The Oregon men’s track team entered the NCAA Championships with high hopes, but at least some of those hopes came crashing to the ground with the weight of a hammer on Wednesday.
Only two Ducks were in action at the first day of the national meet, and both of those athletes suffered disappointment. Simon Kimata, ranked third in the 800-meter race heading into the NCAAs, finished fourth in his preliminary heat on Wednesday and missed the finals. Adam Kriz had slightly lower expectations — he was ranked 13th in the hammer heading into the meet — but he threw short of his personal best and finished 14th.
“Through the competition I was up for it, I was relaxed, I wasn’t nervous,” Kriz said. “I was throwing it as far as I could, it just wasn’t going anywhere.”
But the biggest disappointment on Wednesday belonged to Kimata. The senior was hampered by injury that kept him out of the Pacific-10 Conference Championships and NCAA meet in 2001, then he came back strong this season. He ran a personal best of 1:46.65 in March, then won the Pac-10 title in 1:48.35.
But at the NCAA meet, Kimata’s 1:48.17 only earned him fourth in a fast heat. The top two athletes from each heat advanced, and then the next two fastest from all the heats combined. Kimata ended up 11th in the rankings, missing the finals by only 0.25 seconds.
“It was very humid out there,” Kimata said. “I had nothing to do except push hard.”
Kriz also said the heat got him a little bit. But on Wednesday night, Kriz still couldn’t put a finger on why he couldn’t crack the hammer’s top 10.
“It’s still too fresh,” said Kriz, a junior. “Probably next week I’ll be able to tell you (how it happened). Hopefully it’s a good learning experience that I can build on for next year.”
Kriz’s best throw on Wednesday was his third, which went 200 feet, 7 inches. At the Pac-10 meet two weeks ago, Kriz threw 210-7 to win the conference title. If he had uncorked that kind of throw Wednesday, Kriz would have finished eighth.
“It’s another big meet, and the more big meets you go to, the better you do in the next big meet,” Kriz said. “It’s good to get that experience under my belt, and hopefully next year I’ll be in a better position coming in, but I’ll be more relaxed because I know what’s going on here.”
Today, three more Ducks will try to redeem Kimata’s and Kriz’ performances. Nick Bakke was the last javelin thrower to make the NCAA meet, so he has nothing to lose in this afternoon’s javelin competition.
Two other Ducks will have higher expectations. Micah Harris, ranked ninth in the 110 hurdles, needs to finish high in today’s preliminary heat in order to advance to Friday’s semifinal and Saturday’s final. Oregon sophomore Jason Hartmann will be one of the last athletes to compete today when he takes the track for the 10,000 this evening. Hartmann is ranked 10th in his event.
Looking ahead to Friday’s action, Billy Pappas will be in action in the first five decathlon events, and Harris could be in action if he advances in the hurdles.