Best Team
Men’s cross country and track and field: Though they’ve been race favorites for most of the year, winning two national titles – and putting themselves in excellent position for a third – takes some hard work. And on a micro-level, the Ducks have put together some stunning races, like the Pacific-10 Conference Championships 1,500m final, a 1-2-3 finish for Matthew Centrowitz, Galen Rupp and Andrew Wheating. Rupp and Wheating, of course, entered the school year as Olympians; Rupp’s 13th-place finish in the 10,000m occurred at the fastest time an American man has ever run in the Olympics at that distance.
Honorable Mention: UO football
Women’s MVP
Gorana Maricic: No one is more deserving of this award this year than Maricic. The outside-hitter from Subotica, Serbia led the No. 9 Ducks in almost every offensive category this year, including 473 kills and 537 points, which is third in Duck season history. She also finished her two-year career ranked third in UO history in points (1,217), fifth in hitting (.269), ninth in kills (1,089) and ninth in attacks (2,542) in just two years.
Under Maricic’s high-flying game the team made its second consecutive run to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, and the season was highlighted by Maricic being named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America First Team as well as First Team All-Pacific-10 Conference and Second-Team All-America from Under Armour Volleyball Magazine.
Honorable Mentions: Nicole Blood, Rachel Yurkovich, Ilsa van den Berg
Men’s MVP
Galen Rupp: What was Galen Rupp’s best performance this year? His individual cross country national title, spurring the Ducks on to a second straight national championship? His surprise entry into the Oregon distance medley relay at indoor nationals, winning the race as the anchor leg to secure yet another national title? Running yet another sensational anchor leg during the 4xMile relay at the Oregon Twilight? Rupp arrived at Oregon as a prep phenom and leaves as cornerstone and facilitator for what may be the best year of Oregon track and field ever.
Honorable mentions: Jeremiah Masoli, Nick Reed, Patrick Chung
Best Game
Football Civil War: Oregon went into hostile Reser Stadium with a sellout crowd expecting a second straight Oregon State win in the Civil War and the Beavers’ first trip to the Rose Bowl since 1965. The Ducks gave them a drubbing instead. Oregon totaled 694 yards of total offense and won 65-38 for its first win in Corvallis since 1996, scoring the most points by an OSU opponent ever.
Honorable Mentions: Pacific-10 Conference track championship sweep, UO baseball home-opening win vs. Fresno State
Most Improved Female
Neticia Enesi: The 6-1 middle-blocker made a name for herself on the national scene this year by being named as a AVCA Second-Team All-America choice, a First-Team All-Pac-10 member and Third Team All-American from Volleyball Magazine by Mizuno.
After hitting .218 as a sophomore, Enesi broke the single season hitting mark at Oregon with a .389 average. She also set the school’s block assists record with 143 and tallied the ninth-best block total with 153. Enesi finished the season ranked No. 16 in the nation in hitting and No. 30 in blocks per set with a 1.26 average. She was second in the Pac-10 in hitting.
Honorable Mention: Micaela Cocks
Most Improved Male
Jeremiah Masoli: Halfway through the summer of 2008, Masoli arrived in Eugene months behind his teammates in learning the playbook and fifth on the quarterback depth chart. By late-December he had guided Oregon football to only its fourth 10-win season in history and ran over doubters – and an Oklahoma State safety – by improving his passing efficiency in the last four games of the year, all UO wins, while running the ball better than any UO quarterback in history with 718 yards on the season. Oregon finished No. 9 in the final USA Today poll, and Masoli’s maturation in the most scrutinized positions in Eugene is one of the biggest reasons why.
Honorable Mention: Matt Centrowitz
Unsung Male
Caleb Tommasini: The football player-turned center fielder was the lightning rod this year for the Ducks. The former special teams specialist for Oregon State and Oregon stole 16 bases in 18 attempts to lead Oregon. Tommasini also hit .244, and led the team in triples with three and runs scored with 29.
But it was as a leader where the senior from Tenmile, Ore., made his mark. Whether it was talking to the media or providing the voice in the dugout, Tommasini led by example. His positive attitude and never-quit mentality sparked Oregon, and next year’s team will struggle to fill the void.
Honorable Mentions: Erik Stavert, Shadrack Biwott, Max Unger
Unsung Female
Neena Bryant: Look beyond Oregon softball’s 16-34 record and the accomplishments of junior Neena Bryant jump off the page. The center fielder for Oregon led the Ducks in nearly every offensive category and earned Pac-10 and All-Region honors and was invited to the U.S. national team camp this summer. Bryant led UO with a .314 batting average, 24 runs, 49 hits, 28 RBIs and tied for the lead with eight home runs. She was no liability on defense, either, fielding a perfect 1.000 percent from the field while starting all 50 games for the Ducks.
Honorable Mentions: Heather Meyers, Cathryn Bristow, Keshia Baker
Best Coach
Vin Lananna and Dan Steele, cross country and track and field: The best coaches don’t just coax success out of their top athletes, as Lananna and Steele have done all year. They put every single athlete in a position to succeed. Witness the dominant performances from highly touted freshman Luke Puskedra, who finished fifth at the NCAA cross country championships. And on the first weekend of the Pac-10 Championships, Oregon earned a form chart-defying 19 points in both the decathlon and the heptathlon. Oregon rises to the occasion in big meets, a credit to the work Lananna and Steele have put in this year.
Honorable mentions: Jim Moore, Mike Bellotti
Best Performance
4xMile relay, Oregon men’s track and field: A clear, windy night gave way to a performance few track fans will ever forget. There lies immense difficulty in having four athletes run their fastest mile times in succession, but on the night of May 9, the Ducks achieved the impossible. Matthew Centrowitz, Andrew Wheating, Shadrack Biwott and Galen Rupp completed four miles – and clean exchanges of a baton – in 16:03.24, breaking Michigan’s 2005 collegiate record. Centrowitz, Wheating and Rupp each ran mile splits under four minutes as the crowd, allowed onto Hayward Field’s outside lanes, went nuts.
Biggest Surprise
Lucy Cridland, women’s track and field: Cridland’s late-season emergence for the Oregon women’s track and field team has been nothing short of inspirational. Having secured an NCAA West Regional berth early in the season, Cridland entered the Pac-10 Championships and stunned even herself with a second-place finish in the discus, behind only reigning NCAA champion Sarah Stevens of Arizona State. At the regional meet, her final throw was her farthest, boosting her from ninth to fifth in the standings and qualifying her for the NCAA championships. This weekend in Arkansas will be the first trip to nationals for an athlete who bloomed late in the year.
Honorable mentions: Men’s golf, Women’s track and field at the Pac-10 Championships
Female Newcomer of the Year
Jana Drummond: On a team that featured the program leader in scoring and points, this half of the freshman Drummond sisters led the Duck lacrosse team with 42 points and tied for the lead with 34 goals. In one of Oregon’s most costly losses to Cal on April 17 that stopped a stretch where Oregon wo
n nine of its 10 games, Drummond set a school record with seven goals and became the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation player of the week. The MPSF named her the co-newcomer of the year at its season-ending banquet.
Honorable mentions: Amber Purvis, Cody Miles
Male Newcomer of the Year
Freshman Daniel Miernicki put together an impressive end of the season run that helped to Oregon men’s golf team to its second straight NCAA Championship tournament appearance. He tied for third place at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships at 283, followed by a tie for seventh place at the NCAA West Regional. The Ducks finished second as a team at each event.
Miernicki received plenty of help from his freshmen teammates Robbie Ziegler, Eugene Wong and Andrew Vijarro throughout the year as they all four made their first tournament appearances at the NCAAs. The top-ranked freshman class in the country, according to Golfstat.com, helped the Ducks to a No. 31 national ranking and a 22nd-place finish in the national tournament in Toledo, Ohio. The team will look to continue to improve over the summer before teeing off for the fall season in September.
Honorable Mentions: Running back LeGarrette Blount and Javelin thrower Cyrus Hostetler
Best Club Team
The Oregon men’s club soccer team reached the NIRSA National Championship tournament for the fourth straight year this season, though, its stay at the tournament was short-lived as they were defeated by Ohio State and Colorado State, and Baylor.
Prior to the national tournament, Oregon put together a five-game winning streak as they captured the regional title. And while the Ducks have been getting dangerously close to taking home another national title during the past three years – they won it in 2005 – the fact that they have made it to the championship tournament so consistently is respectable in itself.
Honorable Mentions: Men’s Lacrosse, women’s rugby, and women’s ultimate.
Biggest Disappointment
Men’s basketball: Few expected Oregon men’s basketball to contend even in the top half of the Pacific-10 Conference this year, but even fewer expected the Ducks (8-23) to go winless for the first 14 games of their conference schedule. The disappointment cost assistant Mark Hudson his job and guard Kamyron Brown left the team this spring to pursue more playing time elsewhere. Ernie Kent escaped with his job for at least one more year, but he won’t be around after that if Oregon has another year like 2008-09. Oregon finished the season, its worst since 1992-93, in a loss to Washington State in appropriate fashion: setting Pac-10 tournament records for fewest points, lowest number of field goals and lowest field goal percentage.
Most Embarrassing
Ducks cited for shooting at ducks: Freshmen basketball players Michael Dunigan, Teondre Williams and Josh Crittle were cited for shooting weapons in a park on March 30, firing BB guns at ducks and geese but reportedly hitting none. The three have since been given community service hours at a local animal shelter and have taken classes for animal cruelty, but the negative publicity the University gained, while head coach Ernie Kent was still battling to save his job, gave the UO a black eye and opposing crowds plenty of fodder for Oregon’s road games in 2009-10.
Biggest Shock
Hiring, firing of coaches: Since last July, track assistant Kelly Blair LaBounty, women’s golf head coach Shannon Rouillard and head softball coach Kathy Arendsen were let go, while new football coach Chip Kelly did not renew contracts of defensive line coach Michael Gray and receivers coach Robin Pflugrad when he assembled his new staff. While the latter two are part of the business of coaching, few felt the other three were justified – or explained – by the athletic department. Blair LaBounty was one of Oregon’s most celebrated women athletes ever and an Olympian heptathlete in 1996 who trained Oregon’s elite multievent athletes, like Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen. Rouillard’s absence wasn’t even confirmed by Oregon until a week after she was fired during the fall season and Arendsen had guided teams to five NCAA Tournaments in seven years and was the program’s winningest coach.
Honorable Mention: Men’s basketball season
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The year in sports: Superlatives
Daily Emerald
June 7, 2009
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