After winning the Pepsi Team Invitational, the Oregon men’s and women’s track teams are peaking. But they don’t want to summit this season quite yet, even if this weekend’s meet is on a mountain.
Actually, the Mt. San Antonio College Relays only sound like they’ll take place on a hillside. In reality, the track in Walnut, Calif., will be flat enough for the Ducks, who will compete in the meet today through Saturday. And the amount of talent at Mt. SAC — one of the biggest regular-season meets of 2003 — will look to some Ducks like Everest looks to a climber.
Not that the Oregon athletes don’t relish the challenge.
“It’s going to be tough competition, but I love competition,” high jumper Jenny Brogdon said. “We all do.”
Brogdon is one of 27 women who will make the trek to Mt. SAC. Fourteen men will head south. For those Ducks, one of the keys this weekend and the rest of the regular season is pacing. With a new NCAA Regional-qualifying program that has lower standards than in the past, most of Oregon’s stars have already qualified for the regional meet on May 30, where they will try to make NCAAs. That means the rest of the season is building toward that regional meet rather than making an explosive NCAA-qualifying mark. Brogdon shared her perspective.
“Even though things are going slower than expected, I’ve already jumped the NCAA regional mark, so I’m excited about the rest of the season,” Brogdon said. “As the season has progressed, my approach has gotten more consistent, and consistency is everything.”
But there are still some Ducks who haven’t qualified for regionals yet. On the men’s side, Jordan Kent will take his first crack at the 200-meter dash, Samie Parker will try to qualify in the 100 and newcomers Travis Anderson and Matt Scherer in the 400 and Jan Olszowy in the 800 will also try to qualify. On the women’s side, Heather Murtaugh will make an NCAA try in the 100, Eri Macdonald will run the 1,500 after already qualifying in the 800 and Dani Keyser will try to throw toward NCAAs in the shot put.
The most important race of the weekend from Oregon’s perspective is tonight’s men’s 10,000. The 10,000 is one of two events — the decathlon is the other — that will not be run at the NCAA West Regional. So Oregon’s Jason Hartmann has only a handful of chances to qualify for the NCAA Championships in his event, and perhaps his best chance will come tonight, even though the race is scheduled for a 10:30 p.m. start. Duck junior Ryan Andrus has already qualified for Pac-10s in the race, but Hartmann has yet to run a 10,000 this year.

We return to those athletes who have already qualified for Regionals, who have their tickets punched and don’t need a refund. For those athletes, this weekend will be a chance to weigh themselves against the type of competition they might not see again until Pac-10s.
“You’ve just got to compete, you can’t think too much about how far you’re going to throw; so that’s what I’m looking for, just another chance to compete,” said Adam Kriz, who was named this week’s Pac-10 Field Athlete of the Week after a personal best in the hammer on Saturday. “Making finals is going to be a challenge. You just compete, try to stay the same, do what you do.”
And of course, the Ducks are headed to California, which almost guarantees they won’t have to run through rain drops.
“We’re looking forward to nice weather,” Brogdon said. “It’s always nice to jump in Southern Cal.”
So Oregon is coming ’round the mountain this weekend. The Ducks are just hoping not to get to the peak.