Oregon’s indoor season gets underway
The Oregon men’s and women’s track and field indoor seasons finally got underway Saturday, and the Ducks began in fine fashion.
The Oregon women’s team earned one NCAA provisional qualifier, two indoor bests, four winners and 18 Mountain Pacific Championships qualifiers at the Husky Indoor Preview in Washington’s Dempsey Indoor.
Junior Magdalena Sandoval led all collegiate athletes in the 3,000-meter race after a 12-second personal best of 9 minutes, 33 seconds. It was the team’s only NCAA provisional mark as Sandoval finished third.
Senior Amanda Brown opened her final season with two wins in the long jump and triple jump. Brown was marked at 18 feet, 8 1/4 inches in the long jump and marked a personal best of 39-9 3/4 in the triple jump.
The Oregon men’s unit had equal success, accounting for 17 Mountain Pacific Championships marks, six Pac-10 marks and five wins.
Junior transfer Leon Watson won both the long jump (24-1 1/2) and the triple jump (50-8). Sophomore Ryan Flaherty won the 800-meter run (1:52.09) and senior James March threw 54-6 to win the shot put.
In the field, Oregon’s high-jump trio of sophomores — Jeff Lindsey (second, 6-10 3/4), Teddy Davis (fifth, 6-8 3/4) and freshman Bobby Owen (sixth, 6-8 3/4) — earned Pac-10 invites.
Oregon’s largest recruit of the off-season, freshman Tommy Skipper, cleared 16-10 3/4 in the pole vault. Skipper finished third overall and second among collegiates behind returning NCAA indoor champ Brad Walker of Washington and two-time World Championships qualifier Piotr Buciarski.

— Jesse Thomas