The elder statesmen and the fresh-faced newcomer.
Oregon track athletes Katie Crabb and Eri Macdonald kept themselves busy this past weekend by competing in the Olympic Trials Qualifier at Stanford University.
Crabb, the senior, was impressive in the talented 1,500 meter race. The Chico, Calif., native finished fifth out of the 17 competitors in her field.
Her time of 4 minutes, 21.64 seconds was good enough to place her as the top finisher amongst the collegians in the race. She was less than a second behind Kim Fitchen of the Nike Farm Team, who took fourth place.
Mary Cobb, also of the Nike Farm Team, won the event with a time of 4:15.83.
Oregon’s Macdonald competed in the women’s 800 and showed no signs of first year jitters. She ended up finishing sixth in the event with a time of 2:09.06 — less than a second behind fifth-place finisher Melissa Flynn of the Reebok Aggies.
Macdonald, who recently completed her first season as a member of the track team, actually ran her second-fastest time of the season. Her only time that was better was her 800 of 2:08.62 at the Oregon Invitational on April 29.
Ironically, her fastest time this year was the exact same time as Flynn’s on Saturday.
Coming in second in the event was former Duck Vicky Fleschner, who ran a time of 2:05.53. Her time left her just over a second behind 800 winner Nicole Teter of the Sacramento Track Club, who won the race with a time of 2:05.44.
Two other former Oregon women’s track members also competed over the weekend. In the 5,000, Nike runner Marie Davis took eighth place with a run of 16:22.21. Annette Hand, of Asics, captured first place with her time of 16:01.77.
The race marked the end of the season for Crabb, who recently capped off her final track and field season by placing third in the 1,500 at the Pacific-10 Championships and seventh at the NCAA Championships in Durham, N.C. Her time in Durham of 4:19.30 improved her personal record by a half-second and garnered her as an All-American.
Her career is not quite over, however, as she will continue to run cross country in the fall.
In a season that women’s head coach Tom Heinonen would rather forget, Macdonald gave her coach some reason to hope for brighter days in the future. Her go-for-it-all attitude helped her become the sixth-best 800-meter runner in the Pac-10 during the regular season.
The Honolulu, Hawaii native’s season is not quite over with. She is next scheduled to compete at the USA Junior Track and Field Championships in Denton, Texas. She will again run in the 800 at the event, which takes place this Friday and Saturday.