Abby Andrus is not a boisterous person. She is not the type to attract attention in a crowd. And she doesn’t have an overbearing voice.
Rather, she keeps to herself and she stays reserved. Andrus is just the
quiet type.
“She’s so quiet but such a nice girl,” fellow teammate sophomore Kayla Mellott said. “Sometimes she can surprise you, the funny stuff that she’ll say, just because she is so quiet. You’ll be like ‘Whoa, Abby, that was really funny.’”
Yet the funny, soft-spoken junior has been generating quite a bit of pandemonium on the track. The buzz surrounding Andrus has grown as she tries to reach the 5,000-point mark in this weekend’s Oregon Invitational.
Andrus has competed in just one heptathlon as a Duck, scoring 4,963 points at a meet in California in late March. That mark is just 37 points shy of an NCAA provisional qualifying mark, which is why the Peoria, Ariz., native will try and crest the 5,000-point barrier starting today.
“I don’t think I’ll have problems breaking 5,000 this weekend,” Andrus said. “I plan on a little higher than that. The most important thing this weekend is qualifying for nationals.”
In just her first season at Oregon, Andrus already ranks eighth on the Ducks’ all-time career list with her mark of 4,963. Andrus has three years of experience in the multi-event heptathlon, which includes the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200, long jump, javelin and 800.
Her heptathlon career began at Paradise Valley Community College in Arizona after she graduated from Cactus High in Glendale, Ariz., in 1999. The 5-foot-5-inch Andrus finished fourth at the Junior College National Championships in her first season at PVCC.
As a sophomore in 2002, after redshirting the 2001 season, Andrus was the national runner-up with a then-personal best of 4,903 points.
Oregon assistant coach Mark Stream, who trains the Duck heptathletes, began recruiting her halfway through the 2002 season. For Andrus, who has always wanted to be a Duck, it became a sure deal in no time.
“She has a lot of the quality characteristics of a good heptathlete,” Stream, in his 26th season of coaching, said. “She’s reasonably level-headed. She’s pretty determined. She’s a good competitor and she likes to rise to the occasion.”
In his career, Stream has coached some of Oregon’s greatest heptathletes including record holder Kelly Blair (6,038 in 1993), Jennifer Thomas (5,452 in 1998) and Jenny Kenyon (5,169 in 2002), to name a few.
“She compares very favorably to those people on the top part of that list,” he said. “Before she’s done, I would think that she’ll be number two (all-time) or at least has the potential to be there.”
Andrus’ potential continued to blossom in last weekend’s Long Beach State Invitational where she led a 1-2 sweep in the 400 hurdles and finally broke the 60-second barrier. Mellott finished second at 61.30 seconds.
Her time of 59.90 was a .34-second personal best and ranks Andrus sixth all-time in Oregon history along with improving her own outlook.
“It was good to break the barrier of 60 seconds,” Andrus said of her Pacific-10 Conference and regional qualifying mark. “It gave me confidence that I can start running times that I think I’m capable of.”
If Andrus can continue to set high marks, her chance of qualifying this weekend will greatly increase.

The 22-year-old has set goals to go sub-14 seconds in the 100 hurdles, which is her favorite event of the seven, and to hit a mark of more than 19 feet in the long jump in today’s start of the heptathlon.
“She wants to constantly improve and isn’t satisfied until she’s better,” said Kenyon, who is Andrus’ training partner and ranks fifth on Oregon’s all-time heptathlete list. “Although she’s quiet, Abby shows her competitiveness on the track. She’s extremely competitive.”
Andrus has generated noise in the Pac-10 standings, currently ranked fourth, and has easily surpassed the Pac-10 qualifying mark of 4,400. If she hits the 5,500-point mark , Andrus would have a NCAA automatic bid, whereas 5,000 is a provisional mark.
“I don’t see that as an obstacle at all,” Stream said. “She’s a rise-to-the-occasion type of person. She just loves what she does.”
That rise-to-the-occasion, quiet, soft-spoken person may continue to create more buzz starting today.