ROBERT HUSSEMAN | SPORTS REPORTER
It may seem a bit strange that sophomore Matthew Centrowitz is donning an Oregon uniform for the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Monday.
As a Duck, the Arnold, Md., native has three races to his name: the Pacific-10 Conference Championships on Oct. 31 (he finished 11th and the Oregon men won the team title), the 2007 Pac-10s (27th) and the 2007 Bill Dellinger Invitational (50th).
“Last year, I just put on the Oregon uniform and my racing wasn’t quite keeping up with the way I was training,” Centrowitz said.
For eligibility purposes, he’s a sophomore for cross country and will be a redshirt freshman in track, where he expects to run the 1,500m and 5,000m.
His last races outside of this cross country season were the U.S. Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships (he won the 5,000m, his first-ever race at that distance) in June and the World Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Poland in July (he finished 11th in the 5,000m but set a personal best). After the Junior Worlds, Centrowitz returned home and focused on bettering himself.
“The coaches gave me some training exercises, and I’d just do that on my local high school track,” Centrowitz said. “It was long-distance communication training.”
For now, Centrowitz is living in the moment, having worked his way to racing shape for the cross country season. He participated in the team’s three-week preseason camp in Sunriver, Ore., and raced unattached at the Bill Dellinger Invitation on Oct. 4 and the Mike Hodges Invitational on Oct. 18.
At the Dellinger, Centrowitz passed four runners in the final straightaway for a ninth-place finish, and he crossed the finish line with Andrew Wheating for a tie for first at the Mike Hodges. Preparation for the 2009 track season has been slow and deliberate, but Centrowitz is tapping into the potential that made him one of the nation’s top distance-running recruits in high school.
“I’d like to make the USA Outdoor Championships (in 2009) and before that, make the NCAAs and have a really good showing there,” Centrowitz said.
“I think he’s done the things right to be in the position to do well,” Oregon head coach Vin Lananna said. “He had his growing pains last year. I think he’s matured into a great competitor.”
In the name of the father
Matt Centrowitz, Sr. was a distance-running legend at Oregon.
A member of the 1977 men’s cross country team that won the national championship, Centrowitz was a two-time All-American (1976, 1978; both in the 1,500m) and a two-time Olympian (1976, 1980), as well as a fifth-place finisher at the Junior World Cross Country Championships. He presently holds the second-best 1,500m mark and ninth-best 5,000m mark in school history.
Currently, the elder Centrowitz is in his seventh year as the head coach for track and field and cross country at American University in Washington, D.C. Matthew’s sister, Lauren, was an All-American distance runner at Stanford who finished 27th at the 2007 NCAA. Centrowitz, Sr. had a hands-off approach in his son’s recruiting, making the decision Matthew’s own.
He took official visits to Notre Dame, Georgetown and Texas in addition to Oregon.
“A lot of guys were freshmen at the time, and they were really young and still excited,” Matthew Centrowitz said. “They got me pumped up.”
This general enthusiasm has resulted in one national title in men’s cross country, and the Ducks are favorites to repeat.
Centrowitz has never run a 10-kilometer race before, the distance of the men’s race at the NCAAs, but, in building up his identity as a runner, it’s a new experience.
“He’s talented, he’s a good competitor,” Lananna said. “I think he’s poised for a great performance on Monday.”
ROBERT HUSSEMAN
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