Bears bypass Oregon, 89-74
By Allan Lazo
or the Kmertld
It had been 11 years, and not since Bill Dell
inger's 1974 squad finished 2-3 in dual meets had
an Oregon men s track-and-field team lost three
meets in a season — not until Saturday, that is.
After giving up more than 100 points to both
UCLA and Washington State, the Ducks were
hoping to pull things together against the Univer
sity of (.alifornia. But the Golden Bears, with vi
sions of a number three national dual-meet rank
ing. sent Oregon reeling with a 89-74 win at
Hayward Field in a meet that wasn’t decided un
til the final two events.
The loss dropped the Ducks to 3-3 for the
year with their last shot at a winning season com
ing in two weeks against Oregon State University
in Corvallis. Meanwhile, the Bears upped their
dual-meet record to an impressive 11-1 mark.
Despite leading 48-29 after the first nine
events, the Ducks were unable to stop Cal's
sprint, hurdle and relay attack. Those forces
outscored Oregon 42-13.
1 he Bears made their big comeback on the
track. Cal evened the score at 61 With five events
left Then the Bears stretched out to an 11-point
lead with the deciding final two events left — the
5.000-meters and the mile relay.
With Cal having an 80-69 advantage, the only
chance the Ducks had was to take first and second
in the 5,000 (John Zishka and Chris Hamilton)
and win the mile relay race. Hamilton won the
5.000, but Zishka ended up in fourth place, and
Cal took the mile-relay race.
The kids did a good job. but we just got
beat. I don't see any excuses. I think California
just had a better team.” Oregon coach Bill Dell
inger said. "We obviously have some holes we
need to fill.”
There weren’t any holes in Oregon's distance
runners peformances. where they captured vic
tories in all races above 800-meters.
The class of the track was distance-ace Dub
Myers. Myers won the 1.500-meters in an NCAA
qualifying time of 3:41.45. Myers was just ahead
of teammate Mike Blackmore, who also qualified
for the NCAAs in 3:41.76.
Later. Myers raced in the 800 and took
another victory in 1:51.19.
"Before today. I was hoping 1 could qualify
in both events, but after the 1,500. 1 just didn’t
think I would be doing it,” Myers said. "It took
me quite awhile to recover from the 1.500.
The other distance win for the Ducks was
Matt McGuirk's season-best 8:45.54 victory in the
3,000-meter steeplechase.
In the field. Oregon's other guns expected lit
tle competition from the Bears and found none as
Ken Flax won the hammer throw with a meet
record 233-5. Brian Crouser won the javelin by
almost 50 feet (273-8), and Kory Tarpenning add
ed another first-place showing in the pole vault
(17-8 Vj).
Crouser and Tarpenning, two o? Oregon's
eight seniors appearing in their final home-dual
meet, took the opportunity for a victory lap after
winning their events — but both saw the team
win go to Cal.
Victory laps are generally reserved for the
running events, but Crouser sported a yellow^ T
shirt with green lettering that said "Good Bye”
on the front and "Thank You” on the back.
John Frazier also took a victory lap after win
ning the 100-meters (10.58w) over Cal's Rod Jett
(10.63). Frazier's win was the first dual meet
100-meter victory for the Ducks in two years.
After Frazier crossed the finish line, he just kept
on going for his victory lap.
”1 just didn't feel like stopping.” Frazier said
after the race.
The only other first-place celebration for
Oregon was Uchenna Agu's win in the long jump
with a wind-aided 24-2M». Agu also came back
later to capture third in the triple jump with a
wind-aided career-best of 51-2 v«.
Oregon golf team starts Pacific-10 Championships
Poised and ready to go. the
Oregon golf team is looking for
a top-four finish in the
Pacific-10 Conference Golf
Championships being held on
the Walla Walla Country' Club
in Washington.
Second-year coach Scott
Krieger believes the Ducks
could finish as high as fourth in
the 72-hole three-day tourna
ment starting today through
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“This is a big tournament for
us." krieger says. "We are hop
ing to finish in the top four, but
four of the teams we are playing
are in the Top 20."
Some of those highly-ranked
squads include the University
of Southern California, the No.
2 team in the nation- UCLA.
Stanford, and Arizona are also
ranked and will be vying for the
championship.
The Ducks will be sending six
people to the tournament.
Oregon's best chance for quali
fying someone in the NCAA
Championships in Winter
Haven. Fla., should be George
Daves.
Daves has the Ducks’ best
stroke average (74.4). and will
be joined by Rob Huff. John
DeLong. Gerry Norquist. Cray
Cochran and Tim Scott.
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Photi hr KM Hivtli
The University of California’s Peter Howard (left) edged
Oregon's Mark Harris in the mile relav in the Bears’ 89-74 win
over the Ducks Saturday at Hayward Field.
Duck softball team splits
double-header at WOSC
A double-header split with Western Oregon State Col
lege. Sunday in Monmouth capped a hectic weekend for the
Oregon softball team.
Oregon. 14-18. won the first game 3-0 in eight innings, but
the Ducks were blanked in the second contest, 4-0.
A dramatic seventh-inning Duck rally carried the team to
a 3-2 victory Friday against Portland State University, and a
similair last-inning comeback attempt fell just short Saturday
against Oregon State University, 4-3.
Shortstop Jackie Cobum’s single scored Susan Uhrich
from third base to win the Portland State game in the bottom
of the seventh, capping a three-run. two-out rally.
Oregon dropped the second game against both op
ponents. PSU scored on a wild pitch to beat Sony Schroeder
1-0. and OSU's Joan Harvey shut out the Ducks and Sue
Voeller 3-0.