For the Oregon men’s track and field team, most of the attention in recent weeks has been focused on the track.
Now it shifts to the field.
Eleven Duck athletes from the team’s field contingent will compete in five events over three days this weekend at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas. Adam Kriz, who will shoot for a Pacific-10 Conference championship-qualifying distance in the hammer throw, is Oregon’s only entrant today.
But on Friday, the Ducks will hit the Texas track in full force. Foluso Akinradewo will try to extend his Pac-10 distance in the triple jump into an NCAA distance, Trevor Woods will try to move from the NCAA’s provisional list onto the automatic list in the pole vault, and John Stiegeler — currently leading the nation in the javelin — will lead a strong Oregon contingent in that event.
Though the season is young, Stiegeler appears ready to continue his dominance in the javelin that started with his school-record heave of 252 feet, 10 inches to win the NCAA championship last season. Stiegeler threw 247 feet at this year’s first outdoor meet.
On Saturday, Jason Boness will lead a trio of Oregon jumpers who have notched Pac-10 heights.
The Texas meet is the fifth outdoor meet of the season for the Ducks. Through four previous meets, Oregon boasts three NCAA automatic qualifiers, one NCAA provisional qualifier and 23 Pac-10 qualifiers.
In last weekend’s action, the Ducks got NCAA-qualifying times from Jason Hartmann in the 10,000-meter race and Simon Kimata in the 800.
“It’s good to get the qualifying time under your belt, so you can get some confidence and focus on the rest of the season,” Hartmann said.
Still, Hartmann echoed the sentiments of the team members who think that peaking too soon can be dangerous.
“We’ve approached this year differently,” Hartmann said. “We’re trying to focus on peaking later in the season.”
For Hartmann and the rest of the track athletes, the next meet will be either the Washington Dual next weekend or the Mt. SAC relays, held the following weekend.
But first, it’s time for the field athletes to shine.