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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1978)
track, golf Tough slate ahead for women spikers By JUUt HOWARD Of the Emerald From the time when women track and field participants weren’t even allowed to compete on the track at Hayward Field — just six years ago — to this year’s scheduling of four “key” coed meets, the women’s track pro gram at the University continues to grow in strength. This year is no exception, with coach Tom Heinonen and his team hoping to match or better last year’s second place regional finish that advanced 12 women athletes to national competition. In preparation for the task ahead of them, the Oregon team will begin the season with the two toughest meets in the 1978 schedule. An April 1 coed meet with the University of Washington at Seattle starts things off and a special April 8 coed attraction slates the women against the 1977 regional champions, Seattle Pacific, while the men complete against UCLA. Heinonen expects these first two competitions will be highly competitive while the other two coed meets, against Washington State University and Oregon State University, will help make the Ducks look very good. “These coed meets give us ex posure that would otherwise be difficult to get,” Heinonen said. “About 5,000 people attend these meets. We should be able to offer them some pretty interesting competition.” Oregon's women track and field participants have already under gone three warm-up competitions with two more to come before the season-opener against the Fal cons on April 1. The Oregon coach is pleased with the perfor mances of those athletes cur rently out and says there is strong basis for optimism, although many unknown factors still remain. As stand-outs in pre-season ac tivity, Heinonen named the follow ing: sophomore returnee Kathy Picknell, who threw a lifetime best discus throw of 146-0 during a re bolters strong this season uy M/Kfc oAbn Of the Emerald When the best college teams in the nation come to Eugene in June for the NCAA golf cham pionships, they probably will be somewhat skeptical of the friendly smile on Oregon coach Jim Ferguson s face. That smile should be on Ferguson s face throughout this Spring, as he has one of his strongest teams ever to work with. Already loaded with six returning lettermen, including 1976 All American Jeff Sanders, Ferguson will welcome four top-notch freshmen to Eugene. That is the basis for Oregon to be rated number five nationally in a pre season poll of college coaches. Before June comes around, Ferguson’s team should be well seasoned. They will face some of the nation’s best golfers in such prestigious tournaments as the Western Intercollegiate Tourna ment, to be held later this month in Santa Cruz, Calif., and the All American Intercollegiate Tour nament in Houston, Texas, that will take place in early April. After redshirting last year be cause or a oacK injury, banaers, the third place finisher in the 1976 NCAA tournament, returns to pace the Ducks. The AII-Pac-8 golfer is once again in good shape, and according to his coach, should be considered "one of the top ten collegians in the na tion.” Senior Scott Tuttle and former Oregon Amateur Champion Brent Murray will team with returnees Jon Hesselwood and Scott Krieger to give the Ducks strength throughout the lineup. To bolster what appears to be an already solid team, Ferguson adds his "strongest freshman class ever.” All-State golfers Dave DeLong, Dave Wallace, Walter Porterville, and Mike Marcum should all see action in the coming months. Along with these newcomers, Glen Luikart has transferred from Houston to Oregon. No one in the Northwest should be able to stay with Oregon. The Ducks see Stanford and USC as being the main roadblocks to a conference crown. The Pac-8 championships are scheduled for Los Angeles in early May. inis past tall, the golfers won two off-season tournaments in the Northwest and Sanders showed his recovery was complete by tak ing the top honors at the tourna ment sponsored by the University of Washington. However, since that time the Ducks had a poor performance in Hawaii. June is still in the distance, but if Jim Ferguson’s golfers can post some solid showings across the country, when teams arrive for the national championships, that friendly smile on Ferguson’s face just might be caused by the high hopes of a strong challenger get ting a chance to take on the best in its own backyard. cent intersquad meet in January, another sophomore and returning team member, Ellen Schmidt, ran the 880 yard dash in 2:14.5 and the 1,000 meter run in 2:56 (In door times) and freshman Heath er Tolford has already broken school records in the two-mile run (10:39), and the 10,000 meter run (35.10). For the first time in four years the team won’t have Mary Officer, a proven performer in Heinonen’s words. But he feels there will be several new people who will be able to take up the slack. “We're especially excited to have freshman Debbie Adams competing for us this season,” explained Heinonen. “Right now she’s Oregon’s leading rebounder in women’s basketball, she’ll be able to jump (19-5 in the long jump). But she’s also the best women sprinter in the Northwest, holding the fastest high school times of 10.7 in the 100 yard dash, and 24.3 in the 220 yard dash.” Heinonen also looks for promis ing performances from Melanie Batiste in the sprint competitions (11.01 100 yds and 25.18 220 yds), Kerry Clawson in the high jump (5-8), and Joan Walton in the long-jump with a lifetime best of 17-8. Jacki Wagoner should strengthen the javelin competition (135-8), along with Patty Kearney (132-5) and Lisa Vance. In addition to Schmidt, Picknell, and Dawna Rose, hurdles, Georgene Rose (57.9, 400) Mag gie Bonn (42-51/2, shot), Mary Stevenson (156-8, discus), and Sandy Trowbridge (2:14 800,4:34 1500), made it to nationals last season in their individual events and should prove competitive again this year. Even though Seattle Pacific holds the regional title, it will be Oregon and Washington battling it out for the regional championship this year. Seattle Pacific is being forced to sacrifice this competition due to financial difficulties. Everyone else in the region, in cluding Oregon, will settheirgoals at achieving a mark that will qual ify them for either regional or na tional competition. Two special meets have been included in the regular schedule this year that may offer additional opportunities for regional or na tional qualification. The annual Oregon Twilight meet, which includes only a few very good athletes competing in a few select events, will be held May 6, and the first annual Oregon Open will be introduced May 5, providing the same type of com petition between colleges and dubs exists that the state cham pionships had provided before they were disbanded. The Oregon women now must wait for the starting gun to get them on their way to what might be a very good season. “I think we’ll have a shot at the regional title," Heinonen con cluded. Rapid Printing Calligraphy*Theses & Dissertations Editing*Resumes*Design & Layout* Advertising Cooperative Printing 485-4899 • 762 E. 13th (next to Excelsior) HOURS. 7:30 a m p.m. Monday —Friday 9 a m 6 n.m. 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