of the 19 women’s events and could have done far more. For instance, Melissa Gergel no-heighted in the pole vault; teammate Jordan Roskelley went on to win the event, but Gergel normally adds first-place or second-place points in such a competition. Jordan Hasay had a memorable 5,000 meters win in her first Hayward Field race — and her first race at that distance — but what happens if she’s entered at 1,500 meters?
Simply put, the Ducks look like a powerhouse come June, and they can only get better. Anne Kesselring was a very pleasant surprise in the 800 meters and looks like a potential scorer at NCAAs. The relays seem to get faster every day. Hasay may be gaining strength toward a possible 1,500m/5,000m double, if the timing works. Remember that, at NCAA Indoors back in March, Oregon won the meet going away but left points on the board with Nicole Blood’s DNF in the 5,000m and Youngblood’s no-mark in the long jump.
Points are available across the board. Even this early, the Ducks are putting themselves in
position to take them.
The No. 3-ranked men’s team also won its clash against the No. 2 Aggies, 186 to 151, but with that team victory came far more questions. In the post-Galen Rupp era, the Ducks needed to shake up the formula for winning a national title. They may yet, but those near-guaranteed 20 points are going to be difficult, if not impossible, to replace.
Oregon was dealt what was seen at the time as a near-fatal blow early in the meet, when Texas A&M’s Kevin Burnett scored an upset victory in the 5,000m. Ducks sophomore Luke Puskedra took the lead halfway through the race but lost it later on, and appeared to be fading from contention. With 300 meters to go, Puskedra, not known for having a late kick in races, made a move to take the lead but was caught 200 meters later. He went on to finish fourth.
Assistant athletic director Vin Lananna’s distance runners are not perfect, and he’ll be the first to acknowledge that. But they are not immune to a bad race.
Where will the Ducks’ points at NCAAs come from? Ashton Eaton is not a guarantee for 10 points in the decathlon, but he is the odds-on favorite, to put it mildly. Andrew Wheating is no lock for 10 points in the 800m (see 2008 and Jacob Hernandez), but if he doubles in the 1,500m as he is purported to do, that could provide an interesting wrinkle. Senior transfer Michael Maag, 10th in the 5,000m at NCAAs last season, could score points. Mac Fleet, who had an outstanding Pepsi Invitational, and Elijah Greer are both possible middle-distance scorers to complement Matthew Centrowitz. Jordan McNamara and Puskedra are x-factors. And Oregon has what is being considered the best javelin crew in the country, headed by fourth-place finisher Cyrus Hostetler.
There is a lot in the Pepsi Invitational that we did not see. Wheating, Hostetler and Greer did not compete, and Maag ran the 1,500m. A.J. Acosta competed in his first 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Pepsi and finished a very disappointing fifth.
Nevertheless, we did see how far the men still have to go. And how far the women have come to date.
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