In the brightest lights, on the biggest stage, the Oregon track and field teams delivered. On most levels.
Hayward Field was sold out for the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships’ final day with 12,182 rabid track fans looking to crown champions. Television cameras from CBS Sports were on hand to catch every leap and every step. Conditions were perfect for the Ducks to show what they could do.
Two signature moments emerged. In program director and assistant athletic director Vin Lananna’s five years with Oregon, the men’s 1,500 meter run and the women’s 4×400-meter relay will come to represent the true re-emergence of the men’s and women’s teams on the national scene.
Yes, the Ducks have won cross country titles (the Oregon men, twice) and indoor track and field titles in Lananna’s tenure. Stars such as Galen Rupp have achieved great individual success as Ducks. But cross country season and indoor track season will always give way to outdoor track season in terms of importance. Oregon track and field has made great strides in recent years, and these two events helped showcase how far it has come.
The Duck men needed something of a miracle early on Sunday, June 12. Andrew Wheating, A.J. Acosta and Matthew Centrowitz helped deliver. The men’s 1,500 meters got off to a slow start, with Acosta pushing the pace. He let New Mexico’s Lee Emanuel and Alabama’s Fred Samoei take over pace-setting duties as he drifted to the back of the pack. Three-quarters of the way toward the race, Centrowitz made his move, steadily moving through the pack.
With two hundred meters remaining, Centrowitz was fighting off a late charge from the pack as Wheating began to make his move. Seeing him go, Acosta took off, his extra gear still not yet tapped. Down the stretch, the Hayward crowd got louder, louder, louder. The Ducks got closer, closer, closer to the finish line.
With twenty meters remaining, Oregon would take the lead for good. Duck runners would finish 1-2-3. The order was inconsequential at the moment; Hayward was holding sound like the bowl at Autzen Stadium. Wheating, the senior, would be crowned champion in 3:47.94 to complete the fifth 800 meters/1,500 meters double in NCAA history. The redshirt junior Acosta, his season redeemed from a shaky April, finished second in 3:48.01. Centrowitz, a favorite entering the final, came in third in 3:48.08. Twenty-four points when the team needed it most.
Another senior, Keshia Baker, made the mile relay monumental for the Oregon women. The anchor leg received an excellent handoff from third leg Michele Williams, finding herself in the lead as Jessica Beard of Texas A&M prepared to strike. Beard is a mile relay world championships gold medalist, and she asserted herself by overtaking Baker with 200 meters remaining.
Baker, to the crowd’s pleasant surprise, was not done. Off the Bowerman Curve, the two were neck and neck. Beard and Baker couldn’t separate themselves until the last few strides.
She pulled ahead to finish the race in 3:28.54 with a 50.58-second anchor leg. Baker, the Pacific-10 Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year for women’s track and field and the first major sprinting recruit in Oregon history, guided the Ducks to their first NCAA mile relay title ever.
Wheating and Baker will be missed, as will three-time decathlon champion Ashton Eaton, and 10,000-meter third-place finisher Nicole Blood. The seniors helped deliver a third-place men’s finish and a second-place women’s finish for the Oregon program.
Two sweet moments. No national titles. Texas A&M, for the second year in a row, swept the team titles. The Ducks had no reason to hang their heads, but the feeling clearly wasn’t perfect.
Next year, it only gets tougher. The Oregon men cannot expect national championship contention, as Wheating and Eaton will be impossible to replace. The Duck women, however, return stalwarts such as Brianne Theisen, Jamesha Youngblood and Jordan Hasay; their depth in so many different events will only help them in the future.
Next year, the Ducks would do well to remember the exciting battles, if not the result of the war. They ought to remember Andrew Wheating’s historic double, Ashton Eaton’s decathlon win, Marshall Ackley’s decathlon finish, Keshia Baker’s historic anchor leg and the sound of a record Hayward Field crowd.
In 2013, NCAA Outdoor Championships will be back at Oregon. The memories will be fresh. The coaches and the athletes will be ready to fully deliver.
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