The Oregon men’s track and field team continues the championship portion of its 2005 outdoor season as the Ducks compete in the Pacific-10 Conference Championships at Drake Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday.
Having finished in the top two in each of the last three years — first in 2003, second in 2002 and 2004 — Oregon will send a deep and veteran field in an attempt to capture its second conference title in as many years and to avenge last year’s 143-130 loss to UCLA.
The Ducks return 85 of their 122 individual points from last year’s meet and also feature a top-10 ranked performer in 18 of the 21
conference championship events. Oregon’s roster also includes 11 NCAA veterans, eight of whom have combined for 12 All-American awards, two NCAA titles and two NCAA
runner-up finishes.
Meanwhile, the defending-champion Bruins graduated four of their individual champions from last year but will present Oregon with a formidable challenge in sophomore Brandon Johnson — returning champion in the 400-meter hurdles — and junior Jon Rankin. Rankin is tops in the Pac-10 in both the 800 (1 minute, 47.11
seconds) and the 1,500 (3:39.49) this season.
The Bruins won’t be the only team battling the Ducks for a conference crown.
“I think it’s us, UCLA, Arizona State and USC,” Oregon senior distance runner Brett Holts said. “I think any one of the four teams could take it. It’s definitely going to be close, and it might come down to the last two or three events. Even though we might have a lead, we can’t hold back anything.”
Oregon comes into the weekend’s events with a three-point lead in the team race, thanks to second and fourth place finishes by decathletes Andy Young and Cody Fleming,
respectively. Young and Fleming
captured 13 points in last week’s
Pac-10 decathlon championships, finishing ahead of Washington State, who earned 10 points.
The Ducks will be lead by returning Pac-10 champions Tommy Skipper and Eric Mitchum. Skipper, the reigning pole vault and decathlon champion, will be competing in only his second event of the outdoor season after missing nine weeks due to minor knee surgery.
Last week, Skipper competed in his first event of the season — the Oregon Twilight — and finished third, clearing 17 feet, 3/4 inches, something he knows won’t get done this weekend.
“Around the country, there are a couple of guys that jump 18-6, 18-2,” Skipper said. “But you know, a consistent 18-footer will take home most of the meets.”
Mitchum, who won last week’s Oregon Twilight 400-meter hurdles title, will turn his attention back to the 110 hurdles and look for his second straight Pac-10 crown. Mitchum is ranked first in the conference in the 110 hurdles and has already eclipsed last year’s time of 13.62 with a season best of 13.56.
Also on the track, Oregon’s Matt Scherer is looking to move further up Oregon’s all-time list in the 400-meters with a personal best this week.
Scherer will be chasing Arizona State’s Domenik Peterson, who
owns the top 400 mark this season (45.15) and will be well rested after getting last week off.
“It’s ready,” Scherer said. “We had a tough indoor season and we came off that and did some more
base training and (sprints) coach
(Dan Steele) has done a real good job of getting us to peak again. So we’ve been taking it real light lately and now we’re ready to open up.”
Oregon will also look to get points from its long-distance runners, led by a pair of seniors, Eric Logsdon and Holts. Freshman Galen Rupp, fresh off his U.S. Junior record run at last week’s Oregon Twilight, will add another potential point scorer for the Ducks.
Logsdon is coming off a personal-best time in the 5,000-meters at the Cardinal Invitational two weeks ago.
Holts returns for his fourth steeplechase, an event in which he has finished third, second, and fourth in the three years he has competed. The senior, who currently ranks second in the conference with a time of 8:47.11, said there’s nothing different about this year’s race.
“I haven’t changed anything, haven’t done anything different,” Holts said. “At this point of the season, it’s just whoever’s not hurt, whoever’s got legs, and this year the Pac-10 is more loaded than any other year that I have run it. There are five guys that run 8:45 or better and I just have to go out there and not have the pressure of trying to win it. I just have to go and run, get into the mix of things, and go from there.”

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