The Oregon women’s track and field team kicks off the NCAA Championships today in Sacramento, Calif. The women are sending a smaller group than the men, but they are an experienced group, lead by throwers Britney Henry and Rachel Yurkovich.
The NCAA Championships are hosted by Sacramento State. They begin this morning and continue through Saturday.
Yurkovich tops the collegiate list with a throw of 189 feet, 11 inches from earlier this season. She made just one throw in the NCAA West Regional Championships and it was good enough to advance to the NCAA Championships.
Yurkovich’s throw of 178-09 allowed her to survive a late push from Eastern Washington’s Carolee Gutierrez, who tossed her final throw 175-07.
Henry finished third at the regionals with a throw of 215-03.
“Mentally and physically, my body’s come around great,” Henry said. “I’m just excited to go out at NCAAs and see how well my body’s prepared. Mentally, I feel pretty good. Physically, I feel just as well.”
Rebekah Noble is looking to defend her NCAA Championship in the 800 meters. Teammate Zoe Buckman is also joining her for the event.
Noble ran her season best of 2 minutes, 3.22 seconds in a fifth place finish in the Oregon Invitational. Buckman saved her season best for Oregon’s final home meet at the West Regionals with a time of 2:06.82.
Noble is again going to have stiff competition with California’s Alysia Johnson poised to challenge the sophomore from Spokane, Wash. Johnson sped out to an early lead in regionals two weeks ago and never let Noble get close. Johnson won that race in 2:02.12, followed by Noble in 2:04.95.
Three times Noble will have to line-up and race the 800, starting today with the first round at 4 p.m., then semifinals on Thursday at 5:05 p.m., and should she make the finals, she will have a day off on Friday before the finale on Saturday at 10:28 a.m.
Freshman Nicole Blood is making her first appearance at the NCAA Championships. Blood ran third in the 5,000 meters at regionals and says she’s ready to go. She says teammates who have been there before have helped prepare her for what to expect.
“I’m pretty pumped,” she said.
Blood starts with the semifinals today at 9:30 p.m. and if she advances, will run in the final on Friday at 8:10 p.m. It’s the smallest time period that she’s had to run two 5,000 races.
“It’s not that bad because our training is geared toward that,” Blood said.
Also joining Oregon at the NCAA Championships include javelin thrower Ashley McCrea and distance runner Keara Sammons, who will compete in the 10,000, after securing an NCAA provisional time of 33:54.55 at the Stanford Invitational at the end of March.
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Ducks begin their national title hunt
Daily Emerald
June 5, 2007
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