Ducks survive Regionals, now aim for both NCAA Championships

Jack Pfeifer

 

Ducks survive Regionals,
now aim for both NCAA
team championships
 
By Jack Pfeifer
Photos by Kim Spir
 
            EUGENE – Oregon’s track team won the events it expected to win – the men’s 800 and 1,500, the women’s 400 and javelin – on the concluding day of the NCAA West Regional meet Saturday afternoon at Hayward Field, setting up both squads for a shot at the national team championships two weeks from now in Fayetteville, Ark.
           
            Despite its national prestige, Oregon has not in fact won an outdoor team title in track since the women’s team won 24 years ago. The last win by the men’s team was a year earlier than that, in 1984.
 
            This year, the men’s squad is talking about a Triple Crown – consecutive national championships in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. They won the cross country last fall, and in March won the school’s first-ever indoor team title.
 
            The only school ever to pull off this triple is Arkansas, the host of this year’s national outdoor meet.  
 
          The final step on the way to Arkansas this spring was over the weekend at the West Regional, one of four such qualifying meets held around the country.
 
            Matthew Centrowitz won the 1,500 and Andrew Wheating the 800 on Saturday for the men’s team, and both now loom as the national favorites. For Wheating, the tall junior who made last year’s Olympic team, he is favored in part because Jacob Hernandez of Texas, who narrowly defeated Wheating in last year’s NCAA, did not run at Regionals and is out.
 
            For Centrowitz, still just a teen-aged redshirt freshman, his almost casual 3:38.30 triumph over a powerhouse field that included his better-known teammate, Galen Rupp, solidified his current status. He has seemed unbeatable since his stunning 3:36 race at Stanford in early May.
 
            Behind Centrowitz and Rupp, who went 1-2 on Saturday, was a big surprise for the Ducks, Jordan McNamara, who took the final auto-qualifying berth, 5th place, in 3:43.10, a seasonal best. Chad Barlow also took a 5th place, running 47.11 in the 400, one place ahead of his decathlete teammate, Ashton Eaton.
 
            The final auto qualifier on Saturday for the Oregon men was steeplechaser Chris Winter, who finished 3rd in 9:53.
 
            On the women’s side, Rachel Yurkovich won the javelin and Keshia Baker won the 400 for Oregon, but the Ducks’ 4x1 team was disqualified for passing out of the zone on the first exchange. Even though they ran a school-record 44.17 in the preliminaries on Friday, their disqualification on Saturday prevents them advancing to the NCAA meet, even on the basis of season-best lists.
 
            This could prove costly at the national level. The Oregon women could be in a very close battle with several other teams – including LSU, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Florida State and Arizona State – for the national title, and every point will matter.
 
            Yurkovich, a contender along with rival Kara Patterson of Purdue for the NCAA title, won the javelin with another fine throw, 188-0. Baker, who is also now a threat at the nationals, won the 400 with a strong run down the straightaway, in 52.49.
 
            Oregon later withdrew both its 4x400 teams from Regionals. Although both squads were potential NCAA qualifiers, their chances of actually scoring at nationals were marginal.    
 
            The other Oregon women who finished in the top 5 on Saturday were Alex Kosinski in the 1,500, Zoe Buckman in the 800, Claire Michel in the steeplechase and Jamesha Youngblood in the triple jump.
 
            Portland State also won a spot at the NCAA meet when Jernise Saunders took 5th place, the last Q, in the 200, running a seasonal-best 23.77. She is pictured above in the green singlet.

            University of Portland's Alfred Kipchumba (left, Rupp is leading) only a freshman, finished 6th in the 5K but will run in the NCAA meet based on time.
 
            Final declarations of athletes for the NCAA meets will be announced this Tuesday. The biggest news there will be what events Oregon chooses for Rupp, who has qualified in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000. There has been speculation about which two of those he would attempt at Arkansas, but now even the prospect of a triple is being mentioned. “I’m not going to say it’s out of the question,” Rupp told Ken Goe of The Oregonian.