With winds gusting harder than three meters per second Saturday, a pair of Oregon pole vaulters made the necessary adjustments for a quality showing at the Oregon Invitational.
Senior Trevor Woods improved his 2004 outdoor season best, clearing the bar at 17 feet, 1 inch en route to a second place finish behind Matt Phillips of the Willamette Striders (first, 17-9). Woods’ previous outdoor season best was 16-9 1/4, which he set at the Pepsi Team Invitational.
The Coos Bay native garnered All-American status during his sophomore and junior seasons and is poised to make a run at a third such honor.
“Trevor’s getting back with that vault over 17 feet,” Oregon head coach Martin Smith said.
Redshirt sophomore Jon Derby finished third while setting a 2 1/2 inch personal best at 16-9 1/4. The North Bend native was especially happy with his mark after recording no heights during his last two meets.
“It felt pretty good,” Derby said. “Coming off of two no heights, it’s nice to actually come into a (personal record). It helps the confidence a lot.”
Derby said the reasons for his success were his choice to drop down to a shorter pole and his ability to adjust his footwork to compensate for the gusting wind.
“I’ve never felt wind that strong,” Derby said. “It’s hard to actually adjust your step to it. A couple of times you take off really far under and a couple of times you take off really far out. It’s hard to get the step on, but after that, the wind helps a lot. It’s like having somebody throw you.”

Taking a break
Sophomore Eric Mitchum won the 400-meter hurdles (52.30 seconds) for the second time in three weeks at Hayward Field but did not compete in his signature event, the 110 hurdles.
Smith said the Oregon coaching staff didn’t want to overuse Mitchum on a windy day with the Pacific-10 Conference Championships only three weeks away.
“We don’t want to overrace him,” Smith said. “He’s really in a rhythm in the 110 hurdles and we needed to do work in the intermediates without overworking him or overextending him. We were hoping there would be a little less breeze, because that’s really a factor in the intermediates. I mean, he had tights on out there. I said, ‘Eric? You’re getting soft out there kid.’”
Mitchum said he was happy to win the 400 hurdles, but he won’t bring his time into consideration because of the heavy winds.
“The temperature was all right, but the wind was kicking,” Mitchum said. “It was real hard on the backstretch.”

Back to work
While Matt Scherer was happy with his 2004 outdoor debut Saturday in the 400, the sophomore knows he has a lot more work to do.
The Sumner, Ill., native won the event (47.11) after nursing a right hamstring injury. Scherer said the meet’s purpose was to continue working toward the Pac-10s.
“I just wanted to come out here and give my leg a really good test,” Scherer said. “My main focus right now is the Pac-10s. I just want to be ready for that.”
Oregon coaches were impressed with Scherer’s race and feel he can make considerable progress during the next three weeks.
“Coach (Dan) Steele was really pleased with Matt’s first race since indoors,” Smith said. “It was really windy and he ran a 47.11 and stayed healthy. We’d like to think he’ll take some more steps over the next couple of weeks.”