Wind swirled around Hayward Field in the Oregon Invitational last weekend, challenging runners and aiding Lauryn Jordan.
The normally busy Jordan stuck to one event Saturday at the request of coach Robert Johnson. Solely focused on the triple jump, Jordan hopped, skipped and jumped to 43 feet 2 1/2 inches, farther than the current school record of 42-6, set 11 years ago by Sara Jessie.
Jordan’s jump will not be added to the record books, however, as it was aided by a wind of 4.2 meters per second, far more than the allowable limit of 2.0.
“My coach had something in his head,” Jordan said. “I wanted to do the hurdles.He said, ‘No, focus on the triple jump.’”
The wind, Jordan claimed, caused a more negative effect than good.
“The wind kind of messed me up,” Jordan said. “It made me drive into the ground instead of making me bouncy. It was kind of weird.”
Jordan completed her last heptathlon last weekend at the Mt. SAC Relays and this week focused on technique for the triple jump.
“Now that I’ve broke that barrier (43 feet), I can go further,” Jordan said.
Jordan earlier leapt to another wind-aided jump of 42-11.
“(Johnson) knows that I can go further than that,” Jordan said. “He’s never satisfied. He’s kind of happy because I jumped what he said, but he expects more.”
Other top performances Saturday coincided with the end of competition. Rebekah Noble ran the anchor leg of Oregon’s victorious 4×400 relay team and Britney Henry summoned a winning hammer throw on her last attempt.
Going into Saturday, it remained unclear whether Noble, whose performance grabbed headlines two weeks ago, would repeat her performance in the 800 meters or run the 400.
“We dropped her down to the 400 when we saw the wind howling from the north to see if we could get a little speed work in,” Oregon coach Vin Lananna said. “We were hesitating on that decision, because we were going to try to do something special today. But with the wind going that way, we decided to go to the 400, and I don’t think she was quite ready when it went off.”
The coaches and Noble decided a half hour prior to the meet to run the shorter distance, and having not practiced it much, she finished fifth in 55.74 seconds.
“It felt okay,” Noble said. “The wind on the back stretch was pretty hard. The last 100 was really hard too.”
Noble set her personal record in the 800 two weeks ago in the Pepsi Invitational, winning in a time of 2 minutes, 3.11 seconds.
She salvaged her day in the relay, taking the baton from Leah Worthen, with Oregon already having a large lead and made it insurmountable to win going away in 3:46.69.
In the hammer throw, Henry found herself lodged in third place (204-0), behind teammate Brittany Hinchcliffe (205-1) and Team XO’s Cari Soong (206-0), going into the final throw. Henry fouled two earlier throws, working on her technique.
On the last throw, Henry relaxed and let the hammer fly to a winning distance of 221-5.
“When I’m happy, and I throw with rhythm, it’s what goes far,” Henry said.
Henry tried small alterations coming off her school record 221-7 in the Mt. SAC Relays.
“Today was a day that I tried to figure out stuff on my own and not look at (throws coach) Lance (Deal) every time to see what I want to do because I’m not going to always have Lance there at all my meets,” Henry said. “He always tells me, ‘just go back to what your basics is – go back o rhythm.’”
Small pockets of fans waited patiently Friday to see Olympian distance runner Marla Runyan make her return to competitive running following the birth of her daughter Anna.
Runyan followed Oregon pacesetters Amber McGown and Dana Buchanan in the 10,000 for four laps and then ran alone, lapping runners at 8 1/2 laps and again midway through. A white cap perched on her head, Runyan, 37, ran efficiently as she finished in 32:11.92, the fastest time in the nation.
“It really matched our goals tonight – 32:10 was our goal and I thought if I had a great night I might get under 32, but this was great,” Runyan said. “I want to have a good season and come back in two weeks (in the Oregon Twilight) and run the five.”
After the race, Runyan took her first victory lap since returning to competitive running, with Anna in her arms.
Oregon’s Sarah Pearson made her career debut in the event and came in eighth (35:43.74), just off the NCAA provisional mark of 35:00.00.
Earlier Friday night, McGown ran 4:21.52 in the 1,500, within .22 of her season and personal best of 4:21.30 set at the Stanford Invitational.

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