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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1989)
Breather Continued from Page 7 "Things are going fairly welt, bul I always have higher expectations." he said. "That's just my nature. I can't com plain because my technique is coming along You do some thing wrong and you're back starting trying to develop some thing new. 1 was happy with last week's throws because I had a bad week of practice working on my technique." McGee, a graduate of Spring field's Thurston High School, was the Class AAA shot put champion his senior season and then sal out his first year as a Duck to learn and develop the hammer under coach Stewart Togher. Sitting out that first year was Important according lo McGee "It would have been difficult to compete right away under a pressure situation." he said. "It was a difficult transition at first.” McGee added. "It was a lot more fun and something new which I liked. I liked that Stewart let me experiment and develop at first." Togher. who coached Ken Flax (colleRiate and school re cord holder while al Oregon), now coaches Olympian Lance Deal and is recognized as one of the foremost hammer author ities in the world. According to McGee. Togher has been very instrumental in his develop ment as a hammer thrower. "I knew Stewart was a good coach." he said, "but I didn't realize how good of a coach he was until I started learning the hammer techniques " taist season McGee had a "mentally, down year" while fighting a stress fracture in his lower back and trying to com pete at the same time. "I wasn't able to lift weights and my strength was way down." he said "I was just throwing and working on my technique. I learned that tis.h nique was more important than strength. Ijut year let me know I could threw far and it helped me to focus on what was im portant." Although McGee didn't come CVQM&SR REPAIRS M CYCLES ] The ‘MOUNTAIN BIKE PEOPLE" Come see the new 1989 MOUNTAIN BIKE LINES: Mongoose • Kona • Fisher • Terr-Tech Fat Chance • Merlin Clearance—All remaining 1989 models Save up to $175 18th & Chambers Next to Dari Mart 087*0288 10 am to 6 pm Mon-Fri 10 am to 5 pm Sat into this season with any dis tances set in mind as a goal, then: were other, important things for him. “I want to stay healthy and be able to complete a season." he said, "and not pushing too hard too s«>on. I want to im prove my technique so I can compete better in the bigger meets and be among the top finishers. If I can get my tech nique down I should be able to compete really well at the NCAA's." Although McGee is unbeaten against teammate Eric Finch, last year's third place finisher, this season, be downplays the notion that there is any rivalry among them. "There is no rivalry." MrC.ee said. "What 1 like about prac tice is that we're developing our throwing and developing our own technique. Too many people get hung up with win ning and forget what to work on in practice. I don’t like to lose to anybody in competition hut practice is for developing yourself for competition.” Metier hopes to compete in ternationally after using up his collegiate eligibility, and once Ills throwing days are over, hopes to stay involved with the hammer in some capacity. Photo b> Mark Y len Oregon ’* /eanna King can fly around the base paths, having already established a team record for thefts along with teammate Kim Manning. COME CHEER THE DUCKS ON TO VICTORY As They Run ^ The Cal Bears Out of Town Then CELEBRATE with a PEPSI and Pizza from PIZZA ANSWER 687-8600 FEAST for 4 Buy a 16’’—3 Item Pizza and 3 Quarts of Pepsi for only $9.95 Reg. $13.00 Save $3.05 Name_ Address_ One Coupon Per Pizza Expires 4/23/89 SAVE $2.00 on any 2 Item 16" Plus 2 Quarts of Pop Nam*_ Address One Coupon Per Pizza Expires 4/23/89 "I'm not just going to stop throwing the hammer." he said "I'm going to cam through and hopefully do well internationally. When it gets to the point when* I’m not devel oping anymore and not gaining any more, then I'll stop throw ing." “I want to help develop the hammer in this country." McGee added. "There's not enough coaching for the ham mer here and there isn't a lot of quality coaching. I know I'll lx* involved with it some way be cause sports is what I like If that leads into coaching that would be great." McGee_ Continued from P«ige 6 after going hitless in 13 at-hats against Portland State and Cali fornia. The Churchill High School grad said sh« hopes her problems, and the teams', are over with. "I think last weekend's games really helped,'" Scott said "We need to keep our bats going now. so when some one isn't hitting well, there's someone else who picks up the slack. We have to work on the mechanics and fundamentals, and make our weaknesses our strong points. "We had a letdown in the second game with Portland State,” she said, the reason lut ing the lack of clutch hits. "I think we had the highest left on-base percentage in the league. It was just terrible." Something that may ease the problem of leaving runners on base is a more aggressive base ninning style used last week. The Ducks stole 11 bases over the weekend, and even pulled off a few double steals against Pacific, kim Manning became the first Oregon player to steal three bases in a game this season, and is now tied at YZ (a new team record) with Ioanna king for the team lead in thefts. Another positive, and some thing tile Ducks are all grateful for. is the return to the cozy confines of Howe Field. "Talk about burnout." Scott said "After 45 games on the road, it was nice to finally play at home. It gives us something to defend now, and it's really nice to have that bottom half of the inning at the end. We need ed it against Arizona." As for Oregon State, Beaver coach Vickie Dugan has had a rough go of it in her first year as a coach in the Pac-10, with the win over the Wildcats being the highlight of the year thus far. "1 was so proud of the way the kids played." Dugan said. "We played excellent defense. The girls were hungry for a win and they finally got one." Plenty satisfied with their win over the Wildcats, the Bea vers promptly went out and dropped a pair of games to Western Oregon on Saturday. 4-3 and 3-1. "We were so emotionally high after beating Arizona we took Western Oregon too light ly.” Dugan said. "They went all out to beat us and we were not ready to play. We didn't have the same kind of enthusi asm we had in Friday’s win." Wilson said her Ducks will be ready, but her main con cern? "1 just hope it doesn't rain.”