Over the past decade, the makeup of collegiate track and field teams has changed drastically. Where teams were once measured in overall depth and well-roundedness, teams are now measured almost solely on their performance at the NCAA Championships.
Under the guidance of legendary coaches Bill Bowerman and Bill Dellinger, Oregon track and field teams were built into national powerhouses. Duck teams were deep, won meets and scored many points at the NCAA championships.
Towards the end of Dellinger’s coaching career, several trends began to change collegiate track and field. The reduction of athletic scholarships made teams less deep. Also, the influx of star international athletes made it easy to for teams to score many points at the NCAA meet with only a handful of entrants.
Through the 1990s, Oregon stayed true to its heritage and kept a deep, well-rounded roster of mostly in-state athletes, but found itself falling by the wayside in the national scene.
In three years at the helm of the Oregon men’s track and field team, head coach Martin Smith has helped make the transition from a traditional team into one that scores many points at the NCAA Championships, which will take place at Hayward Field from May 30-June 2.
Smith has a bright outlook for the 2001 campaign with a strong group of returning NCAA qualifiers, Pacific-10 Conference meet placers and the nation’s top recruiting class.
“We’re excited to get started,” Smith said. “We had a very fine recruiting year, a good fall of training and I think across the board were very complete, with quality at both the national level and at the conference level.”
The returning cast
With two returning All-Americans, 11 Pac-10 placers and 28 returning athletes, the 2001 Ducks will have experience in addition to one of the best recruiting classes in school history.
Juniors Jason Boness and Santiago Lorenzo return after scoring at the NCAA meet a year ago.
Boness is the school record holder in the high jump at 7-feet, 5-inches, and is the defending Pac-10 Champion. Since placing seventh at the NCAA outdoor championships, Boness competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials and earned his third All-American honors last weekend at the NCAA indoor championships.
Lorenzo was one of Oregon’s biggest surprises last season, improving from a would-be nationals qualifier to an NCAA placer in the decathlon. The Buenos Aires, Argentina, native offers a balanced attack, with his strengths in the pole vault, javelin, 400 meters and 1,500 meters.
Stepping out of the shadow of graduated Steve Fein in the long distances is redshirt freshman Jason Hartmann. The 5,000-10,000-meter specialist enters his first outdoor track season after two successful cross country and indoor campaigns.
“I’m very excited about outdoors because I redshirted last year,” Hartmann said. “Indoors gave me a good feel of where I was at, now I just want to keep improving and finish the season better than I started.”
Filling the holes
Athletes who will be looking to make the next step from Pac-10 caliber to NCAA qualifier will make a big difference in Oregon’s season.
“We think it’s a much more improved team from an athletic perspective,” Smith said. “We feel we’ve been able to fill a lot of holes we had last year and the kids are excited and looking forward to being an improved team at the conference and national level.”
Across the Pac-10 form chart, several Ducks who placed at the conference meet a year ago look to move up and score big points.
One of Oregon’s few multi-event scorers was junior John Bello in the throws. The former football player placed sixth in the shot put and fifth in the discus. Bello will be looking for Pac-10 and NCAA qualifying marks this season.
Sophomore Foluso Akinradewo is Oregon’s top returning jumper and has already earned a Pac-10 qualifying mark in the triple jump (48-10 1/4) from the indoor season.
Junior Ross Krempley was one of Oregon’s more exciting athletes in 2000. The 800-meter specialist’s personal best is less than a second off of the school top-10 list at 1:49.7 and two seconds shy of an automatic NCAA berth.
Senior’s Michael Kasahun in the distances and Ryan Keith in the javelin are other keys to Oregon’s success.
No. 1 recruiting class
Track and Field News magazine rated Oregon’s 2001 recruiting class the best in the nation.
“We went after the best possible athletes we could find, regardless of the event.” Smith said. “Some people are very blue-chip oriented. We’ll see a very strong hurdle crew and we recruited well in the distances.”
Two freshmen come in with the top prep marks nationally. Adam Jenkins, a freshman from Gladstone, owns the nation’s best javelin mark (229 feet, 2 inches) while Canby’s Eric Logsdon ran the fastest prep 3,000 in recent years (8:10).
Trevor Woods should make an immediate impact in the pole vault with a career best 17-1.
Jake Garlick, a freshman from Salt Lake City, is the top incoming hurdler. He joins junior transfer Micah Harris and freshman Paul Moorhead with the hurdle crew.
Junior college transfer Simon Kimata ran a 1:47 800 meters in 1999 before suffering an Achilles injury. Smith expects Kimata to be at full strength by the Washington dual meet on April 14.
Oregon’s All-Americans, Pac-10 placers and blue chips will take to Hayward Field this weekend for the Oregon Preview, the first of six premier home meets this season.
