Early Saturday afternoon, Oregon freshman Jordan Kent had the Pepsi Team Invitational long jump in hand, so he ditched the long jump pit, ran across Hayward Field, changed quickly into a sprinting uniform and switched spikes. He ran back across the infield, getting to the track’s Bowerman curve just in time to run the anchor leg of the 4×100-meter relay.
As the large Hayward crowd swelled around him, Kent got the baton at the same time as Minnesota’s two-time All-American, senior Andy Wholin. Kent and Wholin battled down the home stretch, but Kent’s tired legs couldn’t catch Wholin, and the Gophers took the relay by less than a second.
But even if Kent didn’t catch Wholin on this day, he gave the crowd the sense that he’ll be catching — and passing — opponents for a long time as a Duck.
“I think I did one too many long jumps,” Kent said. “But it was a lot of fun to finally get out here and get my feet wet.”
Kent’s first meet as a Duck coincided with Oregon’s first team-scoring meet of 2003. And with the help of a Kent-led, talented freshman class and a strong upperclassmen contingent, the Ducks dominated the competition at the Pepsi Team Invitational. Oregon won early and often, finishing with 211 points to second-place Minnesota’s 171. Washington finished with 113 and Colorado ended with 108.
“As a team, you saw a lot of good athletic efforts out there today,” Oregon head coach Martin Smith said after the meet.
The most surprising athletic efforts came on the track. Reversing the Duck stigma, Oregon won with sprinting and faltered in the distances. Football players Samie Parker, who won the 100, and Jason Willis, who finished third in the 100 and second in the 200, had a lot to do with that. Then there were the freshmen: Eric Mitchum took the 110 hurdles and the all-freshman 4×100 relay team finished only .20 seconds behind Minnesota. The Ducks scored 33 points in the 100, 200 and 400, but scored only 22 in the 800, 1,500 and 3,000.
But the day started with success on the field. John Stiegeler, who won the 2001 javelin national championship but redshirted last season with a knee injury, won Saturday’s javelin section and fellow Duck Adam Jenkins finished second, giving Oregon a quick 16 points in the team competition. Stiegeler, whose 220-foot throw was far short of his pre-injury Oregon record of 252-10, said he still isn’t happy with where he’s at in his comeback.
“I couldn’t get it to quite come together today,” he said.
The Ducks’ field success continued as Adam Kriz won the hammer competition with a seven-foot personal best of 217-10, which put him fifth on the national list and fifth all-time at Oregon. Kent followed with his win in the long jump, and then the track stars took over. By mid-afternoon, the Ducks had the team competition won.
The victory over Minnesota was a notch in Oregon’s belt for the season, as the Golden Gophers were the top-ranked dual meet team coming out of the indoor season. Minnesota was ranked 15th in Trackwire.com’s rankings headed into the meet, and the Gophers have talent comparable to several Pacific-10 Conference teams. The Ducks will head to Los Angeles for the Pac-10 Championships in less than a month.
“That’s what it’s all about, that team competition,” Stiegeler said. “We did our job today.”
But besides winning Pac-10s, the Ducks are also trying to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Oregon athletes scored six new NCAA-regional qualifying marks Saturday, including Kent in the long jump, Foluso Akinradewo in the triple jump, Mitchum, Santiago Lorenzo and Brandon Holliday in the 400 hurdles and Eric Logsdon in the 1,500.
Oregon’s next home meet will be the Oregon Invitational on April 26. A handful of Ducks will head to California this weekend for the Mt. San Antonio College relays.
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