With championship competitions less than a month away for the Oregon men’s track and field team, the Ducks are nearing peak performance.
This weekend in Texas and California, Oregon got a little higher up on the peak.
The Ducks split up for trips to Austin, Texas, and Stanford, Calif., to hunt for more Pacific-10 and NCAA qualifying marks.
At the Texas Invitational, junior transfer Simon Kimata continued his triumphant recovery from a stress fracture by winning the 800 meters with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1 minute, 47.9 seconds. The mark is Oregon’s fourth automatic mark of the season.
Another junior transfer, Micah Harris, won the 110 hurdles and tied the Oregon school record in the process. Harris’ mark of 13.79 seconds equaled former NCAA qualifier Bob Gray’s time.
Following Harris to the line in the 110 hurdles were sophomore Terry Ellis, who finished third with a time of 14.04, freshman Jake Garlick, 15th with a 14.71, and sophomore decathlete Jason Slye, 22nd with a 15.42.
The sprinting corps received an unexpected boost from sophomore Samie Parker in the 100 and 200 meters. Parker, also a football player, qualified for the Pac-10 Championships with a personal best time of 10.59 in the 100.
Parker also collected the team’s fastest mark this season in the 200, but fell just short of a Pac-10 mark, placing 20th with a 21.44.
Sophomore Foluso Akinradewo successfully returned to action and won the triple jump with a leap of 49-9 3/4. The Fresno, Calif., native missed two meets because of a hamstring injury.
The throws were a strong area for the Ducks in Texas. Sophomore John Stiegeler picked up Oregon’s third win of the meet, capturing the javelin title with a toss of 240-3. It was his third competition past the 240-foot mark. Stiegeler, the national leader in the javelin, paced Oregon freshmen Adam Jenkins (fifth, 197-8) and Nick Bakke (eighth, 189-7).
The shot put competition also featured three Ducks in the event’s top eight finishers. Junior John Bello placed fourth (57-4 1/4), followed by junior Rian Ingrim (sixth, 55-1) and James March (eighth, 52-9).
Junior Jason Boness equaled the NCAA provisional mark in the high jump, leaping 7-1 3/4, good enough for second place. 1996 Olympian Charles Austin won the high jump with a leap of 7-4 1/2. Sophomore Jake Horner placed sixth with a personal-best leap of 6-9.
Also earning runner-up honors were sophomore Adam Kriz, who threw a personal best by two feet in the hammer throw, and junior Ross Krempley in the 800 meters.
Oregon had only one entry in Friday’s Cardinal Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif., senior Michael Kasahun. The Adwa, Ethiopia, native fell one second short of his personal best in the 5,000 meters with a time of 13:56. The time was an NCAA provisional mark, but was a second shorter than his performance at the Oregon Invitational last week.
The Ducks have two more chances for qualifying marks before the NCAA Championships, to be held May 30- June 5 at Hayward Field. The Ducks return home for the Oregon Twilight, their regular-season home finale, next weekend.