For most of the athletes on Oregon’s track teams, the Oregon Twilight meet, held Saturday evening at Hayward Field, will be a chance to get ready.
With the Pacific-10 Conference meet looming on May 18, and some decathletes and heptathletes already starting competition in the conference finale, every move is made with the postseason in mind.
“Our whole mission, from the beginning of the year, has been working toward the goal of a Pac-10 championship,” Duck hurdler Terry Ellis said. “Everything you do is working toward that goal.”
Ellis is one of many Oregon runners, on both the men’s and women’s squads, who will sit out Saturday’s meet. Ellis is rehabilitating his leg, but many of the runners will sit out just to preserve energy for the big meet next weekend.
The sprinters “usually don’t compete in the Twilight, it’s more for the people out in the field who want to improve their marks,” Ellis said. “You won’t find too many runners out there.”
So the focus of Saturday’s Twilight will be on runners trying to break the Pac-10 time barrier, field athletes searching for
improved marks and the post-collegiate talent that will be on hand to entertain the Hayward Field crowd.
The Twilight is usually highlighted by the Bill McChesney Memorial Mile, but that event was moved to the Oregon Invitational this year.
Instead, post-collegiate women will headline, as former Duck Lisa Nye will return to Hayward Field for the first time since winning the steeplechase at the USA Championships last summer. She set a then-American record in the event by running 9:49.91. The field in Saturday’s steeplechase also includes the third, ninth and 11th-place finishers from last year’s USA Championships. The steeplechase is scheduled to start at 8 p.m.
For many of the Oregon athletes, though, the meet represents a chance to finally qualify for the Pac-10s.
“This might be a meet for some of the athletes to get ready who might not be ready for Pac-10s,” Oregon sprinter Samie Parker said.
Several Duck athletes, including Allan Amundson in the men’s 100 meters, Aaron Fonder in the high jump, Amanda Brown in the women’s long jump and Mary Etter in the hammer, have chances to make the Pac-10 meet.
Saturday’s meet will start at 4:30 p.m. with the women’s hammer. The last event, the men’s 1,500, is scheduled to start at 8:15 p.m.

Decathletes, heptathlete

kick off Pac-10s
Some Oregon athletes have already made the long, cold trip to Pullman, Wash., for the Pac-10 Championships. Three decathletes from the men’s side and one heptathlete from the women’s squad will have a chance to score Oregon’s first points in the conference meet.
Senior Billy Pappas finished third at the Pac-10s last season and is now the top Duck because of an injury to star Santiago Lorenzo. Jason Slye also returns to the Pac-10 decathlon for the second time, though he finished ninth and didn’t score last season. Oregon’s third entrant is Jake Horner, who has never competed in a decathlon before but has a good chance to score because the field is just 11 members strong.
On the women’s side, Jenny Kenyon will compete in the heptathlon in Pullman. Kenyon’s best showing in three conference heptathlons was fourth in 2000.