The Oregon women’s track team has rounded the final turn and reached the home stretch after a season that has flown by like the strong wind of the backstretch.
The journey is coming to a close as the Ducks play host to more than 1,000 entries for this weekend’s Oregon Invitational. It’s the first of two final season regular tests before the championship slate.
With the Oregon Twilight on May 3 and the Pacific-10 Conference Championships a mere two weeks away, the Ducks are ready for the final gear down.
“We feel really good about where we are,” Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said. “This meet’s as big as we can let it get. It’s a good level of competition for our athletes.”
Among the competition arriving at Hayward Field is a large collegiate crowd from the West Coast, some post-collegiate entries, and elite distance squads from Northern Arizona, Wake Forest and Weber State.
The 1,500-meter race should prove competitive with a long list of elite talent, including NCAA indoor mile champion Johanna Nilsson of Northern Arizona, who also won the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in 4 minutes, 10 seconds.
A group of post-collegiate entries include athletes from Nike, Asics and Kathrine Berry of Britain.
The women’s 5,000 kicks off Saturday’s action at 10 a.m. where redshirt senior Carrie Zografos will dust off her spikes and set her sights on the 17-minute mark, the regional standard.
The cross-country All-American may be a little rusty having not raced since the NCAA Cross Country Championships in the fall because of a hip injury.
“She’s short on training so there is no guarantee,” Heinonen said. “I don’t have a clue if she’s ready so we’ll take what we can get.”
Senior Eri Macdonald will rekindle once again her rivalry in the 800 meters against Washington’s Courtney Inman. Macdonald and Inman went head-to-head and side-by-side for 700 meters in the Pepsi Invitational until Macdonald outsprinted the Husky for the win and a season best of 2:07.40.
Macdonald earned a Pac-10 and regional qualifying mark with that season-best time and is among a large group who have succeeded in postseason qualification.
Oregon has 28 other athletes who have qualified for the conference meet with 18, including Macdonald, reaching a regional mark.
All five of the Ducks’ pole vaulters have cleared the heights to earn both qualifying marks of 12 feet and 12-5 1/2. The Oregon quintet will begin in Saturday’s twilight session at 5:05 p.m.
The Oregon All-American duo of Elisa Crumley and Roslyn Lundeen will continue their quest for the 160-foot line in the javelin. The two sophomores have already qualified for Pac-10s and regionals.
Junior transfer Abby Andrus is honing in on her 5,000-point mark in hopes of earning an NCAA provisional qualifying mark after day one. After four events including the 100 hurdles, high jump, shot put and 200 meters, Andrus has 2,979 points and is in fourth place.
Andrus says she is usually stronger in the second day, with the long jump, javelin and 800 meters still to come, and that she is now just competing.
“I’m not going to listen for points,” Andrus said. “I’m not going to run for points. I’m not going to jump for points.”
The heptathlon wraps up today and the competitive madness will start at 10 a.m. with the twilight session beginning at 4:45 p.m.