For the first part of the Oregon Twilight on Saturday, the spotlight was on Oregon pole vaulter Tommy Skipper’s return from knee surgery.
But by the time the crowd of 3,410 filed out of Hayward Field, it was freshman running sensation Galen Rupp whose name was on the tip of everyone’s tongue.
Rupp, who enrolled at Oregon a little more than a month ago, broke the U.S. junior record in the 10,000-meters on Saturday with a time of 28 minutes, 15.52 seconds in just his second time running the event in his career.
The Portland native easily broke the U.S. junior record formerly held by ex-Oregon runner Rudy Chapa, who set a still-standing high school mark of 28:32.7 at the Drake Relays in 1976.
“It means a lot,” Rupp said. “I know Rudy pretty well up in Portland, and he told me that he wanted me to go after it, and I’m glad I got a chance to break it.”
Rupp’s record time was also good enough to move him to third all-time on Oregon’s 10,000 list, behind only Bill McChesney Jr. (27:50.82) and Rupp’s current coach, Alberto Salazar (28:06.12).
Saturday’s race showed a calmer and more focused Rupp than the one who fell in his Duck debut April 23 at the Oregon Invitational. Rupp also entered Saturday’s race with better omens than last week.
Last week, Rupp found his tires slashed. On Saturday, nothing.
“Last week was rough in terms of my car and all the stuff to deal with eligibility,” Rupp said. “This week, there was none of that pressure, none of that stuff I had to deal with emotionally. I had a lot of time to prepare this week, and I just tried to stay relaxed and have fun.”
For most of the 25-lap race, Rupp stayed in the middle of the six-man field until he made his move with just more than two miles left. Rupp pulled away from second-place finisher and unattached runner Issac Arusei due in part to a 65-second 15th lap — three seconds ahead of the intended pace.
“I felt really good halfway through the race,” Rupp said. “Even with two miles to go, that’s where mentally for me, that was a big part of the race, because when I ran this past summer, it was two miles left where I really fell apart, so I wanted to try and finish strong in this race.”
Rupp finished his final lap in 64 seconds among cheers from the crowd and commentary from a nearly hoarse stadium announcer.
“To win a race here in an Oregon uniform, there’s nothing like it,” Rupp said. “People can say (the program)
isn’t where it once was, but it feels so go to just run in front of these fans.”
Rupp’s finish was the third fastest in the United States this season and second fastest in the NCAA.
In other action on the track Saturday, junior hurdler Eric Mitchum capitalized on the absence of teammate A.K. Ikwuakor, capturing the title in the 400-meter hurdles.
Mitchum finished with a time
of 52.17, but it wasn’t the performance he was looking for. Mitchum summed up his time in one
word: “crappy.”
“I was hoping to go 51-something, but I keep on having these 52 (second) races, so I don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
Mitchum offered a simple prescription for his problem.
“Run faster,” Mitchum said. “That’s all you have to do: Run faster, which means it’s going to hurt some more, but you got to do what you got to do. The first 200 was kind of slow, which I think screwed me up.”
Skipper back in action
Saturday marked the competitive return of sophomore Tommy Skipper in the field for Oregon after missing the last nine weeks due to injury.
The Sandy, Ore., native cleared
17 feet, 3/4 inches, but eventually lost to Southern Oregon’s Robbie Johnston (17-4 1/2) and Nike’s Piotr Buciaski.
“For a first meet, I’m just happy to be out there in front of the Oregon crowd,” Skipper said. “As far as my jumps went, we just have to start somewhere.”
Other Duck titles on Saturday included Sol Rexius’ victory in the
110-meter hurdles, Travis Anderson’s victory in the 400-meters and Kyle Alcorn’s victory in the Bill McChesney Jr. Memorial Twilight Mile.
Decathletes score high
Oregon decathlete Andy Young finished second at the Pacific-10 Multi-Event Championships in Los Angeles on Sunday, followed closely by teammate Cody Fleming, who finished fourth.
Young, who was in third after the first day, scored an NCAA provisional mark of 7,165 and jumped into second after Arizona’s Robert Arnold suffered a horrendous discus competition and fell to sixth place on Sunday.
Because of the second- and
fourth-place finishes, Oregon will now go into next week’s Pac-10 Championships with 13 team points for the event, the most in the conference.
