After posting successful indoor seasons, Sarah Malone and Becky Holliday are looking to begin the outdoor track and field season with strong performances at the Weber State-Montana Triangular on Saturday at Hayward Field.
Malone, who has a season best 170-feet-9-inch javelin throw, will lead the talented Oregon women’s squad, and is in just her first step to what she hopes is a successful season.
A close friend of the late Art Skipper, a former Oregon javelin star who died in a plane crash in October, Malone has grand plans for this season after an injury riddled last year.
“I plan to dedicate this season to him, his wife Kam, and the new baby,” Malone said of Skipper. “I’m going to do everything in my power to have a great season and hopefully I can give the championship medal to his wife.”
Malone said her season best mark, achieved two weeks ago, was a surprise, albeit a favorable one.
“Hopefully I’ll improve upon that, and if the weather’s good, that will be in favor of us,” she said.
Holliday, a junior college transfer, may be the grand jewel in Oregon’s plan for prominence this season. The junior pole vaulter placed seventh last weekend at the NCAA Indoor Championships, all despite an injury that required seven stitches.
She was unimpressed with her high mark of 13-feet-7 1/4 inches in Fayetteville, Ark., but nevertheless, is beginning to transition well to Division I.
“I competed as well as I could right now,” Holliday said. “I’m still working on my technique right now a whole bunch. It still didn’t come quite together, but when it does, I’ll be set.”
Holliday has competed at Hayward Field before and was often the focus of the Ducks’ attention during her meets, but will wear the Oregon green and yellow at the fabled facility for the first time Saturday. To say she is looking forward to the triangular is an understatement.
“I’m excited,” she said. “It’s so awesome. Home meets are always so awesome.”
In past seasons, the first event at Hayward Field was always called the Oregon Preview. These meets afforded Oregon fans a chance to check out the team’s athletes early on, but never really gave the Ducks much competition.
Because two other squads will be competing at the triangular, head coach Tom Heinonen expects the Ducks to benefit.
“Team scoring makes it more interesting to the fans, and adds a little more impact than the Oregon Preview, which we thought was important with only four home meets this season and none of them championships,” he said.
Heinonen added that the triangular will help his coaches separate who will travel with the team at the end of March.
“This will be the final factor we use in determining who goes to Arizona at the end of spring break,” he said in reference to the team’s trip to Tempe.
After two weeks of sunny weather, the Eugene area has been soaked with precipitation, which is not expected to let up Saturday. However, it will not curtail the Ducks’ plans to compete.
“We’ll take what we can get,” Heinonen said. “We’ve seen every possible type of weather at Hayward Field.”
The meet starts with the women’s javelin and the men’s hammer competitions at noon.