The Oregon women’s track and field team continued its trend of improvement as the road to the Pacific-10 Conference championships looms just ahead.
In fact, a cold and windy day did not deter the women from setting new personal bests at the three-day Oregon Invitational at Hayward Field, which ended Saturday.
“We had some good performances,” head coach Martin Smith said. “I’m really pleased with the women. They have gotten better every week and they had some really plus showings.”
Those improved showings began right from the start.
In the first event of Saturday’s morning session, sophomore Haripurkh Khalsa won the 5,000-meter race and beat her previous personal record by 12 seconds at 17:25.33. The time was good enough to meet the Pac-10 standard of 17:30.14. Khalsa paced herself throughout the middle portion of the race before pulling ahead late to win by less than a second over Sitges Marshall of Highline Community College.
“My goal was to qualify for Pac-10s and I got that,” Khalsa said. “My race was a little uneven. I felt pretty good and, in the end, I kicked it in.”
In the last event of the morning, junior Bree Fuqua also claimed victory in the discus with a throw of 164 feet, 1 inch. Fuqua, a first-year transfer from Wisconsin, improved her Oregon best by more than three feet and fell just under 18 inches short of earning a new personal record.
Her teammate senior Jill Hoxmeier took third in the event with a mark of 160-5. Afterward, however, Hoxmeier expressed disappointment with her effort, saying she hoped for higher marks coming in.
“I wasn’t feeling as good as in practice,” Hoxmeier said. “I’m never satisfied. I’ve been wanting to throw 164 for a couple weeks.”
The women went on to continue their strong showings through the twilight session of the meet after the break.
The first event of the evening saw more personal records fall in the hammer throw. First-year Ducks Megan Kriz and Katie Kersh gained more than a foot on their bests, despite placing fourth and sixth in the event, respectively.
Kersh climbed up to sixth all-time in Oregon history with her throw of 174-11. Kriz, a transfer from Portland State, earned a mark of 184-01, which moved her into third all-time.
Kriz, whose sister Rachael is also a member of the Oregon track and field team, said she had a tough week of practice going in and felt unsatisfied after the Invite.
“I didn’t feel very good coming into it,” Kriz said. “My first two warm-ups were in the cage. (My PR) was all right, but it didn’t go far enough.”
In other field events, redshirt junior and former All-American Sarah Malone dominated her competition again in the javelin with a mark of 174-5. The throw was almost 10 feet more than the second-place finisher, Sherbrooke Club’s Dominique Bilodeau.
Malone is not only one of the top javelin throwers in the country, but is ranked among the best in the world. Her Oregon record of 179-7, achieved at the Texas Relays earlier this year, is the third best mark in the nation and also places her 26th in the world among throws in 2004.
However, the Invite’s late start — around six in the evening — had an effect on Malone as she said she felt a little slow with her delivery but was helped out by the strong winds.
“Overall, I did good,” Malone said. “It was good conditions, great crowd, but it was a little late for me. I enjoy throwing in headwind, so I used it to my advantage. I know a lot of the girls struggled with it, but I don’t mind it at all.”
Other notable showings included redshirt sophomore Sara Schaaf and redshirt junior Taylor Bryant earning Pac-10 qualifers and new personal bests in the 1,500-meters with times of 4:38.04 and 4:38.06, respectively.
“The women need to continue taking another step up in the next three weeks (heading into Pac-10s),” Smith said. “And they’ve been pretty consistent doing that.”