A scheduling conflict with the UCLA women meant the Ducks weren’t able to take on the Bruins in a dual meet of their own, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be busy.
The Oregon women will be sending a large contingent to the Mt. SAC Relays in Southern California this weekend, with the goal of getting or improving regional qualifying marks.
Some athletes who already have qualifying marks in one event will compete in other events.
“We’ve got a lot of kids down there doing different events this weekend than what they’ve done,” associate head coach Dan Steele said.
One of those athletes is freshman Jamesha Youngblood, who has mostly concentrated on the long and triple jumps this year. She will run the 400m hurdles, an event in which she ranked fifth among high schoolers in 2007 with a time of 58.66 seconds. That mark would place her fourth on the Oregon all-time lists.
“This is my first race, I wanna see how good I am right now, where I’m at and what I need to do,” she said. “My goal for this weekend is to break 60 seconds.”
Even though this will be her first collegiate hurdles race, the situation is a familiar one.
“I ran at Mt. SAC before and I ran the 400 hurdles plenty of times, so it shouldn’t be too big of a difference,” she said.
Sophomore distance runner Nicole Blood already has a qualifying mark in the 5,000m from the Pepsi Invitational, but will still look to improve upon it at Mt. SAC.
“I went into it (the Pepsi Invitational) really relaxed, just thinking do it for points, so I know there’s a lot more in me,” she said.
Steele said Betsy Bies would also be running the 5,000m. Zoe Nelson and Sarah Pearson will run the 10,000m in an effort to meet the national qualifying mark in that event.
Other tentative entries include Alex Kosinski and Zoe Buckman in the 800m, Buckman in the 1,500m, Liddell Steele and Jordan Roskelley in the pole vault and Ashley McCrea and Kara Meeuwsen in the javelin. Rachel Yurkovich will take the weekend off to stay healthy for the end of the season.
“Mt. SAC is gonna be an exciting meet for us,” Blood said. “There’s a lot of competition there, so that’s great.”
McFadden sets season heptathlon best
Kalindra McFadden scored 5,420 points at the Mt. SAC Relays Heptathlon at Azusa Pacific University to set a season best. She placed fifth overall and second among collegians, and was only eight points off of her personal best of 5,428 set at Mt. SAC in 2006. Freshman Brianne Theisen competed in only four of the seven events in a planned move.
Erin Funkhouser was sixth in the California Invitational division with 4,696 points, also a season best.
Both McFadden and Theisen are tentatively entered to compete in other events this weekend at Mt. SAC.
Sammons, Wetsch on the mend
Distance runners Keara Sammons and Bria Wetsch are still out with injuries, but Steele said they are both improving.
“They won’t be competing this weekend or maybe even anytime soon, but they are doing much better and we’re feeling confident and comfortable with where they are,” he said.
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