Nicole Blood entered Oregon as one of the most decorated women’s track and field recruits in recent memory.
The Saratoga Springs, N.Y., native was a three-time Foot Locker Northeast Regional cross country champion who competed at the World Junior Cross Country Championships in 2006. Blood was also the 2005 USA Junior champion at 5,000 meters and a two-time New York state champion at 3,000 meters.
“She was a high school superstar,” assistant athletic director and cross country head coach Vin Lananna said. “She really was our marquee athlete that we had (recruited) four years ago.”
Four years later, Blood remains at the center of a renaissance of the Oregon women’s program. Her eight All-America honors are second only to Leann Warren’s 10 from a female athlete, and she has added two academic All-America honors to her list of accomplishments. With ample opportunity to expand her resume at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships (June 9-12, Hayward Field), her legacy will continue to grow.
“Nicole is a great friend and an amazing athlete,” fellow senior distance runner Kevin McNally said. “The Ducks will definitely miss having her on the team.”
Blood’s legacy, of course, is intimately tied to team success. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’d like to just think that I was a part of the group that started this,” she said of the Duck women’s positive momentum. “I feel like the captains that we have now were here since the beginning. I’d like to think that we started this and rallied it and turned it into a tradition that will just keep going.”
That tradition now includes a national title, the first by an Oregon women’s team in 23 years (cross country). Blood finished fifth at 3,000m for the eighth All-America award of her career. In the 5,000m the previous day, Blood was tripped up with 800 meters remaining and had to walk off the track.
“The girl behind me was running real close to me, and I actually tripped on the girl in front of me,” she said. “It sucked. I was really upset. But I had to put it past me because I had another race the next day.”
Nevertheless, the memories from March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark., will stay with her forever.
“It’s awesome,” Blood said. “That was one of the greatest experiences — that, and Pac-10s last year, outdoors, were the two most memorable experiences ever.”
At the 2009 Pacific-10 Conference Championships, Blood was the runner-up at 5,000m and the fourth-place finisher at 1,500m. She would go on to finish second at 5,000m at NCAA Outdoors, helping the women to a second-place finish while earning one of five All-America honors in her junior season. Blood finished 10th at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, leading the Ducks to a second-place team finish, and scored in the mile, the 3,000m and the distance medley relay as Oregon finished tied for ninth at NCAA indoors — the program’s best finish at the event up until this season.
“Nicole has always been a leader,” McNally said, “and has set the example for everyone on the team for how to act on and off the track.”
Setting the example, and setting the bar high.
“My junior season was actually the most disappointing season I’ve had,” she said. “My freshman year, I was just kind of warming up to things, and I really came around my outdoor season, so I was really proud of that. My sophomore season, I hit so many PRs that that was probably my most exciting year.
“My junior year, I hit a couple PRs but only by a second or two. I think the reason why I didn’t think it was as good of a year was because I had such high expectations, but I think that’s also what got me so many All-Americans, because I was shooting so high. Even though I wasn’t hitting as high as I wanted to be, I was still pretty far up there. I definitely learned a lot of lessons my junior year, and I think I grew a lot as a runner. I think that’s going to help me throughout this senior year and beyond college.”
This senior year, Blood has continued to break down barriers, becoming the first Duck since Stephanie Wessell in 1990 to win Pac-10 titles at 5,000m and 10,000m. She made it through qualifying in both events at the NCAA West Regionals this weekend in Austin, Texas, to set up an NCAA Outdoors double in her final competition as a collegian at Hayward Field.
Beyond college, Blood expects to pursue a post-collegiate running career. A journalism major, she also has eyes on a career in sports broadcasting once her running career ends. Whether she will stay in Oregon, which has built a reputation as a haven for professional runners, or move back to New York remains a question for her.
“Before, I was set on being in Oregon, but after scoping out how many options I have, I’m just going to see what kind of offers I get,” she said. “I have a lot of family back East, so that’s appealing too. It’s hard. I’m just going to have to weigh everything.”
Her sterling record on and off the track should allow for many options to come her way after college.
“She’s a tough competitor,” Lananna said. “She is resilient and she is the consummate team player. If there’s an extra event to do or an extra point to get, she will go out and get it. She has always been that way in every championship, in every event, for all four years.”
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