The Oregon women’s track and field team is starting to see signs of improvement in the program’s first year under new head coach Martin Smith.
Several Ducks are achieving new personal bests and are moving up the all-time Oregon lists in only the first part of the spring season.
Leading the new era for the Oregon women is redshirt junior Sarah Malone. The Newberg, Ore., native set an Oregon school record in the javelin with a mark of 179 feet, 2 inches at the annual Texas Relays meet Saturday. Malone said the experience of going to Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas — the site of this year’s NCAA Championships in two months — was a lot of fun.
“It was great to get here a few days early so you can cheer your teammates on and get into the flow,” Malone said.
However, when she compared the Texas meet’s environment and its officials to Eugene, Malone said there is some similarity between the two, but Oregon is ultimately better.
“This is a terrific atmosphere and a great crowd,” Malone said. “And the officials are also great — almost as good as the ones at Hayward Field.”
Malone’s efforts highlighted the Ducks’ performance this past weekend. In her meet, she defeated some elite athletes that included the American record holder in the javelin, Kim Kreiner, and two-time NCAA runner-up and USC senior Inge Stasiulionyte.
“This is the best day and series I’ve had in my career and against the best competition you can get,” Malone said Saturday. “Kim is an American-record holder, and Inge always throws awesome at big meets. I got better as I went along today, and that’s really satisfying. That doesn’t happen a lot to me, except in Texas it seems. I always seem to throw well here.”
Freshman Emily Enders also came up huge for Oregon after winning the B
section of the women’s pole vault. The Snohomish, Wash., native earned a personal outdoor best in the event with a mark of 12-9 1/2.
“I didn’t have the best of practices early (last) week,” Enders said. “But I saw the big winds the guys had yesterday, and that got me excited (technique-wise).
“My first jumps were better technically, and I was able get a good plant, takeoff and rock back, but I wasn’t as sharp on my last make. The wind wasn’t as big as it was, but (it) still helped since they were still mostly from behind.”
Redshirt junior Laura Harmon is another piece of the rebuilding and transition process for the women’s program. Harmon, a middle-distance runner, knocked almost 26 seconds off her 5,000-meter personal best two weeks ago at the Stanford Invitational with a time of 16 minutes, 46.97 seconds.
Harmon said she is happy and satisfied with her performance thus far and hopes to continue improving after each meet.
“It’s good to start on the right foot and to start off on the right track,” Harmon said.
Harmon also credits the new coaching staff for the new-found success of the women’s squad this year.
“I think we’re going to get a lot better consistently,” Harmon said. “I think things are starting to come together more with our coaches. They’re helping, and people are improving.”
Other Ducks that are seeing those improvements in their efforts are redshirt juniors Bree Fuqua and Rachael Kriz. Fuqua, a transfer from Wisconsin, where she holds the Badgers’ shot put record, also obtained an outdoor Oregon personal best of 50-11 1/2 in the shot put at the Texas Relays.
Kriz added a regional qualifier at the Stanford Invitational with a mark of 137-2 in the javelin.
The women look forward to the Pepsi Team Invitational meet Saturday at Hayward Field.