Oregon Track & Field Has Busy Weekend on Tap

Returning U.S. junior harrier champion Nicole Blood will shift her attention to the indoor track at Seattle this weekend. Photo: goducks.com

EUGENE - With the halfway point of the indoor track and field season at hand, the University of Oregon track and field teams face arguably their busiest weekend of the slate this weekend at a pair of highly-regarded invitationals.

A tentative travel party of 47 men’s and women’s athletes from the sprints, distances, jumps and throws areas will compete Sat.,in the Husky Classic, held in the Dempsey Indoor Center in Seattle, Wash.

Action will run from approximately 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, and more meet information and tentative meet schedule is available at the www.gohuskies.com website.

Another group of 10 men’s and women’s athletes from the jumps, sprints and middle distance area will compete Fri.-Sat., in the Tyson Invitational, held in the Randal A. Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.

Events run from 10:00 AM – 10:00 PM Friday Central Time, and again on Saturday from 10:00 AM – 4:45 PM (CT).

The Ducks will also send four men and women to compete in the USA Cross Country Championships, in Boulder, Colo., on the Flatirons Golf Course.

The Ducks entered one woman and three men in Saturday’s junior 6,000m and 8,000m events, respectively, and more event information is available at the www.usatf.org website.

DUCK TEAM PREVIEW - SEATTLE

The Seattle travel party squad includes one NCAA champion –four-time pole vault victor Tommy Skipper – and two other returning All-Americans – senior Brian Richotte and sophomore Galen Rupp – along with five other NCAA veterans in seniors Emily Enders and Colin Veldman, juniors Kasey Harwood and Michael McGrath and redshirt sophomore Kalindra McFadden.

Also slated to compete in Seattle this weekend are five current NCAA qualifiers, including Skipper who is the Ducks’ lone NCAA automatic qualifier of the early season (pole vault, third, 18-0 1/2).

UO's four other NCAA individual provisional qualifiers headed to Seattle include Galen Rupp (5,000m, second), Brian Richotte (weight throw, eighth), and Ashton Eaton (heptathlon, 14th) and Eniko Eros (women’s pole vault, 15th).

UO’s tentative travel party for Seattle (listed alphabetically and subject to change) includes:

Men

60m – Patrick Chung, William Puaa, Jonathan Stewart

200m – Marshall Ackley, Chad Barlow, Marcus Dillon

400m – Philip Alexander, Tanner Targett

800m – A.J. Casteel, Kevin McNally, Ryan Waite

Mile – Michael McGrath, Duke Wasteney, Andrew Wheating, Chris Winter, James Withers

3,000m – Michael McGrath, Jon Thomas, Carlos Trujillo, Scott Wall

5,000m – Galen Rupp, Jon Thomas

60m Hurdles – Marshall Ackley, Ashton Eaton, Jared Huske, Walter Thurmond III

High Jump – Ashton Eaton

Pole Vault – Marshall Ackley, Brian McGinty, David Moore, Tommy Skipper, Colin Witter-Tilton

Long Jump – William Puaa

Shot Put – Mark Lewis, Scott Penny

Weight Throw – Mike Hill, Steven Johnson, Scott Penny, Brian Richotte, Colin Veldman

Women

60m – Ashley Bridenbeck

200m – Ashley Bridenbeck

800m – Kasey Harwood

Mile – Nicole Blood, Dana Buchanan, Zoe Nelson

3,000m – Nicole Blood, Dana Buchanan, Keara Sammons

60m Hurdles – Erin Funkhouser, Kalindra McFadden

4x400m

High Jump – Erin Funkhouser, Kalindra McFadden

Pole Vault – Emily Enders, Eniko Eros, Tara Rhein

Weight Throw – Britney Henry, Megan Maloney

DUCK TEAM PREVIEW - FAYETTEVILLE

Senior Lauryn Jordan continues her quest for her first NCAA indoor invitation and will compete in the long jump in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend.

The Stockton, Calif., native broke her school record by 1 1/2 inches in Seattle two weeks ago with her NCAA provisional leap of 20-1.

On the track, returning NCAA outdoor 800m champion Rebekah Noble will make her first indoor appearance of '07 in the 800m on the banked Tyson Center track in an elite section of the event.

The Spokane, Wash., native finished a narrow second place last year in the NCAA indoor event at the same location.

The Ducks will also likely enter a several women’s sprinters, and a women’s 4x400m along with sophomore decathlete Alexey Shkuratov in the long jump.

The Minsk, Belarus native leaped 23-3 1/2 in his only indoor event appearance last year.

NCAA QUALIFYING UPDATE

The Ducks currently have one NCAA men’s automatic qualifier and nine provisional qualifiers (6 men / 3 women) for the NCAA Indoor Championships, scheduled for Fri.-Sat., March 9th-10th at the University of Arkansas.

The two-day meet will feature 284 athletes in each of the men’s and women’s competitions, and invitations are based on athletes’ indoor season best marks.

Each NCAA individual event typically has between 10-12 relay entries and 12-20 entries in individual events, based on size limitations and each event’s ability to handle more or less athletes based on lane, section and flight assignments.

Athletes that meet each event’s automatic mark are guaranteed positions in the NCAA field, and the next best marks from the NCAA provisional list are used to fill remaining slots in the field by the NCAA Championships selection committee.

A complete list of Duck NCAA qualifiers, season/personal bests and current collegiate rankings follows:

Men’s NCAA Automatic Qualifier

Tommy Skipper, Fr., Sandy, Ore., Pole Vault, 3rd, 5.50m, 18-0 1/2 (Indoor Personal 18-8 3/4, 2004, ’06)

Men’s NCAA Provisional Qualifiers

Galen Rupp, So., Portland, Ore., 5,000m, 2nd, 13:58.09, 12/1/06 (Indoor Personal Best 13:48.51, 2006)

Distance Medley Relay – A.J. Acosta, Marcus Dillon, A.J. Casteel, Michael McGrath, 2nd, 9:41.64, 1/26/07

Distance Medley Relay – Duke Wasteney, Phil Alexander, Ryan Waite, Andrew Wheating, 9:42.06, 1/26/07

Brian Richotte, RSr., Berkeley, Mich., Weight Throw, 8th, 20.53m (67-4 1/4), (Personal Best 69-4 1/4, 2006)

Ashton Eaton, Fr., Bend, Ore., Heptathlon, 14th, 5,370 points (IPR), 1/26-27/07

A.J. Acosta, Fr., Oceanside, Calif., 3,000m, 38th, 8:04.71 (IPR), 1/27/07

Women’s NCAA Provisional Qualifiers

Eniko Eros, Fr., Budapest, Hungary, Pole Vault, 15th, 3.96m (12-11.75), 1/27/07 (Indoor Personal Best 4.15m (13-7.25), 2006)

Lauryn Jordan, RSr., Stockton, Calif., Long Jump, 18th-tie, 6.12m (20-1), 1/26/07 (School Record)

Lauryn Jordan, RSr., Stockton, Calif., Pentathlon, 33rd, 3,718, 2/2/07 (Indoor Personal Best 3,894, 2006)

U.S. HARRIER FINALE MAKES BOULDER DEBUT

Four Duck freshmen will head to Boulder, Colo., for junior events (women's 6,000m / men's 8,000m) in Saturday's USA Cross Country Championships, and will compete for positions on the U.S. team for the upcoming 35th World Cross Country Championships, in Mobasa, Kenya (3/24).

Freshman Bria Wetsch ranked top-four for the Ducks in both of her cross country appearances last fall in the Pac-10 and West Regional Championships (22nd/34th) and ranked second on the team in the latter event.

The Chaska, Minn., native also competed in the USA Cross Country Championships junior race in 2006 (eighth) and ’05 (10th), and the former prep state champion was also an eighth-place finisher in the 2005 Foot Locker Championships.

Freshman A.J. Acosta was a cross country redshirt for the Ducks last fall, and competed unattached in two races.

The Oceanside, Calif., native was a Foot Locker prep harrier champion in 2005. Freshmen Isaac Stoutenburgh and Kenny Klotz were also Foot Locker harrier veterans as seniors in 2005, and the duo also ran the USA cross country junior event in 2006 and finished eighth and 15th, respectively.

This past fall for UO, both competed in the postseason in various events and combined for six, top-eight finishes for the Pac-10 and West Regional champion squad that also tied for fifth in the NCAA Championships.

Also set to compete Saturday in the men’s senior open race are former Duck All-Americans Jason Hartmann of Nike and Eric Logsdon of Team XO. Hartmann was a three-time cross country for UO All-American in the NCAA Championships (37th in 1999, 35th in 2000 and 20th in ’02), while Logsdon claimed similar honors in 2002 (41st) and ’03 (29th).

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