In March, the term “bubble” is thrown around in reference to college basketball teams that are on the brink of making the NCAA Tournament.
Now, several athletes from the Oregon men’s track and field team are on the bubble.
Nick Bakke, the Oregon sophomore and surprise winner of the Pacific-10 Conference javelin title on Saturday, sits in 22nd position nationally after his 21-foot personal best. He and hurdler Brandon Holliday will wait anxiously today for the NCAA to hand down final decisions on who will qualify for the national championships.
“Right now it’s up in the air,” Bakke said Wednesday. “I’ll be training right up until I know.”
The NCAA takes at least 16 athletes in each event, often more if the marks in that event are particularly good. Five Oregon athletes are safely within the 16-athlete limit, while Jason Slye and Eric Logsdon are ranked 31st and 35th, respectively, and are too low on the list to expect qualification. But Bakke and Holliday, who are ranked 24th nationally, can only keep all fingers crossed that their fields are expanded.
“I’ll be disappointed if I don’t go, but I won’t be heartbroken because I ended the season with a bang,” Bakke said.
Holliday and Bakke might have another chance to move up the list, if athletes above them are unable to compete. Coaches will confirm athletes from their teams this morning, and those decisions will affect the lists below them. Oregon coach Martin Smith will have to declare John Stiegeler unfit to compete in the javelin because of an injury, so Bakke will at least move to 21st on the national list. He could move up further if other teams have similar situations.
Even if Bakke misses the cut, he says he’ll hold on to his Pac-10 championship.
“I haven’t had time to sit down and think about it,” Bakke said of his title. “But it feels good.”
Billy Pappas, another Oregon Pac-10 title winner, knows he’s going to the national meet, and says his focus will be recovering from the Pac-10s. Pappas won the conference decathlon title two weeks ago, then returned to a week later to score points in the long jump.
Senior decathlete Billy Pappas, the Pac-10 champion, is one of six Oregon athletes with an NCAA bid already locked up.
“I was expecting to do well,” Pappas said of the decathlon. “You never know what’s going to happen, but I thought I had a good chance to win.”
Now, Pappas says he will enjoy the longer-than-usual break between meets, as the national meet doesn’t start until Wednesday. The first decathlon events will be Friday.
Harrowing Harris finish
The times on the final scoresheet tell you how close the final of the Pac-10 110 hurdles was:
1. Wilson, Ryan. USC. 13.81.
2. Harris, Micah. Oregon. 13.82.
But how close was the race,
really?
“Oh … my … God, that race was so close,” Harris said at practice Wednesday. “The guy on one side said I won it, the other side said the guy might have gotten me by a fingertip or an eyelash. It was too close to see from the human eye.”
Thankfully, the computers settled it and named the Trojans’ Wilson the winner of the race. But Harris said he wasn’t too disappointed about losing to the second-ranked hurdler in the nation, especially when both hurdlers are headed to the NCAA Championships as automatic qualifiers.
“That’s how it is at Pac-10s, it’s the best guys,” Harris said. “He’s not a bad hurdler. It was definitely a good experience going into NC’s.”
That might be the ultimate reason for Harris’ lack of disappointment. He will see Wilson again. One can only hope that race is as thrilling as their Pac-10 meeting.
Changing lanes
It’s not the most controversial sports selection process, but the NCAA track and field selection method does leave a large margin for personal error.
That’s why they’re changing things up.
Next season, the NCAA will institute four regional-qualifying meets for the first time ever. The regional meets, similar to the regional qualifying tournaments in NCAA golf, will streamline the qualifying process. The qualifying marks for regional tournaments will be lower than current NCAA provisional marks, and will allow for larger amounts of athletes. The NCAA will then select from the regional pools.
Hayward Field will not host a regional meet in the foreseeable future, because the regional meets are tentatively scheduled for the weekend of the Prefontaine Classic and Oregon state championship meets.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday
at [email protected].