I’ve lived in Oregon for four years now and I still don’t understand how the weather system in Eugene operates other than it fluctuates so often just to drive outsiders like me absolutely crazy.
Sun, rain, snow, hail, then more sun – all in the same day. I don’t get it.
But if the schizophrenic Oregon weather is good for anything, it has made its athletes into a tougher mold than their competitors. They can handle the instant climate changes better than the competition.
That much was evident during Saturday’s track meet when hail, wind and rain gave the Ducks more than the edge they needed to dominate the third-ranked Bruins in the first dual meet between the two teams since 1985.
Although none of the UCLA athletes would readily admit to it, the weather was affecting everyone’s marks, if not their mindsets as well.
“We had a tailwind. It was wet. It was cold,” UCLA discus thrower Greg Garza, who was one of the few Bruin athletes to win an event, said. The others weren’t as lucky.
Nearly all the UCLA runners were posting marks behind Oregon as the Ducks went on to win every single running event save for the 3000m steeplechase.
It even began to hail during the 1500 meter race as Oregon runners used team tactics to put the Bruins in a position to lose.
“In San Diego, it’s pretty common for it to hail when it’s not 70 and sunny – which is never,” Southern California native and Oregon’s 1500m winner A.J. Acosta said.
I can’t imagine this is what UCLA had in mind when they agreed to travel to Eugene for the meet. It’s certainly not what I had in mind – as I stood next to a space heater in the interview tent huddled with the other Oregon sports writers – when last week’s balmy weather gave us false hope that spring had officially arrived.
With spring seasons like this, it’s amazing the way Oregon can recruit the way it can.
Although last week freshman basketball player Drew Viney declared that he wanted to transfer back to a Southern California school for family reasons, I would have been less surprised if he had stated he was sick of lousy weather.
I ran a fair share of track practices and meets in the rain in high school, but I’m amazed that Oregon’s track team can handle adverse conditions constantly throughout the year. I suppose Hayward Field has that type of beacon effect that attracts elite runners far and wide.
It seems to give the athletes as good of, if not better than, home-field advantage as Autzen Stadium and McArthur Court.
Just hope the next athletic building on the docket isn’t an indoor track, lest the athletes lose the edge when dual meets become more common place in future seasons.
But I just don’t know if the baseball team can benefit from the same environmental advantage when they start hosting games in Eugene next year.
Unless Uncle Phil wants to donate a retractable roof to the future stadium, I’m afraid we’ll be seeing plenty of rained-out games.
[email protected]