Carrie Zografos runs one of the wettest, wildest and hardest races on the track.
Not only does the redshirt senior run seven and a half laps around, but she has to clear four barriers set at 33 inches high during every lap. And the most interesting part of the steeplechase is the water pit athletes jump into on the end of the back stretch.
“The water pit is pretty hard and a pretty brutal impact on your body,” Zografos said. “It’s a different kind of endurance and being controlled. It’s hard.”
The Portland native owns Oregon’s best-ever time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 10 minutes and 42 seconds, which she set in 2002.
Zografos is finally getting to the injury-free point after an overuse hip injury, which hasn’t allowed her to race outdoors this season. The cross country star will race for the first time on Saturday at the Oregon Invitational in the 5,000 meters.
“My endurance training has been OK and I’m just going to try and salvage the season,” Zografos said.
It will be the first race for Zografos since the NCAA Cross Country Championships in the fall, where she finished 33rd in 20:32.
Zografos emerged as the team’s fastest runner in her final season and fellow teammate Magdalena Sandoval thinks she is underestimating herself for this weekend.
“She will surprise herself and her training has been more adequate than she probably gives herself credit for,” Sandoval said. “She’s driven, she wants to race, she wants to do really well and that’s what she expects from herself.”
Zografos’ distance-running days began in her sophomore year at Colorado, her first college. The Central Catholic graduate was a sprinter in her younger days, but in
college, transitioned to longer distances.
Now she has emerged as one of Oregon’s most elite distance runners, holds an all-time-best record as a Duck and earned her first All-American honors in the fall.
When asked how to describe Zografos in one word, Sandoval replied, “amazing.”

Who’s close and who has to stretch?
With the Pacific-10 Conference Championships less than a month away and NCAA Regionals two weeks later, some athletes are close to qualifying marks whereas others will have to stretch.
Senior Eri Macdonald has easily qualified in the 800 meters, but her 1,500 meter time of 4:34.72 is shy of the 4:31 qualifying mark. Redshirt sophomore Laura Harmon is a mere .31 seconds shy of the regional qualifying mark in the 1,500 as well.
Senior Clarice Hayward-Lee hit a personal best in the triple jump on the weekend of 39 feet, 10 1/2 inches. Her eight-inch improvement places her near the 40-foot regional qualifier.
Junior Jill Hoxmeier is just two feet from qualifying in the discus but she must stretch over seven feet to qualify in the hammer.

On her way up
Even though senior Becky Holliday upped her own school record on Saturday, she is far from satisfied.
The mark of 14-5 1/4 was an improvement of two inches but Holliday said she wanted to jump 14-8 at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays and that it would be a mental barrier.
Holliday’s ultimate goal is to reach 15-1 this season, which would surpass the top collegiate mark thus far of 14-10 1/4 by Arizona’s Amy Linnen.