Oregon’s 2005 Pacific-10 Conference championship last week paid tribute to the depth and talent the Ducks have showcased all season.
In Los Angeles, Duck competitors finished in the top five in 16 of the 21 events, all scoring four points or more, en route to a school-record
152 points tallied at the conference meet.
Buoyed by the strength of the sprint corps for much of the season, Oregon got strong and unexpected performances from the field events, led by the return of Lars Mueller Laursen. The Copenhagen, Denmark, native finished second in the javelin, behind California’s Paul Teinert, after sitting out the entire outdoor season recovering from an injury.
In addition, senior Paul Etter used a personal-best toss of 201 feet,
11 inches to finish second in the hammer throw.
In all, 21 Oregon athletes scored points for the team’s cause.
“It’s a lot of fun for all of our coaches to bring a group of athletes that continually sacrificed their personal ambitions to try and win a team title,” Oregon assistant coach Bill Lawson said. “I don’t know if there’s a more special place to do this than in Eugene, either, since it is Tracktown, USA, and people care so much about the sport.”
Oregon’s team success came after a few tumultuous weeks — filled with speculation, resignations and signees — before the outdoor season began.
“There was tenuous time right before the season,” Lawson said. “But after the first week the team united and the coaches joined together to refocus and give it our all. The athletes deserve an immense amount of credit for pulling together and showing what the word ‘team’ means — both today and this season.”
Kedar Inico finds the record books again
One of the highlights of the conference meets was Kedar Inico’s surprise win in the 400-meters.
Inico came into the meet with a personal best of 46.20 seconds and was ranked fourth after his indoor-season best of 46.41 in the 400. Inico’s time of 45.61 on Sunday beat his personal best by .59 seconds and vaulted him into third all-time in Oregon history.
“I’m not really sure where that came from, but I’ll take it,” Inico said. “The credit really goes to my coach (Dan Steele) — he’s been so patient and worked so hard to develop different parts of my race. It’s probably more that I was more focused on competing hard than the time — that’s when you truly run your fastest.”
The transfer from Barton Community College was the junior college indoor national champion in the
400 last year and is also the Oregon record holder in the indoor 200-meters. Inico replaced All-American Pat Johnson, who set the record in the Mountain Pacific Championships in Reno, Nev., in 1996.

[email protected]