Both used the phrase, “a great learning experience.”
Both spoke of great admiration for the athletes they competed with.
And both talked of the thrill they experienced from competing before the faithful Hayward Field crowd.
But both Micah Harris and Michael Kasahun of the Oregon men’s track and field team also expressed disappointment in the way they performed at the NCAA Track and Field Championships Friday.
Harris and Kasahun closed out the Ducks’ season when they failed to score any points in their events. Oregon still ended the NCAAs with 27 points overall and finished in ninth-place as a team.
Harris came in sixth-place in the semifinals of the men’s 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.99 seconds. It wasn’t fast enough to advance him on to Saturday’s finals.
“I had a lot of fun, and I gave it everything I had,” Harris said. “But I felt bad about not getting into the finals.”
The junior transfer from Tempe, Ariz., reached the semifinals after a school- and personal-record time of 13.73 in the preliminaries Thursday.
“To get the school record, that was one of the goals,” Harris said. “Now I’ll come back next year and give it my all.”
Kasahun, on the other hand, won’t have such an opportunity. The senior closed out his collegiate career with a 16th-place finish in the final of the men’s 5,000 meters.
Kasahun began the race with some good steam, but as the laps progressed, he ended up dropping like a brick down to the back of the pack. His time of 14:25.69 was nowhere near his personal record of 13:56.04.
“I’d like to have finished higher, and was hoping for a top-10 finish,” said Kasahun, who was seeded 17th on the pre-meet list. “When you are in the championship level, it’s more of a tactical race. This is my first time at this level and people had more experience than I had.”
When the race came down to the final few laps, many of the runners went for their “kick,” or a sprint to the finish. Kasahun said he tried, but found the tank to be empty.
“There was nothing left at all for those last two-and-a-half laps,” he said. “I pushed it a little bit too early and that caught up at the end.”
The race capped a solid two-year Oregon career for Kasahun, who transferred to Oregon from Fresno City College. While at Oregon, he has lowered his personal bests in the 5,000 (from 15:06.51 to 13.56.04) and in the 10,000 (from 30:35.07 to 29:51.62).