The Oregon men’s track and field team captured five individual titles against some of the top collegiate and post-collegiate competition at the Oregon Invitational at Hayward Field on Saturday.
However, no one individual was more closely watched by the crowd of 3,579 than Galen Rupp, the star recruit who ran his first race in Oregon’s green and yellow.
Having been cleared by the NCAA a day earlier, the Central Catholic High School graduate finished fifth in the 5,000-meters, the marquee event of the evening. Rupp finished with a time of 13:50.10 after falling mid-race.
Unable to avoid a fall that occurred in front of him, the freshman dropped to 11th place near the six-minute mark of the race. Rupp jumped back up and spent the last seven minutes of the race gradually working his way back into the top five.
“I don’t want to use that as an excuse,” Rupp said of the fall. “I didn’t feel my best today, but it’s just good to be here. It was great having the fans here clapping and cheering really loud, and I just look forward to more races here.”
Rupp’s debut capped another successful day for Oregon on the track, which was highlighted by junior Richard Del Rincon’s performances. Del Rincon captured the 200-meter title and helped the 4×100 relay team win its second title in as many weeks.
Oregon nearly topped last week’s time of 39.83 at the Golden Bear Invitational and was only .2 seconds behind the all-time record of 39.80.
In the 200, Del Rincon finished with a time of 20.93, finishing nearly one second ahead of Montana State’s Steve Heberly.
Senior Kedar Inico won the 400, edging teammate Matt Scherer by .01 seconds. Both Ducks finished well ahead of the field and put themselves on Oregon’s all-time list with their times of 46.56 and 46.57, respectively.
Oregon junior hurdler A.K. Ikwuakor notched another personal record in the 110-meter hurdles with a winning time of 14.03. The Arvada, Colo., native also finished fourth in the 400 with a time of 47.59.
“Weather-wise, it wasn’t what I was looking for,” Ikwuakor said. “I came out just trying to win, and times will come on their own.”
Saturday also marked senior Brett Holts opener in the steeplechase. Holts, the top returner for the Ducks in the event, finished second with a time of 8:47.22.
“It was a good opener,” Holts said. “I would have liked to run faster, but it was the first one, so I didn’t know what to expect. It was a good opener, and next week (I am) going down to Stanford to try and get a fast time under my belt.”
In the field, Oregon’s lone title came from Jordan Kent, who took home the long jump crown.
Saturday marked the first time in two years that Kent competed in the event.
Kent’s first jump of 24 feet, 9 3/4 inches held up throughout the event, beating the field by six inches.
“It’s pretty sweet to come out here and jump that well for my first time and get the victory and put that behind me,” Kent said. “I was just trying to get 24 feet even, maybe the low 24s and qualify for regionals, but I was really happy with 24-9, and there’s still so much more work I can put into it.”
In other field action, Jeff Lindsey finished third in the high jump, clearing 6-8 3/4 before failing to clear 6-10 3/4. Senior Paul Etter finished sixth in the hammer throw, and sophomore pole vaulter David Moore finished fifth in the pole vault.
