Eugene may be Track Town USA, but Oregon has difficulty getting sprinters to join its historically impressive ranks of distance runners.
So associate athletic director Vin Lananna and assistant coach Robert Johnson have had to get creative.
One of the most sought-after commodities in the sport is the elite male sprinter, the 100-meter phenoms who threaten 10 seconds flat. The Ducks’ last best male sprinter was Ashton Eaton, who also doubled as one of the best decathletes in the world.
Lananna and head football coach Chip Kelly have worked out a deal permitting football players to trade cleats for spikes during the spring. Four players have earned the privilege — as Kelly has said he sees it — of competing in both sports for this season.
LaMichael James finished fifth at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships last season in the 100 meters and also scored as a member of the mile relay team, with fellow running back Kenjon Barner. Wide receiver Josh Huff and cornerback Dior Mathis will also compete in the spring. (Mathis competed in this past weekend’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships but did not make the 60-meter dash final.)
Oregon appears to have landed an excellent young talent in freshman quarter-miler Michael Berry. The Seattle native ran the 400-meter leg in the Ducks’ 9:26.78 distance medley relay, the second fastest in NCAA history. Berry, a gold medalist in the mile relay at the IAAF Junior World Championships, has shown glimpses of a bright future ahead of him.
Johnson, meanwhile, has not so quietly assembled a strong group of female sprinters. He has tirelessly worked through his connections up and down California to help make the Oregon women one of the most complete track and field teams in the nation.
Though the Ducks lost quarter-mile standout Keshia Baker to graduation, junior Amber Purvis and seniors Jamesha Youngblood and Mandy White lead the way.
Purvis holds seven school records (indoor 60 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters and indoor 200 meters among them) and has won two NCAA championships in Oregon’s 4×400-meter relay, but she has yet to make an NCAA final in an individual event. (The first one she does, she could win.) White is a two-time All-American who has long played a supporting role but remains a consistent performer. Youngblood excels in the long and triple jumps but runs a mean relay leg when called upon.
Two freshmen, English Gardner and Chizoba Okodogbe, are already making strides. The Voorhees, N.J., native Gardner set a school record (quickly reclaimed by Purvis) with a 7.29-second 60-meter dash at the UW Indoor Preview earlier this year. Okodogbe, from Antioch, Calif., by way of Nigeria, helped Oregon’s mile relay team to the third-best time in school history (3:36.77) at the Tyson Invitational.
To fill out the roster, Johnson and Lananna have reached out to junior college and transfer athletes. Quarter-miler Michele Williams (Adams State in Colorado) and jumper/sprinter Lauryn Newson (Laney Community College in California) have been early standouts; sprinter Devin Gosberry (Loyola, Ill.) is expected to be one during the outdoor season.
There is no set formula toward winning national championships in the sport of track and field. Lananna’s style is heavy on distance, with contributions for a number of key areas. The most obvious strategy relies on all-around excellence, something difficult to pursue with scholarship limitations.
The Oregon program has only the highest of expectations, and often they must be met in creative ways. To date, the Ducks have done just that in getting the fastest individuals they can find on the track.
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