Sprinters Eric Mitchum and Matt Scherer paced the Duck indoor track team this weekend, registering NCAA provisional times in the 60 meter hurdles and the open 400 meter at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa.
Mitchum, a junior, finished third (7.76
seconds) in the 60 meter hurdles, tantalizingly close to the NCAA automatic qualifying mark
of 7.70 seconds. The Calumet City, Ill., native
ran a 7.74 in the preliminaries, a time that only three collegians had beaten this year going into Saturday’s meet.
Scherer, also a junior, won the meet’s
400 meter with a blistering time of 46.40
seconds. The time, which tied his indoor school record from last year, kept the Sumner, Ill., native ranked seventh nationally and
second in the conference behind Arizona State’s Domenik Peterson (46.36).
Senior sprinter Kedar Inico, who currently holds the nation’s 15th best 200 meter time (21.10), did not race this weekend.
Distance runners excel in
Seattle; Skipper wins again
Senior Eric Logsdon bested another NCAA automatic qualifying mark this weekend,
taking sixth (13:49.99) in the 5,000 meter at Washington’s Husky Classic while topping the NCAA automatic qualifying time of 13:53.10. Logsdon, who has already qualified in the 3,000 meter for next month’s national meet, broke the Oregon indoor 5k record set by Ryan Andrus in 2004. The race was arguably the most competitive in the nation, as the top-eight finishers are all ranked in the top ten nationally.
For the women, senior Laura
Harmon continued her quest to run at the national meet in Fayetteville, Ark. Harmon, an All-American this past season in cross country, finished seventh with a 16:18.56 time.
“It would have been nice to get an automatic time,” said the Vancouver, Wash., native. “But the goal was to break 16:20, so I accomplished that.”
Harmon, whose run was only nine seconds off the automatic mark
of 16:10.00, is now ranked eleventh nationally with her personal-best run this past weekend.
In what has become routine this indoor season, sophomore Tommy Skipper won the pole vault competition with a clearance of 18 feet and 6 3/4 inches. Skipper’s opening jump of
18-1 bested the NCAA automatic mark of 18-0 1/2. The Sandy
native missed three tries at 19-1, which would have been a conference record height. Skipper finished last year’s indoor season as the NCAA runner-up and then won the outdoor championship the following spring.
Abildtrup makes season debut and finishes second
In Idaho at the Holiday Inn
Invitational, senior Sofie Abildtrup ran her first 400 meter of the
season, finishing second (55.37)
to LSU’s Deonna Lawrence (54.22). Abildtrup finished less than a
second behind the NCAA provisional mark of 54.40.
Also placing high for the Ducks was junior Brittany Hinchcliffe, who placed second in the weight throw with a toss of 54 feet and 7 1/2 inches.
For the men, senior Leonidas
Watson improved his standing on the provisional long jump list with a jump of 25 feet and 3 1/2 inches. The leap, good for second place behind national leader Fabrice Lapierre,
is currently the indoor season’s fourth-longest jump in the country.
Oregon indoor teams will
see sparse action this weekend in preparation for the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Seattle on Feb. 25 and 26.

Beau Eastes is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald