A.K. Ikwuakor is having one of the more successful seasons of any Oregon men’s track and field athlete.
It’s just that nobody outside of the program knows about it.
The sophomore transfer from Colorado specializes in the 110 and 400 meter hurdles, scoring points for Oregon in both during the Pacific-10 Conference Championships 10 days ago. His accomplishments, however, have gone mostly unnoticed as the Ducks feature two of the conferences best hurdlers.
While Ikwuakor placed third at Pac-10s in the 110-hurdles with his second fastest wind legal time of the season (14.26 seconds), most of the recognition went to teammate Eric Mitchum, who won the event with a time of 13.62.
While Ikwuakor scored a point for the Ducks by finishing eighth in the 400 hurdles (54.46), the attention went to teammate Brandon Holliday, who finished fourth with a personal best time of 50.52.
“I’ve taken a lot of second places behind those guys, but I consider myself lucky to compete against some of the best in the country,” Ikwuakor said. “I just went to Pac-10s looking to score some points. I didn’t want to be in the spotlight or anything, I just wanted to get the job done.”
Ikwuakor’s contributions to the team don’t go unnoticed by his teammates.
“He’s the silent hero of this team,” Mitchum said of Ikwuakor. “He doesn’t get the pub(licty) that Brandon and I get, but he’s always here doing his job.”
While Ikwuakor hasn’t experienced the success of Mitchum or Holliday, Oregon sprints coach Dan Steele said all the 6-foot-4 speedster needs to do to run similar times is improve on his technique.
“A.K. believes he can beat those guys,” Steele said. “But technically, he’s not good. He has a long way to go, but he does have the ability to do some phenomenal things on the track to keep him in races.
“When he gets his timing down, he can rip through those hurdles faster than anyone on the team. The problem is, when his timing isn’t there, he tends to get off balance and lose his rhythm.”
Ikwuakor will focus solely on the 110 hurdles for the NCAA West Regional Qualifier this weekend. He will enter the event as the fifth seed, and if he can hold his ground, he will make a trip to the NCAAs.
While he hasn’t bettered the times he set during his freshman season at Colorado (14.10 in the 110 hurdles, 51.99 in the 400 hurdles), he said qualifying for nationals would make the season a successful one.
“I’m going to say my season was average or great,” Ikwuakor said. “I might not have hit my times from last season, but I’m happy I scored at conference. Making it to nationals would be a great feeling and could make an average season into a great one.”

Skipper’s strategy
With his school record-breaking clearance of 18 feet, 8 3/4 inches during the indoor campaign, freshman pole vaulter Tommy Skipper assured himself a trip to the NCAA Championships.
With that in mind, the Sandy native is looking to focus on improving his technique during regionals, rather than worry about coming up with a top five mark.

“I’m just looking to work on my technique, and I know people are getting tired of hearing that and I keep repeating it,” Skipper said, “but that’s all I’m trying to work on. When it all comes together it’s going to be a good day because I’ve been working hard.
“Coach (Mark) Vanderville has been working hard with us and it may come together this week or it may come together later.”
Skipper won the Pac-10 pole vault title 11 days ago with a clearance of 18-3 1/4. While his successes may bring added intensity from his opponents, Skipper said he welcomes the competition.
“I’m hoping those other guys who are jumping against me want to beat me as bad as I want to beat them,” Skipper said. “There’s some good jumpers in the region and they’re fully capable of jumping 18-4 or 18-6, but like I always say, I’m just going to go out and compete as hard as I can for myself and my teammates.”