Golfers host
Duck Invitational
Coming off an impressive finish both individually and collectively, the Oregon women’s golf team will look to continue its strong start to the spring portion of its 2002-03 season today and Tuesday.
The Ducks, which placed ninth last week at the Spartan Invitational, are again hitting the links this week as they hosts their own Oregon Duck Invitational at the Shadow Hills Country Club in Junction City, Ore.
Oregon will be led by sophomore Johnna Nealy, who shot a career round of golf last week in the opening round of the Spartan Invitational tying an Oregon sophomore single-round record with a 69.
Oregon will also showcase another outstanding player in freshman Therese Wenslow, who leads the team with a stroke average of 75.1. For the first time this season the Ducks will have all 10 roster members in action at the tournament as it will field two teams.
“My hope is to keep building this tournament so it does become a first rate event that teams do want to come to, so we can showcase not only our golf team but also the university and our incredible facilities,” head coach Shannon Rouillard said.
Included in the 11 team field will be Colorado, Colorado State, Idaho, Missouri, Montana State, Portland, Portland State, San Diego State, Santa Clara and Washington State.
The tournament will feature 2002 individual winner sophomore Kim Welch of Washington State among the 60 individual competitors, but will not see defending team champion Washington participate. Welch won the 2002 Oregon Duck Invitational with an even par 216, which was held at Mallard Creek in Lebanon, Ore.
The Ducks finished 11th in the 15 team field last year with current Oregon junior Lacy Erickson finishing tied for 32nd at 232, while sophomore Jess Carlyon completed the tournament tied for 48th at 237. Teams will play 36 holes Monday, and 18 Tuesday with an 8 a.m. shotgun start on both days.
— Scott Archer
Tennis teams falter
The Oregon men’s and women’s tennis teams are looking forward to a change of scenery this week after another rough weekend.
The No. 36 women lost their fourth home game in a row and the men suffered through another losing weekend on the road.
Both will look to change their fortunes as the women head out of Eugene to visit Washington and the men get a well-deserved rest from competition.
The women held their own against two top programs, No. 8 UCLA and No. 2 Southern California.
The Ducks fell to UCLA, 5-2, despite straight set victories by freshmen Ducks Anna Leksinska and Jamie Marshall.
“It was another hard-fought battle,” head coach Nils Schyllander said. “Our kids hung tough out there; we just came out on the short end again.”
Saturday, the Ducks were held to two points again in a 5-2 loss to USC. Oregon junior Courtney Nagle, No. 52 in the nation, beat No. 32 Luana Magnani in straight sets and Ester Bak defeated No. 90 Tiffany Brymer.
The Ducks were unable to win the doubles point, but No. 38 Nagle/Daria Panova handled No. 20 Brymer/Jewel Peterson of USC, 8-4.
The No. 64 men didn’t fair much better against No. 35 Rice on Friday as they fell 7-0 in Houston.
The Duck doubles team of No. 15 Sven Swinnen/Oded Teig battled No. 1 Richard Barker/William Barker of Rice and lost, 8-2.
The Ducks were ousted by No. 11 Texas A&M on Saturday without scoring a point.
“I don’t say this very often, but we had them in some very close matches,” head coach Chris Russell said. “I understand that it is hard to say when you lose 7-0, but we had some good things happening out there on the courts.”
The men resume play March 25 when they host California-Riverside and San Francisco.
— Ryan Heath
UO track stars
improve marks
In their last runs attempts at NCAA qualifying marks, three Oregon track and field athletes improved their personal bests and standings on the NCAA provisional lists Saturday in the NCAA Last Chance Qualifier in the Dempsey Indoor at the University of Washington.
Oregon’s NCAA provisional qualifiers will know today whether they will be invited to the NCAA Indoor Championships, scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.
Junior pole vaulter Kirsten Riley upped her best by 1 3/4 inches with her winning mark Saturday (13-3 1/2). Her mark Saturday greatly improves her chances at an invite since at least 16 athletes are normally invited to the collegiate finale and her mark was the same as a trio of performers tied at 12th nationally.
Two other Ducks are already qualified in the event — seniors Becky Holliday and Niki McEwen — and rank second and third nationally with NCAA automatic marks of 14-1 3/4 and 14-1 1/4 from earlier this season.
On the men’s side, freshman Eric Mitchum lowered his personal best in the 60 hurdle final to 7.86 (second), after clocking 7.94 in the prelims — with both marks under the 7.95 qualifying standard.
In the 3,000, redshirt junior Ryan Andrus made his debut on the NCAA provisional list (fourth, 8:01.22), trailing teammate Jason Hartmann who ran unattached (third, 7:59.43).
Freshman 800-meter runner Jan Olszowy (ninth, 1:51.63) just missed the NCAA provisional standard by less than 1 1/2 seconds (1:50.20) and was just off his personal best from last weekend (1:50.40).
— from staff and wire reports