If the Oregon Invitational were a mythical Japanese movie beast, it would be Godzilla. Or maybe Mothra.
The Invitational is big. A total of 38 teams from as close as Lane Community College and as far away as Wake Forest will descend on Eugene for a meet so big it needed to be separated into four smaller meets. The decathlon and heptathlon portion started Thursday and ends today. The men’s and women’s 10,000-meter races will be run tonight at 7:15. Saturday’s action includes a day session scheduled to run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and a twilight section scheduled to run from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m.
Saturday’s twilight meet is the only one that requires tickets, and it is the event with the most interest to Duck fans. Several Duck stars such as Jordan Kent, Samie Parker and Adam Kriz will compete in the evening session.
Many of those stars have already qualified for the NCAA West Regional meet, meaning they’re now just tweaking and fine-tuning for the postseason.
“I’m still pushing myself that extra inch,” Parker said. “I still want to do better than everybody else.”
Parker is one of 19 Ducks who have qualified for the regionals in 13 events. Nine other athletes have qualified for the Pacific-10 Conference Championships but not the regionals.
This weekend’s meet will be a prime opportunity for those athletes to hit NCAA marks in front of their home crowd. Among those athletes are Terry Ellis in the 110 hurdles, Matt Scherer in the 400 hurdles, Teddy Davis and Chad Clason in the high jump and Jon Derby in the pole vault. Those events are scheduled for Saturday at 5:35 p.m., 12:25 p.m., 4:30 p.m. and 5:25 p.m., respectively.
But if Duck fans just want to see their stars, they can catch Parker in the 100 at 6:05 p.m., Kent in the 200 at 7 p.m. and Kriz in the hammer at 5:35 p.m. John Stiegeler will throw in the javelin at 3:40 p.m., Trevor Woods will jump in the pole vault at 5:25 p.m. and Brandon Holliday will run the 400 hurdles at 6:47 p.m.
The Oregon Invitational also attracted some top graduate competition. Several athletes will participate in the event unattached, most notably Karl Keska, a former Duck and Olympian. Keska, who ran at Oregon from 1993-96, will highlight the field in the men’s 5,000, the last event of Saturday’s evening session.

Slye sits third

in decathlon
Jason Slye finished Thursday’s half of the decathlon with a strong showing in the last event, the 400. Now he’s hoping to have a strong showing on the second day.
“I’m PRing already, so that’s good,” Slye said. “I just wanted to do better in some events, and
I did.”
Slye had personal bests in the 100, long jump and shot put and also a personal best for first-day points in Thursday’s action. He sits third in the competition behind Jason Williams and Billy Pappas, who finished 11th at the NCAA Championships last year for the Ducks. But Pappas is now graduated, and Slye said it’s been fun competing with the former Duck.
“It just pushes you, knowing he’s here,” Slye said. “He’s better in some events, and I’m better in others, so we help each other out.”
Slye has 3,560 points after the first day and needs 3,240 points today to hit the Pac-10 mark. He needs 3,440 points to make the NCAA Provisional list and 3,940 to hit the NCAA automatic mark. Today’s first event of the decathlon begins at noon and the last event, the 1,500, is slated for 5 p.m.