Members of the Oregon women’s track and field team were scattered all over Southern California last weekend, doing their respective thing in three different meets.
But beginning at noon this Saturday, the Ducks switch it up, returning home to compete as a cohesive unit against rival Washington at Hayward Field in Oregon’s only dual meet of the season. In comparison, Saturday’s dual will be the Huskies’ eighth of the year. They’re 4-2-1.
But this one, for Northwest bragging rights, is special. Always is.
“They’ve had somebody do seven events against us on two occasions,” said Tom Heinonen, the man who’s headed the Oregon program for more than 24 years. “It shows you how badly they want to beat us.”
This dual meet, the two teams’ 23rd such go-round, will be interesting.
“They’re really good where we’re not,” middle distance runner Katie Crabb said, “and we’re really good where they’re not.”
Crabb is among the Ducks to whom the “really good” reference applies. The senior set a new personal record and NCAA provisional time of 4:19.88 in the 1,500-meters at the prestigious Mt. SAC relays last weekend.
This Saturday, she’ll double in the 800 and then the 1,500.
“I was just going to run the 1,500, but I might as well double so we can get the win,” Crabb said. “The whole team feels that way. They’re going for it, gonna do all they can to scrape together as many points as they can. We want to win on our own turf.”
Particularly against Washington, which has beaten the Ducks two times in a row, unheard of until lately. Despite recent results, Oregon has a 17-6 advantage. And the last time the Huskies beat the Ducks at home was the first time the two women’s teams met in 1977.
Redshirt freshman Lucretia Larkin has never competed in a collegiate dual meet before. Nevertheless, the hurdler who made her first appearance last weekend with positive efforts at the Pomona Pitzer Invitational and at Mt. SAC after being sidelined by injury early last season, fully appreciates the significance of Saturday’s meet.
“I want to win,” said Larkin, one of the Ducks’ eight Washingtonians. “I want to win the 100 meter hurdles. I want our relay to win. And I think we can win the team competition period. Especially because a lot of the girls I competed against [in high school] are on that team, so it’s kind of like ‘I want to show you how good I am now.’”
Larkin is one of Oregon’s several young athletes making increasingly effective contributions, evidenced by the progress of the 4×100 relay team, which consists of Larkin, sophomore Endia Abrante, senior Hilary Holly and freshman Heather Murtaugh. At Mt. SAC, the quartet finished third in their heat, with a personal best of 46.95.
“We’re PR-ing and PR-ing and PR-ing,” Larkin said. “It’s nice.”
Despite the continued improvement, that specific relay squad won’t have an easy time of it against Washington’s 4×100 team whose best time is six seconds faster than Oregon’s.
In fact, their team needs some events to swing in their direction if it wants to avoid losing three straight to the Dawgs.
“We’ve got our work cut out for us,” Heinonen said. “We have to get some point swings and see if that will be enough.”
Beside the 4x 100 relay, Holly is scheduled to compete in five events, including her specialty, the long jump.
In the throws, the Ducks’ could use a third-straight good weekend from senior Maureen Morrison. Oregon’s pole vaulting crew, led by sophomore Niki Reed whose best jump this season is NCAA provisional 12-5.5, figure to have the advantage Saturday.
Washington’s top performers include distance star Anna Aoki, who is one of the best distance runners in the nation, having already secured her third-straight NCAA Championships berth in the 10,000. Along with some of her distance counterparts, Aoki will be competing in more than one event against the Ducks.
“I went through and looked at the form chart and said ‘What’s likely to happen?’” Heinonen said. “Well, what’s likely to happen is Washington will beat us 85-69.
“And then I said, ‘What’s the best thing that can happen?’ The best possible thing is we win by 16, 85-69. My likely score is probably too negative — that’s just me. And there’s no way that every possible thing goes your way, but if we get half of that, then we win.
“We can win the meet, but we have to have a lot of things go really well.”