Under the hot sun and against gusty winds, Oregon’s Steve Fein was running in close second behind Stanford’s Brad Hauser with less than two laps to go in the 5,000 meters.
The race was Fein’s first at that distance since last June’s U.S. Track and Field Championships at Hayward Field. But he was determined to not let that show, and midway through the bell lap, Fein launched his final attack.
Amidst Prefontaine-esque chants of “STEVE! STEVE! STEVE!” from the Hayward Field audience, the Ducks’ senior took the lead with 300 meters to go. The Cardinal responded, matching Fein stride for stride, as the two ran into the final turn.
And then it was all Hauser.
The Stanford distance runner unleashed a blistering kick to win with a time of 13 minutes, 56.40 seconds. But it was Fein’s performance on Sunday that left the Oregon men’s track and field team’s final mark on its seventh-place finish in the two-day Pacific-10 Conference Championships.
The Trojans won the Pac-10 team title with 154 points.
“Based on our total team production, in many ways we maximized a lot of the work we could do,” Oregon head coach Martin Smith said.
The Ducks finished with 71 points, trailing Arizona (75) and UCLA and Washington (tied with 83). Sophomore Jason Boness won the Pac-10 title in the high jump.
“We had a lot of people do a lot of good things,” Smith said. “I’m really pleased with them. Now we just keep working hard and build off that.”
Fein’s time of 13:58.06 earned him an NCAA provisional mark, but he doesn’t expect to make the final cut. He will compete at the NCAA meet in the 1,500 with the sub-4:00 mark he earned in last Saturday’s Oregon Twilight mile.
“Unfortunately we didn’t come away with the win,” Fein said. “I thought it was a good race. I matched every move, and it was a close last lap, other than the last 100 meters. At this point, I know there is a lot more work I need to do.”
Shortly before Fein’s gutsy race, Boness took center stage by winning the high jump. The decisive leap of 7 feet, 3 inches came on his final attempt.
Then Boness had a shot to break the Oregon record by clearing 7-5. He did it on his second attempt. His record mark is a personal best, an NCAA qualifier and an Olympic Trials qualifier.
“Earlier this week I predicted that I was going to jump higher than I ever had before, and it turns out that I did,” Boness said. “It’s great jumping at home, I love the crowd.”

Nat Johnson started the Pac-10s off on a good note by taking second place in the long jump. In what could be his final collegiate meet of the season, Johnson improved his personal best on each of his four fair jumps, setting finally at 25-3 1/2 on his fifth attempt.
Johnson also competed in the triple jump, 4×100-meter relay and 4×400.
“I was relieved — I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Johnson said. “I did what I expected to do, and of course it’s always nice to PR on every jump.
“I had the extra incentive to go far, considering it was my last jump at Hayward Field as a Duck.”
Oregon lost points when senior Howard Moore was disqualified by a technicality in the 400 meters when he stepped on his line. He would have finished fifth.