The road back to national prominence begins for the Oregon women’s track and field team at the NCAA West Regional Qualifier today in Northridge, Calif.
The two-day competition, held at the Matador Track and Field Complex, is one of four regional meets this weekend. The top five finishers from each regional event will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, which start June 9 in Austin, Texas.
The field events are expected to net the Duck women the best scores.
Kirsten Larwin enters the pole vault ranked fourth in the West after earning a personal record of 13 feet, 6 1/4 inches at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships two weeks ago. Larwin, a senior from Eugene, was hobbled by a foot injury at this time last year, but is now in full health and hopes to end her year on a high note.
“I’ll do my best to try to shoot for that top five,” Larwin said. “It’s one more meet to prepare and it’s more time to get that much better. Last year at this meet, I knew I wasn’t going to do well.”
Larwin said she hopes her career best is good enough anyway for an NCAA at-large bid. After the regional meets are over, the NCAA committee will select five to eight athletes, who did not finish in the top five, to be invited to the national championships based on season bests.
Fellow Oregon pole-vaulter Emily Enders is on the cusp of earning an automatic invite in her first year competing at the collegiate level. Enders, a freshman from Snohomish, Wash., is rated sixth after also achieving a personal best at the Pac-10 Championships with a mark of 13-2 1/4.
One of the most anticipated events going into regionals is a rematch of Southern California’s Inga Stasiulionyte and Oregon’s Sarah Malone in the javelin throw. The two are ranked first and second in the region, respectively, and have had epic battles, the most recent coming two weeks ago at Pac-10s.
Malone, who is ranked third nationally, led the event after the first two rounds before Stasiulionyte, the 2001 NCAA Javelin champion, took over first place after three throws with a mark of 177-4. The USC senior never relinquished the lead and ended up winning her fourth straight Pac-10 javelin title.
Other Oregon field event hopefuls include Bree Fuqua in the shot put (sixth, 52-5 1/2) and the discus (14th, 164-0 1/2), Clarice Hayward-Lee in the triple jump (11th, 40-8 3/4) and Rachael Kriz in the high jump (16th, 5-8).
On the track, the Ducks have three athletes ranked in the top 10 in the West.
Sofie Abildtrup enters the 400-meter dash rated fifth with her personal best of 52.92 seconds from the Pac-10 Championships. Abildtrup has been bothered by a hamstring problem recently, but is confident going into this weekend.
“Last week after Pac-10s, I rested a whole lot,” Abildtrup said. “My first hard workout was this past Sunday. I’m seeded fifth right now and if I can hold that position, then I’ll qualify for nationals, and that’s my hope.”
Laura Harmon goes into the 5,000-meters ranked ninth in the field with her season best of 16:46.97 from the Stanford Invitational in late March. Harmon said she hopes to improve her time after resting the past few weeks.
“I think I have an outside shot (at nationals),” Harmon said. “I’m definitely going to go in and try. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”
Other Oregon representatives in running events include Sara Schaaf in the 800-meters (seventh, 2:08.08) and Kayla Mellott in the 400-meter hurdles (17th, 1:00.72).