Going into Sunday’s pole vault competition at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships, Oregon junior Becky Holliday was ranked third in the conference, just behind UCLA’s Tracy O’Hara and Arizona’s Amy Linnen.
O’Hara currently holds the top spot in the nation in the outdoor season, while Linnen — the indoor season leader — is third, just behind Holliday’s best mark of 14-1.25.
When the numbers gave way to action, Linnen came out on top at the Pac-10 meet, while Holliday took second, followed by O’Hara at No. 3.
Suffice to say, Holliday and O’Hara are not happy Linnen was able to overtake them in Pullman, Wash. But adding even more fuel to the fire, Holliday and O’Hara are good friends, while Linnen is on an island all her own.
That has created some hard feelings.
“We are both kind of bitter about the whole Amy Linnen thing,” Holliday said, upset while riding on a bus back to Eugene on Sunday.
Despite the results at the Pac-10 Championships, Holliday is confident she and O’Hara will be able to overtake the Wildcat when the three meet again in Baton Rouge, La., at the NCAA Championships next week.
Linnen “already had her good meet,” Holliday said. “She had her day, and she never has two good meets in a row.”
If anyone is looking for a hyped-up event next week, look no further than the pole vault. It has the makings of being something special, if not a trash-talking bonanza.
Duck meat
For the third straight season, Oregon was shut out of the Pac-10 Championships, failing to win a single individual event.
The team saw Holliday, sophomore Sarah Malone (javelin) and junior Jenny Brogdon (high jump) take second place. However, no Ducks were able to break out past that barrier and give Oregon a much needed 10-point boost.
The last Duck to take an individual event?
Marie Davis was Oregon’s savior in 1999, winning the 3,000 with a time of 9:38.8.
However, it hasn’t always been this way for the Ducks.
Oregon saw unprecedented success in the early 1990s, with the Ducks winning 14 events from 1991-93. Those numbers coincide with Oregon’s last Pac-10 Championships when head coach Tom Heinonen’s squads won the 1991 and 1992 titles. In 1993, the team took second, just behind UCLA.
Goin’ out in style
Only one senior made the trek to Pullman for the Ducks, and Jenny Kenyon didn’t
disappoint.
The Newbury Park, Calif., native scored four points in the heptathlon a week before the rest of the team showed up in Pullman. Then, Kenyon, who missed an NCAA provisional mark by six points in the heptathlon, finished her Oregon career by earning one point in the 100 hurdles after finishing eighth.
Oregon does have two other seniors on its roster, although one will be back next season. After redshirting this year, Niki Reed will team with Holliday to form a lethal one-two punch in the pole vault.
The other?
Daisy Pressley, a two-year letterwinner for the Ducks after coming over from Chemeketa Community College during her junior year, ends her Oregon career after failing to earn a Pac-10 qualifying mark.
Final thoughts
Junior Mary Etter finished third in the discus, but wasn’t happy to earn only six points for Oregon. But she’s confident she will succeed when she goes to Baton Rouge.
“I’m kind of upset about Pac-10s. But I’m maybe thinking I can knock them off at nationals,” she said about the event’s one-two finishers, UCLA’s Chaniqua Ross and USC’s Cynthia Ademiluyi.
Then there’s Holliday, again giving her appraisal of the Pac-10 experience. This time, Kirsten Riley, who finished tied for fourth in the pole vault, gets Holliday’s praise.
“I’m so proud of her,” Holliday said.
And finally, when looking at the scoresheet, analysts can see the athlete who really got Oregon started in the right direction at the Pac-10 meet.
“Amanda Brown is really the one who got things going for us,” Heinonen said about the junior long and triple jumper.
Brown finished eighth in the long jump and sixth in the triple jump in Pullman.
E-mail sports reporter Hank Hager at [email protected].