The Oregon men finished 10th in a field of 26 at last week’s NCAA Championships. Oregon finished the meet with 20 points, as one of four Pacific-10 Conference teams in the top 10. Florida State won the team title with 54 points.
Senior All-American pole vaulter Tommy Skipper accounted for half of the Ducks’ 20 points when he successfully defended his national title with a 18-0 1/2 effort.
Skipper subsequently went up to 18-4 1/2, but missed all three tries.
“It would have been great to have gone higher today but I have some technical things to work on that once I fix will help a lot,” Skipper said in a release.
With the win, Skipper claimed a school record fifth NCAA individual title.
Skipper was the only Duck who managed to clinch an individual NCAA title.
Oregon junior Galen Rupp was one of the favorites to win Thursday’s 10,000m run, but he ended up finishing second behind Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s Shadrack Songok.
Songok hit the tape at 28:55.83, and Rupp came in soon after in 28:56.19.
Sprinter Marcus Dillon made it to the semifinal of the 400m, but was one place off from qualifying for the final.
Dillon’s 46.18 put him in ninth place overall, and was only .04 off Baylor runner LeJerald Betters’ eighth-place finish.
Oregon women
The Oregon women completed the NCAA Championships Saturday in 27th place with nine points.
Front runners Rebekah Noble and Rachel Yurkovich had disappointing results in the final day of competition at Sacramento State.
Yurkovich landed in fifth place with a throw of 170 feet.
She kicked off the day with a throw of 160-5 followed by throws of 154-7, 163-11. It was good enough to advance to the final, where she made her best throw on her fifth attempt, but fouled her fourth and sixth attempts.
Yurkovich advanced to Saturday’s competition with a throw of 162-8 on Wednesday.
“I came in trying to focus on working on the little things that would keep me from throwing far, and I did pretty well at those, but overall I didn’t quite have it,” Yurkovich said in a release. “Between throws, I tried to psyche myself up and try to throw with my heart. I gave it my all but couldn’t quite get it to work the way I wanted to.”
Noble couldn’t keep pace in one of the fastest 800 meter races ever. California’s Alysia Johnson, who outran Noble at West Regionals, won the event as she came in under the two minute mark. Noble finished last – more than two seconds behind the next closest runner.
Johnson led a field that had four runners make it under 2:02.00 and seven under 2:03.00. Johnson won in 1:59.29, barely outrunning Michigan’s Katie Erdman, who placed second at 1:59.35. Britney Henry earned fifth place Friday in the final of the hammer competition. She started with a toss of 211-3 and made her best throw of 214-9 on her second throw. “I gave it my all and it’s an honor to be part of such a great field,” Henry said in a release. “It was nice to get a good first throw, and it put me at ease so I could try and put a little extra juice on the ball. I came in psyched up and confident and ready to compete.”
Yurkovich, Noble and Henry all earned All-America honors.
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