So, when Eric Logsdon ran part of the Cardinal Invite 5,000-meter race with only one shoe Friday, it turns out he was almost used to it.
Losing a shoe has happened twice before to Logsdon, who ran the fastest Oregon freshman 5,000 time in 22 years despite his equipment shortage. It happened to him in a cross country meet in Minnesota this past year, where he ran the last 4 1/2 miles with one shoe. It happened once in high school.
So when he was running in a pack on Friday, and one of his opponents clipped his heel, Logsdon’s reaction was to keep running.
And how fast he ran. His time was the fastest outdoor mark for a Duck this season, and remarkably came in Logsdon’s first-ever 5,000. Still, the time came as a surprise to everyone but Logsdon himself.
“We’ve been training for the 5K for a while,” Logsdon said. “So it was nice to get out there and run it.”
Now Logsdon has a dilemma: to run the 1,500 or the 5,000? He qualified for the Pacific-10 Championships in both events, but will only compete in one race at the conference meet on May 18 in Pullman, Wash.
“It will depend on where I can score the best,” Logsdon said.
That likely means the 5,000, where Logsdon ranks eighth in the conference after Friday’s performance. He is ranked lower in the 1,500, and the Pac-10 is noted for its strong runners in that event.
Logsdon is unsure of his status for this weekend’s Twilight Meet at Hayward Field. He said he might not compete so he can focus on Pac-10s.
Jordan Kent, the Ducks’ most prized recruit for next season, is currently making the high school kids wish he was already at Oregon.
Jordan, the son of Duck basketball coach Ernie Kent, is leading the Oregon high school ranks in four different events. He holds state records in the 200 and long jump, and he’s working on the 100 and the 400, the other two events that he leads in Oregon.
Ironically, Kent will attend Oregon on a basketball scholarship. The multi-sport star will play both sports next season. But when Kent returns to Hayward Field for the state high school championships May 24, it will give the Oregon fans a chance to see, up close, the Ducks’ biggest recruit doing his track thing.
The Ducks are climbing the national charts with strong individual showings over the past few weeks. Oregon jumped to ninth in the most recent “power rankings” on www.team-power.org, which ranks the national teams based on this season’s personal bests. The Ducks are ranked 24th by Trackwire, which uses methodology different from team-power.org.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday at [email protected]