The Oregon men’s track and field team splits up this weekend as the majority of the Ducks head for the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Oregon will send some of its top distance runners to compete in the Cardinal Invitational at the Cobb Track & Angell Field in Stanford, Calif., on Sunday.
Saturday’s competition in Iowa
will mark the first time the No. 11 Ducks have competed in the Drake Relays since 1999 and will be highlighted by the
4×100-meter relay team, which will go
for a third straight relay title as well as
a new school record. In the last two
events in as many weeks, the Ducks have nearly eclipsed the time of 39.80 set in 1991 and have notched two top-five times in Oregon history.
“We expect an extremely good time,” relay team member Richard Del Rincon said. “If the handoffs are good, we should get the school record.”
The Ducks are ranked third in the
Pacific-10 Conference this season.
Not to be outdone, the 4×400 relay team of Kedar Inico, A.K. Ikwuakor, Travis Anderson and Matt Scherer will face off against NCAA Indoor Championship competitors Baylor and Northern Iowa, who finished second and third, respectively, just ahead of the fifth-place Ducks in March. In that race, the Ducks set an Oregon indoor record of 3:04.17.
Also in the sprinter category, redshirt sophomore Jordan Kent has settled
into the outdoor season by winning two
of his first three individual events
since making his return at the Pepsi
Invitational, including his long jump
title last week at the Oregon Invitational. Kent won the event by more than six
inches, but according to teammate Leonidas Watson, he still has some issues to work through.
“It was great,” Watson said of Kent’s performance last week. “Just a lot of technical stuff he isn’t doing, and he’s jumping that far without doing all that technical stuff. Man, he’s ready to go far.”
In the field events, senior Paul Etter
will lead the field and try to better his
season best of 203 feet, four inches in the hammer throw.
“I’m expecting to get a big mark,” Etter said. “I haven’t had one since the (Oregon) Preview. Anything over 62, 63 meters would be great.”
A quintet of Oregon distance runners will make the trip to Stanford on Sunday, lead by seniors Eric Logsdon and Brett Holts. Holts will compete in his second steeplechase event of the season, while Logsdon will compete in the 5,000-meters. Also competing will be Robert Gillespie in the 800-meters, Kyle Alcorn and Scott Wall in the steeplechase and Nick Dalton in the 1,500-meters.

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