Sophomore All-American Eric Mitchum’s performance in the 110 hurdles capped a successful weekend for the Oregon men’s track and field team.
The Calumet City, Ill., native finished second (13.50) Saturday at the 77th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin.
Mitchum’s time fell below the Oregon record of Micah Harris (13.67, 2002) by .17, but Saturday’s wind was measured at 3.0 meters per second, a full meter per second more than the allowable limit of 2.0. Florida junior Joshua Walker bettered Mitchum by .03 (13.47) for the win.
Mitchum’s time was .23 seconds better than his previous windy best (13.73) from the 2003 Pacific-10 Conference Championships. The time also met the Pac-10 and regional qualifying marks (14.74/14.33).
“I was very happy with my race,” Mitchum said. “It was a pretty good start, and I had pretty good frequency between the hurdles, and was snapping down pretty good. I was right on with my steps and in control the whole way. When I crossed the line and looked back at the scoreboard, I was a little surprised by the time. We’ve been working pretty hard in practice to be ready for this meet, but we weren’t expecting to go that fast. I just tried to run my race and hope for the best.”
Also on the track, the Duck 4×400 relay team of sophomore Travis Anderson, junior Scott Lamb, senior Brandon Holliday and junior Kedar Inico finished with the seventh-best time in Oregon history (3:08.51), which was also good for a 2 1/2 second season best.
Despite gracing the Oregon record books, the Ducks finished eighth in the university section as competition was stiff. UCLA won the event with a time of 3:04.25, followed by Texas Tech (second, 3:05.44) and Florida State (third, 3:05.79).
Inico made his debut for Oregon Friday after recently transferring from Barton Community College in Great Bend, Kan. The Queens, N.Y., native brought an impressive résumé to Oregon, including a 2003 national junior college championship in the 400 indoors (47.7) and a second place finish in the 400 outdoors (46.64).
Tommy Skipper also raised his outdoor best in the pole vault Saturday, clearing 17 feet, 8 1/2 inches. The freshman All-American finished fourth among collegiate athletes, upping his personal best by two inches.
Nebraska senior Eric Eshbach finished tops in the event (18-4 1/2), followed by UCLA’s Yoo Kim (second, 18-0 1/2) and John Russell (third, 17-8 1/2).
Oregon sophomore Jeff Lindsey matched his 2004 outdoor season best in the high jump, (6-8 3/4) while finishing tied for 13th. The Mansfield, Texas, native met the Pac-10 standard but fell one inch shy of the regional qualifying mark. Teak Wilburn of California captured first in the event, clearing a height of 7-3.
Oregon junior Leonidas Watson highlighted Friday’s action, finishing fifth in the long jump (24-7 3/4). The St. Louis Community College transfer opened with a mark of 23-10 3/4 before reaching his daily best on his third jump.
The Duck men return home next week for the Pepsi Team Invitational on Saturday. Oregon’s competition will include Washington, Colorado and Minnesota. The Golden Gophers are the two-time defending Big Ten outdoor men’s team champion.