After an eighth-place finish in the 2001 Pacific-10 Conference Championships, and 60th at the NCAA Championships, the Oregon women’s track and field team entered the 2002 season with a sense of anticipation.
After all, the Ducks couldn’t finish much worse than No. 60 in the NCAAs, their worst showing since the competition began in 1982. And yeah, entering 2002, they had two low showings at the Pac-10 Championship, finishing eighth in 2001 and ninth a year before that.
Not to mention, Oregon would be receiving a group of highly talented athletes,
the likes which included transfers Becky Holliday and Mary Murphy, as well as freshmen Katie McKeever, Roslyn Lundeen and Elisa Crumley.
In its 2002 showing, Oregon finished sixth at Pac-10s and 27th at the NCAA version.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
“We got 62 of 67 points by underclassmen in the Pac-10 meet,” head coach Tom Heinonen said, alluding to the team’s bright future. “By any measurement, we’re better than we’ve been.”
It was a season of newcomers for the Ducks. Of the nine points scored by the team at the NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, La., eight came from Holliday and Lundeen. Incumbent star Mary Etter topped off the team’s week in the Bayou with a single point in the discus throw.

Holliday, a transfer from Clackamas Community College, came in and immediately made her presence known in the pole vault. She is now the school’s record holder at a height of 14 feet, 1 1/4 inches.
However, she wasn’t too pleased with her season and said she would give herself a grade of a “C.”
“I just wasn’t happy with my performance this year,” she said.
Holliday, the recipient of the 2002 Lynne Wingbigler Award as the most outstanding Oregon women’s track athlete, will be the leader of the team’s pole vault contingent next season, a group that includes two-time All-American Niki Reed as well as up-and-comer Kirsten Riley. It is a group that should send three to the Pac-10s and could possibly do the same at the NCAA version.
“I was confident I would get there this year, but I know next year, without a doubt, I’ll be there,” Riley said.

Crumley and Lundeen, two of the squad’s more prominent freshmen entering the season, didn’t disappoint, and coupled with veterans Sarah Malone and Charyl Weingarten, helped put Oregon’s javelin unit on the map once again. It is a group that will return all four members.
“The freshmen throwers hit the ground running,” Heinonen said. “They were great from the very beginning.”
Only Lundeen scored points from the javelin group in the NCAA Championships, but is looking for much more next season. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t happy with her 2002 performance.
“I’ve moved up from last year, and I’m happy because of my consistency,” she said. “The (elbow) injury just took away from me a little bit.”
Overall, Oregon excelled in the team’s field events. Etter took home the team’s high point athlete award, while sophomore high jumper Rachael Kriz was the team’s most inspirational athlete.
Both are expected to return, although Etter has said she may redshirt next season, and compete again in 2004 — the same year as the Olympics in Athens, Greece.
“I haven’t really talked about it with my coach yet, but I’m on the five-year plan,” Etter said. “If I were to go next year, it would be four years in a row. They’re going to want me competing in the Olympic year.”
In what has traditionally been the strong point of the program, the Oregon running squad has fallen on hard times. Only one athlete — Eri Macdonald — earned an NCAA provisional mark, although she just missed going to the championships.
However, Heinonen praised the specific efforts of junior Janette Davis — a participant in the 200 and 400 — as well as Alicia Snyder-Carlson, one of the squad’s 800 runners, and a hurdler as well. The two didn’t necessarily make the big waves, but helped contribute much-needed points when the Ducks participated in scoring meets.
Carrie Zografos, one of the more underrated Ducks, came through for Oregon this season, most specifically in the steeplechase.
The Portland native set the school’s three-year-old record in the event, and got many of the Hayward Field spectators off their seat this season. For her efforts, she received the team’s Cross Country award.
Looking forward to 2003, the Ducks will return four All-Americans from the 2002 season, as well as Reed, giving Oregon one of its deepest teams in years. To make matters even more favorable for next season, the Ducks graduate two seniors — Jenny Kenyon and Daisy Pressley.
And should the Hayward faithful expect another 27th place finish at the NCAA Championships?
Not so, according to Heinonen. They should do better.
“That’s certainly what we expect,” he said.