Despite the losses of, among others, five-time NCAA champion Tommy Skipper, All-American and school record-holder Britney Henry and NCAA qualifiers Ryan Brandel and Brian Richotte, the cupboard is not bare for the Oregon track and field team.
That was shown when two current and two incoming Ducks won titles at the Pan American Junior Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil and another finished second.
Sophomore Nicole Blood, an NCAA outdoor qualifier in the 5,000 meters and the U.S. junior champion at 3,000 meters, won the 3,000m title over Marie-Louise Asselin of Canada, a sophomore at West Virginia. Blood’s time of 9:22.35 was more than five seconds faster than her winning time from the national championships in Indianapolis two weeks ago. She also competed at the Pan Am Games two years ago when she finished second in the 5,000m.
Also claiming first was Kenny Klotz, a sophomore from Portland, in the 10,000m. Klotz, a Pacific-10 Conference scorer in the event, finished just over a second in front of Colombia’s Jefferson Pena in 31:04.57. Like Blood, Klotz was also the U.S. junior champion in his event and also finished second in the junior 5,000m in Indianapolis. He did not run the 5,000m in Brazil.
One of the two soon-to-be Ducks to climb atop the podium was long jumper Jamesha Youngblood of Hercules, Calif. The two-time California state long jump champion crushed the field by 11 inches, registering a new personal best of 21-0. That jump would have placed her third at the 2007 NCAA Championships, within four inches of the winner. Youngblood was also the California state champ this year in the 300m hurdles and was third in the triple jump.
In possibly the closest race of the Pan Am Games, incoming freshman Matthew Centrowitz just edged sophomore A.J. Acosta by one one-hundredth of a second, 3:56.63 to Acosta’s 3:56.64. The race was a mirror image of their duel at the U.S Championships when Acosta out-leaned Centrowitz by the same margin, 3:49.53 to 3:49.54.
The two outkicked Mexico’s Diego Borrego, who was just a quarter-second back in 3:56.87.
Centrowitz, the son of former Duck great Matt Centrowitz, an Olympian and former Pac-10 1,500m record holder, just completed a senior season in which he set a Maryland state meet record in the 1,600m and won the Nike Outdoor Nationals two-mile race. His time of 8:41.55 puts him in a virtual tie with Steve Prefontaine for the third-best ever by a high schooler.
Acosta had the best 1,500m time by a Duck in 2007 (3:42.40) was an NCAA Championships qualifier in the event.
Also competing at the Pan Am Games was Duck sophomore Ashton Eaton, whose leap of 22-5 3/4 placed him 11th in the long jump. That was more than two feet off his personal best from the West Regionals in May.