Heading into the indoor track and field season, head coach Robert Johnson wants his team to remember the phrase “Champions do extra.” Considering the number of athletes that are no longer with the program following last year’s national titles for both the men (No. 2) and women (No. 3), this team will have to do quite a bit more than last year to repeat its success.
The athletes that left the program accounted for about one third of the men’s total points in nationals last season, along with over half for the women. After losing key contributors such as Phyllis Francis and Mac Fleet to graduation, the Ducks will rely on a fresh crop of athletes to return the program to the top of the sport this season.
“Those are large numbers that you’re going to have to overcome,” said Johnson. “We lost a lot of good people, both off the men’s and women’s team.”
The Ducks will look to their freshmen in top-ranked recruiting classes for both the men (No. 2) and women (No.1) to fill their needs. Johnson, however, warns that relying on freshmen can often be dangerous.
“I caution that any time you have freshmen coming in, freshmen sometimes do young and dumb things, which is nothing unusual,” Johnson said. “But we like to think that we have a very talented group of young people and we’ll see how they shake out at the end of the year.”
One freshman the Ducks will look to this season is sprinter Ariana Washington, who ranks highly in last year’s recruiting class. Washington believes that she is prepared to fill in both as a contributor on the track and a leader off.
“Especially in high school, I’ve always been a leader when I was a sophomore and a freshman,” Washington said. “I feel like that really helps me here and I really feel like I’m a natural born leader. I just like to take people with me wherever I’m going.”
On top of a talent-laden recruiting class, the Ducks also landed distance runner Waverly Neer, a transfer from Columbia University. After a tenth place finish in this year’s Pac-12 Cross Country Championships, the junior will add to an already impressive group of distance runners. Though it’s her first season at Oregon, she will also look to fill a leadership role immediately.
“I’m an upperclassman. Even though I am new, I still feel like I have some leadership roles to fill,” Neer said. “We have really great leaders on the distance side, but it is my goal, personally, to contribute to the points in my event and just lead by example and do the little things right.”
Neer will likely have every opportunity to do just that, as the Ducks will rely on each member of the team, regardless of age, for leadership.
“There’s really no said leader,” Washington said. “Let’s just say Jenna (Prandini, redshirt junior and long jumper) knows something that I don’t know. She’ll help me because there’s certain things that I know how to do and Jenna doesn’t. I feel like everyone on the team meshes that way.”
Coach Johnson expects to use this Saturday’s meet at Washington, the first of the season, as a measuring stick before many of the veterans begin competition in Kentucky next Friday and Saturday.
Follow Jack Heffernan on Twitter @JHeffy13