EUGENE -- On the Oregon team that won the men's 4xmile relay at last week's Penn Relays, one guy dipped under four minutes.
And he was ... Matt Miner, the Ivy League's latest gift to the UO program.
The Ducks have had a series of one-and-done transfers from the academically-oriented Ivy, which doesn't allow redshirts. Athletes who compete there have four years of eligibility, period. Other Division I conferences allow four years of eligibility within a five-year period.
Miner, who prepped at Ashland High School in Southern Oregon, graduated from Dartmouth in 2012 after four academic years with a degree in neuroscience and one season of eligibility remaining by the NCAA's reckoning.
"I ran OK, but felt like I had a lot left in the tank, like there was really a lot of untapped potential," Miner said. "My senior winter I ran a 4:04 mile, and contacted Andy -- coach Powell -- and he was receptive to me coming and trying to walk on and seeing what I could do."
It's proved to be a good move all around. Miner has run the 800 meters in 1 minute, 51.85 seconds, the 1,500 in 3:42.60 and was part of the UO contingent to the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Saturday at Penn, he clocked a 3:59.9 split of the 4xmile as the Ducks won the race in 16:17.57.
"That was something else," Miner said. "Winning individual events is a lot of fun, but it is still a very private thing. Doing that with a team was a completely different experience altogether. ... And then when you have 50,000 screaming Jamaicans it just makes everything that much better."
Miner called Oregon's victory lap at Franklin Field "surreal."
"We're kind of like the Yankees of track & field," Miner said. "You love us or hate us, but everyone knows us. Even before the race, people who clearly never had been to the West Coast, who had no ties to Oregon, were shouting down at me, 'Let's go Oregon guy.' Like, really trying to motivate us.
"When we were doing that victory lap, everyone was really paying attention, really involved. People were throwing out the 'O.' It was really something else."
Among other one-year transfers from the Ivy League Oregon has had in recent years are Alexi Pappas (Dartmouth), Justin Frick (Princeton) and Michael Maag (Princeton).
Miner is taking graduate-level classes in chemistry at Oregon.
OK, links:
Matthew Centrowitz
Olympians
for Friday's Oregon Twilight. Pros Britney Henry and Luke Puskedra also show up on
. My customary note of caution about entry lists: always treat them more as a guideline than a rule.
The past
, with a heavy Northwest emphasis.
Track & Field News
this season's dual meet national title. He has the Ducks third.
Another reason to have more dual meets --
than the big invitationals.
Eugene to
at TrackTown Tuesday on May 7.
This
by garycohenrunning.com covers a lot of ground.
OTC Elite's
the World Championships "A" standard in the 10,000 at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational.
The
this week's athletes of the week.
Utah's
into an All-America mid-distance runner.
Northern Arizona's
of the NCAA's 5k list.
Report says
in track.
Bracy
with Adidas.
Alysia Montano
immediately after competing.
Tyson Gay
could be ahead of him.
U.S. triple jumper
for moving across the Atlantic to train in England.
Unattached
turning heads.
Scott Bush
for RunnerSpace.com.
Long jumper
by his quest for a fifth world title. He will compete in the Prefontaine Classic.
Russian distance thrower
with a doping ban.
British runner
in the sport.
Western Oregon's
the GNAC decathlon.
Seattle Pacific's
, sets a meet record.
Lane Community College's
conference multi-event titles.
The George Fox women
in the latest USTFCCCA Division III rankings.
Boxers
with the Pacific Twilight.
Colorado
.. Jason Hartmann.
Legally
for the Arizona high school state championships.
This week's
a banjo lead-in and riff on some history-making performances from last weekend.
The
from LetsRun.com.
The
from Track & Field News.
Runner's World's
of racing news.
The
roundup.
The
Duck Sports Now.
-- Ken Goe