Track and field is an enigma in the collegiate sporting world.
For one, there are no major polls that help determine where schools will compete. Oregon isn’t No. 1, nor is it No. 25.
Then you have the 500 or so athletes who will converge on Baton Rouge, La., beginning today. They won’t be caught up in what the computers say. Instead, they will let their actions speak for themselves.
The Oregon women, sending five athletes to the Bayou, are in prime position to finish in the top 20 at the meet.
“I’m really happy with the five athletes we’re bringing to nationals, and they’re all capable of doing well and scoring,” head coach Tom Heinonen said. “We have the chance for a great meet, but it’s going to take three, four or five of them to put serious points on the board. It’ll be our best chance in years to finish better than in the 50s or 60s.”
Becky Holliday will lead off Oregon’s attempt to finish better than 60th, the spot the team placed in 2001. The first-year Duck, ranked third in the nation in the pole vault, will begin her quest for an NCAA Championship at 4:20 p.m. PST today.
Javelin throwers Sarah Malone, Elisa Crumley, and Roslyn Lundeen will further Oregon’s participation at the championships beginning Thursday at 1 p.m.
Malone, a sophomore, finished seventh in the 2001 version, held at Hayward Field, while Crumley and Lundeen, the two newest additions to Oregon’s NCAA contingent, are looking to get their feet wet in Louisiana.
Ending Oregon’s weekend down in the South, junior Mary Etter will make her third appearance at the NCAAs in the discus on Friday.
Holliday, a junior transfer from Clackamas Community College, follows up a third-place finish in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships a week ago with her first NCAA appearance.
However, it should be familiar territory for the pole vaulter.
Fellow Pac-10 athletes, Arizona’s Amy Linnen and UCLA’s Tracy O’Hara, will be accompanying Holliday to the Championships, with O’Hara ranked first in the nation and Linnen second.
“It’s between the three of us,” Holliday said, “the top three in the Pac-10. I just have to go out there and have a good day, and I know if I PR, I’ll take the title.”
At the Pac-10 Championships, Holliday finished a disappointing third, especially considering her personal best is 14-4, set in 2001 while competing for Clackamas.
It was even more disappointing for the Sparks, Nev., native though, because Linnen, a sophomore took first. O’Hara and Holliday have a friendly history of competing against one another, and for O’Hara, the NCAA Championships will be her last competition in a UCLA uniform.
Suffice to say, if Holliday fails to claim first, she will be rooting for O’Hara.
“It’s her senior year, and we’re really good friends,” Holliday said of O’Hara. “I’d rather see her get first. She said she’d rather see me get first than Amy, too. We don’t want a sophomore coming up and beating us.”
The Championships will be a culmination of sorts for Holliday, at least for the collegiate season. In what she has described as a tough season, especially with becoming acclimated to the Oregon squad, Holliday is a favorite to start the Ducks off on the right foot.
Oregon finished with two points in 2001. If Holliday can place in the top three as expected, it will give Oregon at least six points after one day, which would have placed the Ducks at No. 37 this past season.
“Toward the end of the season, I’m getting closer to the heights I’ve wanted,” Holliday said. “I’m definitely peaking right now.”