Kalindra McFadden, fresh off a performance in Berkeley, Calif., finds herself prepared for the Pacific-10 Conference Heptathlon this week at Stanford.
“I’m feeling pretty good about it,” said McFadden, who completed the long jump and 100-meter hurdles at the California Collegiate Challenge last weekend. “Definitely being able to compete and get through hurdles and long jump last weekend was huge for preparation. I’m excited about it.”
McFadden, who placed sixth in last year’s Pac-10 heptathlon, is going to be immersed in another talented field. Four of the top participants have already scored automatic NCAA championship qualifying scores and another, USC’s Shana Woods, has a provisional NCAA championship mark. The top four in order, are Washington State’s Diana Pickler and Julie Pickler, Arizona State’s Jacquelyn Johnson, the 2004 NCAA champion, and Arizona’s Shevell Quinley.
McFadden, who’s battled a left hamstring injury suffered during the indoor season, says she feels healthy and is looking forward to making it through her first full heptathlon of the season.
“There is a bit of anxiety, but at the same time I feel like I’ve prepared myself mentally for it,” she said. “I think I’m just excited to compete and not necessarily the fact that it is Pac-10s isn’t really a big issue … I’m not nervous just because it’s Pac-10s, I think I’m just excited to put a (complete performance) together.”
Freshman heptathlete Erin Funkhouser is going for the first time in her collegiate career.
“She’s never been a nervous competitor, which I’ve always really envied about her,” McFadden said. “Even her first competition in a Duck uniform she was ready to go. So that’s huge for a freshman, and so I think it’s an exciting experience. I think she’s going to learn a lot from this one for sure.”
Oregon Twilight
Rebekah Noble and Zoe Buckman are set to run the 800 meters in Saturday’s meet at Hayward Field. Noble has rotated back and forth between the 800 and 1,500 meters this season.
“She’s in a good place,” Track and Field Director Vin Lananna said of Noble. “That 1,500 meters is a tough race for her to figure out how to do it. It’s just long enough that she doesn’t get comfortable in it, and it’s not short enough so that she can press the thing the whole way.”
Thrower Britney Henry, who took last weekend off to rest, is competing in the hammer throw.
Fellow thrower Lucy Cridland felt a big sense of relief at securing the regional mark in the discus last weekend in the California Collegiate Challenge. Now she can look at this weekend’s meet like many of the rest of the Oregon athletes – as a tune-up for the Pac-10 Championships the following weekend.
“I’m going to have to get a throw out early in Pac-10s so maybe (I’ll) try to do that this weekend,” Cridland said.
Cridland secured her big mark – a personal best – with a throw of 158-feet 7-inches and surpassed the regional standard of 155-2. It was a 5-foot-2 improvement over her previous high and Oregon’s largest personal best at Cobb Track and Angell Field
“It was an exciting mark,” Cridland said. “I wanted to get that for quite a while. It was good to finally get that.”
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