The Oregon women’s track team had a record-breaking weekend in Seattle at the University of Washington Indoor Invitational. School records were broken Friday by the distance medley relay squad and Saturday by Britney Henry (weight throw) and Rebekah Noble (800 meters).
Friday’s first day of competition at the Dempsey Indoor Center was the start of a coming-out party for Noble. The freshman from Spokane, Wash., opened her
collegiate track career by running a 2:06.9 800-meter third leg for the DMR. Her performance helped the squad of four to a second-place finish and school-record time of 11:22.81. Competing with Noble in the event were teammates Dana Buchanan, Sara Schaaf and Amber McGown. The quartet’s performance broke the seven-year-old school record of 11:25.84.
Buchanan, the junior newcomer from Beachburg, Ontario, ran the first leg with a 1,200-meter split of 3:28.9 putting the Ducks in third place. Buchanan handed off to Schaaf for the 400-meter second leg followed by Noble. McGown handled the final 1,600-meter leg and turned heads in the homestretch. The first-year graduate student re-passed All-American Ashley Caldwell of UCLA just meters from the finish line.
For an encore, Noble won the 800 Saturday. Her time of 2:04.22 broke the school record, formerly owned by Eri Macdonald, by almost three seconds (2.53). Running in the same event was Schaaf whose 2:09.88 finish was the fastest indoor time of her career.
Also making her debut as a Duck, Henry took second place throwing the hammer. Her distance of 60-10 3/4 was less than four feet behind Cari Soong of Team XO. Henry’s distance broke the school record held by teammate Brittany Hinchcliffe by 1 foot, 5 3/4 inches. With another 1 foot, 5 1/4 inches, Henry would have met the NCAA provisional standard (62-4).
Hinchcliffe also threw Saturday. The senior from Olympia, Wash., finished fourth with a distance of 57-9 heaved in the prelims. In her Oregon debut, freshman Megan Maloney finished sixth (52-0 1/2).
The men’s contingent also had a noteworthy outing at the invitational. On Friday, sophomore Galen Rupp made his first collegiate indoor appearance winning the 5,000 meters (14:17.04). Freshman Jonathan Thomas and redshirt sophomore Carlos Trujillo ran with Rupp in the same event. Thomas finished fourth in 14:44.89 and Trujillo took sixth place with a time of 14:54.55.
Senior Cody Fleming competed Friday in the men’s heptathalon and scored 2,814 points through the first four events. He sat in seventh place following the first day, but did not finish the event.
On Saturday, senior Eric Mitchum broke the Dempsey Indoor Center track record by .02 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles. Mitchum won the event with a time of 7.78 and was joined on the podium by teammate and fellow senior Akobundu Ikwuakor who took second (8.04). Also running for Oregon was Jared Huske. The freshman from Topeka, Kan., finished ninth (8.45).
Redshirt sophomore Michael McGrath ran the mile for the Ducks and ended the event with the school’s second-fastest indoor mile ever (4:03.53). The time was more than enough to meet the NCAA provisional standard.
In the shot put, junior Colin Veldman of Oregon took third place (55-0 1/4) and came three-quarters of an inch from the school’s fifth-all-time throw.
The Ducks are sending select jumpers and sprinters to Nampa, Idaho next weekend to compete in the United Heritage Invitational Feb. 3-4 at Boise State University.
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