Football started it. Men’s basketball continued it.
Now track gets a chance to finish it.
The Oregon men’s track and field team will try to complete the “year of the Duck” at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships in Pullman, Wash., this weekend. Two of the three major men’s sports have won Pac-10 titles this year, and a victory for Oregon this weekend would simply seal the deal, according to the athletes.
“We want to get (the Pac-10 title),” distance-runner Simon Kimata said. “Everybody knows that, it’s not a secret. Basketball has done it, football has done it. I’m not talking about individual, I’m talking about the team. It would make a lot of sense if we got it. They have done it, we have to do it too.”
In order to win this weekend, the Ducks will need to perform at, and perhaps above, their potential. Track and field powerhouses like Stanford and UCLA, who finished first and second last year, respectively, will once again bring a full slate of talented athletes to the meet. Teams like Arizona State and Southern California are perennially in the hunt for the conference crown.
“We’re going to need all 24 athletes to step up,” Oregon head coach Martin Smith said.
But Smith also said that the individual aspect of the conference championships could inherently help in the team race.
“I don’t think in terms of winning or losing the meet,” Smith said. “I just focus on preparing the athletes and putting every athlete in the best possible position to win.”
The Ducks will rely heavily on its handful of stars to score points at the conference meet. Kimata, who leads the conference in the 800, will join with Micah Harris (110 hurdles), Brandon Holliday (400 hurdles), Jason Hartmann (10,000), Adam Kriz (hammer) and Trevor Woods (pole vault) as favorites or at least strong contenders to win their events.
That leaves athletes like Samie Parker in the 100, Jason Boness and Kyley Johnson in the high jump and Foluso Akinradewo in the triple jump, athletes that are on the verge of breaking out for big performances. Boness is a former Pac-10 champion and school record-holder, but has been plagued by injuries this year. Parker, a football player, has been steadily improving his time in the 100 since joining the track squad full-time.
For some of those fringe athletes, the Pac-10s are likely their last meet of the season. While strong fields can lead to NCAA qualifying marks, the tactical nature of the meet can force those marks down.
“It can act as another meet to qualify for NC’s,” Smith said. “But we’re not thinking about the NCAAs this weekend.”
“I know for sure that time doesn’t matter in Pac-10s, it’s more tactical,” Kimata said.
So while it will be tough for the athletes to score for the postseason, they can still score for their team. Which will paramount this weekend if the Ducks are to complete the “year of the Duck.”
“It’s going to take everybody,” Harris said. “Everybody’s got to be at their best. Every one of us has to rise on that day to win. Everyone.”
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday at [email protected].