Senior Andrew Young made his 2006 outdoor debut in the Mount SAC Relays decathlon in Azusa, Calif.
Competition started for Young at noon Thursday and lasted until almost Friday morning; athletes were competing until 11:45 p.m. Thursday.
Young earned 11th place in the event after a rough opening day. He finished last in the 100 meters, ninth in the long jump and 12th in the shot put. He added a costly “no mark” in the discuss.
Young rebounded in the pole vault with a height of 14-7 1/4 feet, which was good to tie for seventh. He added an eight-place throw in the javelin (165-5).
Young ended the final day of competition on a high note with a first-place finish in the 1,500. His time of four minutes, 25.43 seconds edged Chris Randolph of Seattle Pacific by four-tenths of a second.
Young will compete this Thursday and Friday in the decathlon at the Oregon Invitational. The Ducks will host the meet which continues through Saturday at Hayward Field.
Aside from Young, several throwers and sprinters for Oregon competed over the weekend in Walnut, Calif., at the Mount SAC Relays.
On Friday, Oregon’s Colin Veldman competed in the discuss. The redshirt junior from Fort Collins, Colo., took third with a distance of 162-1, roughly seven feet shy of the regional qualifying mark (169-7).
Later that day, Veldman finished ninth in the hammer. His top distance was 176-2.Senior Matt Scherer ran as the lone collegian in the 200. His finishing time of 21.35 was good for sixth place.
Fellow senior Eric Mitchum has competed well at the Mount SAC Relays in his career as a Duck, and Saturday was no different.
The five-time All-American made his fourth-straight appearance at the meet and took second in the 110 hurdles. His time of 13.71 was .06 off of his season-best mark (13.65). He finished behind Ryan Wilson of Nike (13.55). Mitchum was the fastest collegian in the event.
Looking back at his career at Mt. SAC, Mitchum ran to two of his fastest four regular season career-best times in 2005 (13:53) and 2004 (13:56).
Mitchum will compete Saturday in the High Performance portion of the Oregon Invitational.
The ‘Men of Oregon’ continue with the Penn Relays the following week in Philadelphia, April 27-29. They follow Sunday in Stanford, Calif., for the Cardinal Invitational.
Both the men and women end the regular season at home with the Oregon Twilight on May 5 and the Pacific-10 Conference Championships May 6-7 (decathlon/heptathlon), and May 13-14.

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