Senior Micah Harris, a Tempe, Ariz., native, placed first in the 110 hurdles and second in the 200.
With Samie Parker and Allan Amundson in Portland at the football team’s Spring Game, the Oregon men’s track team was not at full strength. But that — or the unfavorable weather during Saturday’s 10 1/2-hour event — did not stop the team from placing well.
“All in all, we’ve had two pretty high-powered weekends recently, so this was a little more low-key for us, and I thought the guys did a nice job,” head coach Martin Smith said.
Oregon is coming off competitions in Walnut, Calif., for the Mt. San Antonio College Relays and at Hayward Field for a dual meet with Washington.
Running in the 4×400, Oregon’s Jason Slye, Brandon Holliday, Ross Krempley and Jake Horner placed second, less than a second behind Weber State’s team.
“I thought the mile relay did a good job running with two of the decathletes running,” Smith said. “That’s not going to necessarily be our fastest team by the end of the season, so I thought they did a nice job.”
Before running the second leg of the 4×400, Holliday took first in the 400-meter hurdles in 51.74 seconds.
“I though Brandon did a nice job in intermediate hurdles and came back and ran a wonderful leg in the mile relay,” Smith said.
The most dominating performance by Oregon came in the 110-meter hurdles as the Ducks swept the first four spots. Micah Harris — who placed second in the 200-meter dash behind Arizona State’s Pete Lopez — ran for the win in 13.78 seconds. He was followed by teammates Terry Ellis, Billy Pappas and Sean Sanderson.
Redshirt freshman Eric Logsdon ran for his season-best time in the 1,500-meter run, as he placed second with a time of 3:49.99 — good enough to qualify him for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships on May 18 in Pullman, Wash.
Logsdon paced himself well, staying with a major portion of the pack until the end of the race, but couldn’t catch Utah’s Nephi Tyler who finished almost three seconds ahead.
“I felt pretty good,” Logsdon said. “We were just concentrating on making sure the last 200 meters I could kick down the rest of the guys. I would have liked to have run a little faster, but it’s more about competition than anything else.”
Logsdon said that the weather, which changed from rain to sun to hail throughout the course of the day, did not affect his running.
“It’s not ideal to run fast, but it shouldn’t affect how you compete,” he said.
Smith echoed his runner’s sentiment.
“It was a crazy day, but track and field is an outdoor sport,” the head coach said. “You can’t control the weather, and good athletes don’t let it get the best of them.”
Oregon’s throwers did not have as much success as their running teammates, as Adam Jenkins finished seventh in the javelin and Adam Kriz placed fifth in the hammer throw.
In the pole vault, Oregon’s standout Trevor Woods cleared 17-06.5 feet, which was good for second place. Woods’ coach, Mark Vanderville, also competed as an unattached competitor, placing fourth with a mark of 16-04.75.
Oregon next competes in the Cardinal Invitational in Stanford on Friday.
E-mail sports reporter Chris Cabot
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