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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 16, 1973)
Photo by Linnet Myers Photo by Steve Twedt Pre and Daggaft after amazing mile; Lathers breaks tape after 8:35 steeplechase performance 'Greatest dual of all time ’ ByPAULBUKER Of the Emerald “I know they’re gonna beat us,” Jim Bush said almost apologetically. ‘‘We can’t keep beating them.” Oregon’s Bill Dellinger thought about UCLA's 224-207 victory in Saturday’s super-duel and wasn’t so sure. “Well, I am younger than you are,” noted Dellinger, and with that, the Ducks and Bruins set up what could turn into the greatest trade rivalry in the history of the NCAA. ‘‘No more controversies,” smiled Bush. “Well have it every year.” Bad news maybe if you can’t stomach UCLA’s current five-meet winning streak in this series. Most of those 224 paints will be back next year and as sophomore half miler Anthony Veney said, “We’re a young team and we’re just beginning to find out the things we can do.” Oregon found out what it could do on a cloudy day in front of 10,000 fans and the result was what Bruin Coach Bush called “the greatest dual of all tune.” Of course it wasn’t supposed to be a dual meet at all. Washington State and Nebraska made it a quadrangular. Hie Cougars totaled 140 points and the Huskers, just happy to be taking all this in, rang up 109. The real battle was between the other two schools. War raged through most of the af ternoon, with the Ducks apparently in command after Steve Prefontaine (3:56.8) and Scott Daggatt (4:02.0) went 1-2 in the mile. Jeff Carter threw a lifetime best as a Duck (234-0) to win the javelin and then UCLA found a new way to screw up the 440 relay. The Bruins’ Ronnie Welch slowed down on the last handoff and Gordon Peppars ran out of the exchange zone. “My God,” thought Bush, “does it hav? to keep happening?” Oregon’s A1 Hearvey smoked home uncontested, the Ducks clocked 40.5, and UCLA was worried. Then Veney, who came to Hayward Field with questionable 1:51.5 credentials in the 880, beat Steve Bence with a lifetime best 1:49.6 moments after John Mays and A1 Hearvey faded to third and fourth in the 100. When Benny Brown swooped right by Hearvey in the 220 to finish second behind teammate Peppars, the 100 winner, UCLA was gone. All was lost when they threw in 36 Bruin paints in the triple jump and high jump to go along with 36 more in the shot put and pole vault “We’ve got an awesome field event team,” Bush admitted. The Bruins scored the meet on a dual basis only, and they figured it 92-62. (That didn’t cgunt the hammer throw.) Actual 5 ■ 3-1 scaring gave UCLA a 92-70 victory. “I’d like to combine with Oregon,” smiled Bush, “and take on anybody in the world.” As it was, UCLA and Oregon practically re-wrote the list of UJS. track and field bests in one afternoon. Take two of three from OSU Ducks still alive in ND race By KEN MAYS Of the Emerald Get this: In six games against Pac-8 Northern Division opponents this year, Oregon’s varsity baseball squad has scored 45 runs. Five of those were home runs, giving the Ducks a mid-season total of 28 homers, two more than they collected all last season. Yet the Ducks are only 3-3 in Divisional play, a record which will make it hard to overtake Washington State, the conference favorite with a 5-1 mark. This weekend’s version of the agony and the ecstasy again found Oregon on the short end of a seven-nm late inning rally. It came Friday afternoon at Coleman field in Corvallis, after the Ducks had made OSU look like child’s play for six innings. Oregon battered touted OSU pitcher Gail Meier for five runs in the early innings and led 8-1 going into the fateful seventh. Then it was Oregon ace Mike Shoup’s turn to pilch batting practice as the Beaver? tagged him and reliever Dick Galloway foi seven runs on six hits. The 8-8 tie lasted until the tenth, when OSU’s Tom Apa doubled home Mel Cuckovich with the winning run. The fans at Coleman couldn’t believe it. Perhaps their team was in vincible. Saturday, at Howe Field, Oregon proved otherwise. The Ducks kept their offensive prowess but stirred in some dandy fielding and good pitching. In the end, the Ducks swept the twinbill 7-4 and 8-6, Don Reynolds had himself a day and a half, and Head Coach Mel Krause found two new starters in Greg Richards and Brian Shandera. Reynolds was little short of phenomenal. In the three-game series, he went 8 for 15, including two home runs, two triples and a double. He scored five runs and outraced a long drive to make a spectacular over-the shouider catch in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. And people are talking about him as a football star! Richards held the Beavers to five hits and struck out nine in the seven-inning first game Saturday, making him the only Duck pitcher to pitch a complete »me against a league opponent this year. Shandera, a freshman from Beaverton, needed late-inning relief help from Steve Townsend and Eric Gilmore in the nightcap, but nevertheless turned in a solid performance, giving the Beavers only three hits in his seven-inning stint. Krause will make Richards and Shandera the second and third pitchers in his start ing rotation. Gilmore is now the number one short relief man, according to the coach. “I was very happy with our offense,” said Krause after Saturday’s sweep. He will start Steve Miller in Tuesday’s home game with Portland. Krause contends that Miller is “very capable," and with more confidence and control could be “a major league prospect.” “People over the years have criticized baseball for being a boring game,” added Krause, “but I think anyone who saw this weekend’s games would have to admit it’s not at all ... all three ganes were very exciting.” —Todd Lathers ran the fastest steeplechase time (8:35.0) in the nation and Mike Long’s 8:45.0 was second fastest. • Lathers’ turnaround from the psychological problems of last year is flitinang. r~ “It was easy,” he said. “I’m ready to race somebody now. You can only run so . fast when you have to take the lead.” The shockingly easy victory for the junior was the third fastest in school history. “I’d like to run 8:25,” said Todd. “It felt like I could do it today if somebody would have beat pushing.” That would be an American record. —Prefontaine ran the Nation’s fastest' mile, perhaps the fastest in the world this year. He was asked if he would double later in the day in the three-mile “Why run if we don’t have a chance?” said Pre. “No use killing myself.” Yet, with UCLA fairly certain of victory, he took off in the three. “We knew they had it,” nodded Dellinger, “Pre knew it too. He just wanted to get a good double.” Pre dueled with WSU’s John Ngeno most of the way, and the Kenyan still led through an 8:46 two-mile. Then be took off, won in 13:06.4, and came away with the greatest double in track history for one day. The mile was something else. Oregon’s Mark Feig was a non-scoring third in ,4:02.5 and his time was the fourth-fastest in the nation this year. In fact, six of the top ten times nationally were run in that race. While Benny Brown’s awesome strides produced the fastest quartermile time (45.5) in the country, the Ducks saw unexpected fire in freshman Dave Hagmeier. He finished second behind Brown with a lifetime best 47 flat and in the mile relay refused to be put away by Ron Gaddis, turning in a 46.1 third leg. “I wish I ran the 100," cracked a dead tired Hagmeier. Fittingly, perhaps, Craif Blackman took the baton on the final leg of the last race and tore off ahead of Brown by 15 yards. The UCLA speedster, exhausted, trailed untO the last bo yards, then swept past in a few giant strides to give the Bruins yet another victory. It was quite a confrontation. “Oregon will be the best we meet until the Pac-6,” noted the loquacious Veney. “I don’t see any other teams in the nation touching UCLA or Oregon.”
