Oregon redshirt senior and All-American distance runner Eric Logsdon joined Oregon’s all-time-fastest list in the 5,000 meters after running a personal best at the Cardinal Invite at Stanford on Sunday. He improved on his previous record by nearly eight seconds.
The Canby native entered the meet with a previous best of 13:48.12 from the 2004 Oregon Invitational. With his time of 13:40.21 on Sunday, Logsdon moved into eighth place in front of Matt Centrowitz and Steve Fein. Logsdon’s time is also only three seconds behind current seventh-place holder Ken Martin.
Logsdon also became the fastest Oregon 5,000-meter runner in more than 20 years. The last Ducks to enter the top eight, Bill McChesney Jr. (school record, 13:14.80) and Jim Hill (sixth, 13:30.52), did so in 1982.
In the race Sunday, Logsdon finished ninth overall and was the fourth-fastest collegian in his section, trailing only Wisconsin’s Chris Solinsky (sixth, 13:38.92), Colorado’s Brent Vaughn (seventh, 13:39.69) and William and Mary’s Ed Moran (eighth, 13:39.70).
Nike’s Abdi Abdirahman won Sunday’s race with a time of 13:28.57. He finished ahead of Nike’s Jonathan Riley (13:30.05), Wisconsin’s Matt Tegenkamp (13:31.98), Wisconsin’s unattached freshman Matt Withrow (13:35.32) and Nike’s Bolota Asmerom (13:37.14).
— Brian Smith