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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 7, 1976)
UO women distance runner are Starting another tradition By JOHN HENDERSON Of the Emerald It's not easy to build one of the nation's strongest women's track teams when the program is just three years old and there's no scholarship money available. But then again, not all track prog rams begin in track-crazy towns like Eugene. "There’s an awful lot of talent in Eugene," said Oregon women's distance coach Tom Heinonen whose runners will be competing this weekend in the Northwest College Women's Sports Association Champion ships in Boise, Idaho. "The fact is, we offer a good program, are well-organized and we draw a lot of people." The distance runners are Heinonen's pride and joy. In its second year of competition, this year's cross-country team finished fourth in the nation, the highest place of any non scholarship team. This spring's distance corps has also seen some success. In last weekend’s southern reg ional meet, the Ducks finished 1-3-4 in the mile, 1-3-5 in the three-mile and 2-5 in the two mile. And with seven girls running the 880 in 2:22 or better, the Ducks have compiled one of the best two-mile relay teams in the country. Kim Conner, Dala Ramsey, Nancy Alleman and Sandy Trowbridge will make up this weekend's team which will challenge meet favorite Seattle Pacific for the two-mile title. When you have quality run ners to begin with, a program is bound to grow. "When more people came here, it mushroomed because they've never trained with these quality of runners before," said the 30-year-old Heinonen who was a distance star at Min nesota. I hope this happens next year when the word will spread around." Kim Conner, a junior from Turner who holds a 4:59 mile and 2:16 880, sees another reason for the success. "We have a coach who runs and he knows how to handle runners because he's been through the same thing," she said. "The problem with most track programs is they aren't track-oriented. It really helps when you have someone who knows what he's doing, and has Conner doesn’t need a scholarship to succeed the talent to work with us. " Heinonen worked some of his magic on Conner last year and turned her running around. "Kim has been the most sur prising," said Heinonen. “Last spring, she was 20 pounds overweight. But she went home and came back fit and became the No. 1 runner. It's encourag ing to others to see what can be done." Especially when there are no scholarships to work with. Heinonen concedes the disad vantage, but tries to see the good side of it. "We can’t pull in the big time people like Dellinger (men's coach Bill)," said Heinonen. "People who come to Oregon pay their way for the combina tion of school and program. "We have adequate money for traveling, and I'm not sure I want scholarships. We don’t want to get in the meat-market situation. We want girls who realize they're here because they want to be here; not be cause they have to." In Boise this weekend, the Ducks will be up against some powers who offer scholarships. Defending champion Seattle Pacific, which is coached by American distance ace Doris Brown, and Washington will be two funded teams among the 30 schools competing. Oregon finished fourth last year and ninth in the nationals which the Ducks will compete in the following weekend in ^Aan hatten, Kansas. “I’d like to improve on last year,” said Heinonen, "But women s athletics improve so fast it’s hard to tell. There's so little information out that we ll just have to go in and give our best shot." With no scholarships, Heino nen won’t take anything less. Women netters host regional tourney Eight Oregon schools will be competing for the Northwest Col lege Women s Sports Association Southern Area title in women's collegiate tennis today and Satur day on the 15th Avenue courts. Oregon is the defending team champion and with No. 1 player Debbie Borchers back in the line up after a lengthy illness, the Ducks are prepared to go after another championship. Duck coach Marti Schey ex pects Oregon State, Southern Oregon and Lewis & Clark to offer the stiffest competition. Other schools in the tournament include Linfield, Willamette, Portland State and Oregon College of Edu cation. If Borchers is healthy enough to play No. 1 singles for Oregon she'll likely face OSU's M.L. Gov aars or Southern Oregon's Sally Boyer. Oregon’s Patti Layton de feated both Govaars and Boyer earlier this season and would be strong in No. 1 singles if she plays there. Borchers and Layton will team up for No. 1 doubles. Linda Harling, Jeanette Florey, Brenda Stroud and Julie Hutchin son will all compete for Oregon in the two-day tournament. Play begins each day at 9 a.m. and continues through the late af ternoon. The final match scheduled on Friday is at 4:30 p.m. Singles finals go at noon on Saturday and doubles finals at 3 p.m. that day. The top two placers in each event (six singles, three doubles) advance to the NCWSA Regional Championship May 13-15 at Washington State. The Ducks will be entering the tournament on the heels of a 6-3 loss to Lewis and Clark Wednes day in Portland. Oregon’s top two players — Layton and Borchers—came up empty-handed. Borchers was beaten by Donna Roysom 7-5,6-2 while Layton lost to Virginia Sharp, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Borchers and Layton were beaten in doubles 10-8 by Donna Royson and Patty Brent. SINGLES—Donna Roysom. LC. d Debbie Bor chare, UO. 7-5, 6-2 Virgma Sharp. LC. d Patti Layton. UO. 6-2. 2-6. 6-4 Linda Hartting. UO. d Patty Brant, LC. 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 Bonnie MacKinnon. LC, d Jeanette Florey. UO. 6-3,7-6 Brenda Stroud. UO. d Molly Shera. LC. 7-3,6-3 Julie Hutchinson. UO. d Patty Cleary, LC, 26. 6-4. 6-1. DOUBLES — Donne Roysom-Patty Brent. LC. d Debbie Borchers - Patti Layton. UO. 10-8 Virginia Sharp - Bonnie MacKinnon. LC, d Linda Hartting Jeanette Florey. UO. 8-5. Molly Shera Patty Cleary. LC. d Brenda Stroud - Laurie Butte. UO. 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. TEAM — Lewis and Clarti 6. Oregon 3 Oregon tunes up with relay meet Oregon's track team, which finished its dual meet season last weekend with a 106-57 triumph over Oregon State, will try and keep momentum going Saturday as the Ducks compete in Corvallis at the Northern Division Relays. Because of injuries, or because they’ve already qualified for Pacific-8 and NCAA competition, several Oregon athletes will not be entered in the meet. Others, however, including squads from Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State, will be honing up their skills in preparation for the Pac-8 finals May 14-15 in Berkeley. The Ducks have several athletes who will be trying for conference qualifying times. These include Dale Warren, Robert Curry and Gary Carew in the 100-meter dash, Steve McChesney in the 5,000 and Tom McChesney in the steeplechase. Oregon won’t be fielding a full squad, but that doesn’t mean the Ducks are taking a lackadaisical attitude toward the meet. Head coach Bill Dellinger is quick to point out that fact. “We’re certainly not overlooking the meet," he said. “Most of the teams there are preparing for the Pac-8’s and we re going to go up, compete, and possibly win it.” Competition will be fierce in several events, in the hammer, Washington’s Scott Nielson will be entering with a season best of 219-6, currently leading the conference, while Oregon’s Rich Perkins is sec ond with a 206-3 best. Washington’s Rod Ewaliko (258-0), Oregon’s Jeff Carter (254-8) and WSU’s Gene Lorenzen (245-3), meanwhile, should provide some excitement in the javelin. The meet will start at 9:30 a.m. on Oregon’s State’s Wayne Valley Field. Ducks’ challenge in Seattle Six games in 3 days Oregon’s baseball team travels to Seattle this weekend — but you can bet the Ducks won’t be touring Pioneer Square or riding the Space Needle. They’re scheduled to play no less than six games in three days because of a three-game series that was rained out in Eugene two weeks ago. The Ducks, now 13-11 overall, are hoping to notch their first North ern Division win after dropping their first six games. The Ducks go into the contests fresh from a 16-4 win over Lewis and Clark. -^portfolio Smith qualifies for Pac-8 decathlon Only 11 days after attempting his first decathlon, Oregon freshman Jim Smith set four lifetime bests en route to a personal record 6,847 which qualifies him for the Pacific-8 Championships May 14-15 in Berkeley, Calif. The Pac-8 qualifying mark in the decathlon is 6,800 points and Smith was in good shape after the first day with 3,318. He tossed the shot 38-0% and high jumped 6-0 for personal decath lon bests on the first day of competition. Smith came back on the second day to record decathlon PRs in the 110-meter hurdles (15.9) and pole vault (14-3). He also threw the javelin 213-10 (well below his open PR of 230-0) to aid his cause. Smith (5-10,160) becomes only the third decathlete in the Pac-8 to qualify for the conference championships. Oregon’s Craig Brigham, ranked No. 9 in the world last year after his PR 8,027, qualified by winning the Florida Relays decathlon with 7,898. Ken Moore giving talk “Running from a personal and cultural perspective” is the title of an address to be delivered by Ken Moore, Olympic marathon runner and local journalist, on Saturday, in Eugene. Moore’s address will be the main feature of the founder’s day banquet of Phi Epsilon Kappa, physical education honorary at the University of Oregon. The public may attend the 7:30 p.m., buffet dinner at North’s Chuck Wagon, 2864 Willamette St. Tickets, $4 each, may be purchased from the dean’s office of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (686-4102) in 102 Esslinger Hall at the UO, or from any member of the honorary. Lonnie files $12 million suit ST. LOUIS (AP) — Former Oregon State basketball star Lonnie Shelton has filed a $12 million suit against the Spirits of St. Louis, two of their owners, the American Basketball Association and a Cincinnati attorney. The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, alleged Shelton was unduly pressured into signing a $1.2 million, six-year contract with the Spirits in June 1975 after his sophomore year at Oregon State. Crew teams head for Seattle The Oregon club sports men's and women’s crew teams will travel to Seattle Saturday to compete in the Stewards Cup Re gatta. The Ducks will enter shells in five races.
