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.”