Oregon daily emerald., June 23, 1998, Page 7A, Image 7

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Runge explains decision to avoid Texas A&M job
The start of
summer
recruiting
forced her to
make a quick
decision
By Allison Ross
Freelance Reporter
Jody Runge, the Oregon women’s basket
ball head coach who has led the Ducks to
five consecutive NCAA Tournament ap
pearances, announced Friday that she
would prefer not to be considered for the
head coaching vacancy at Texas A&M. The
decision came two days after Runge inter
viewed for the five-year contract reportedly
worth $1 to $1.5 million.
“It was not a hard decision,” she told the
Register-Guard on Friday. “I tried to look at
the Texas A&M situation from every angle,
and I tried to be unemotional about it.”
Runge, who will begin her sixth season
with the Ducks next year, has led them to a
95-47 overall record. With only five wins
next season she will become the third -
fastest coach in Pacific-10 Conference histo
ry to reach the 100-victory mark.
“I am happy Jody has de
cided to stay at Oregon,”
Athletic Director Bill Moos
said in a released state
ment on Friday. “She has
done a splendid job and I
have every reason to be
lieve the future of women’s
basketball at the University of Oregon is
very bright. Our program is certain to bene
fit from her decision to remain here.”
Oregon returns four starters and 11 play
ers from last year’s team, which ended the
season fourth in the Pac-10 with a 17-10
record. Runge has been successful in keep
ing some of the state’s top athletes in Ore
gon, including 6-foot-5 sophomore center
Jenny Mowe and 6-foot-l sophomore for
ward Brianne Meharry.
“It would have been a great job opportu
nity at Texas A&M, but the timing just was
not right,” Runge said in a released state
ment. “It has been a very emotional process
over the past three days with the thought of
leaving the team I have returning to Oregon
as well as the community.”
Runge said the decision was based on the
fact that summer recruiting was set to begin
shortly and she needed to make a decision
quickly.
RUNGE
i
EMERALD
Emeralds managerJim Saul says this year’s team should produce more runs.
Saul says Emeralds
have fighting chance
The team has shown
comeback ability early
in the season
By Rob Moseley
Associate Editor
Eugene Emeralds manager
Jim Saul stood in his club
house office after Sunday’s 5
4 Eugene Emeralds victory
over the Portland Rockies in
10 innings and overflowed
with fatherly emotions for his
group of young players.
Saul had just watched his
team overcome deficits of 3-0
and 4-2 to beat the defending
Northwest League champion
Rockies on a German Alvarez
sacrifice fly to score Junior
Brignac from third.
“That’s a big win for this
group in here,” Saul shouted
as he pointed to the locker
room. "They’re fighters, that
group in there is fighters, and I
think they’re going to make a
fighter out of me.”
It was an appropriate reac
tion for a game played on Fa
ther’s Day, and after the Ems
fourth straight comeback from
deficits of three or more runs,
albeit two in losing efforts. Ap
propriate because Saul is the
patriarch of the Ems, a group
of 25 young men, none of
whom is older than 23 and
whose starting second base
man is just 18.
That second baseman, A1
Castro, is one of three Emer
alds to return from last season,
when Eugene finished last in
the four-team South Division
of the Northwest League with
a 31-45 record. The Rockies,
who finished 44-32 in their
championship season, won
three of five games to take the
championship series against
Boise, which the Ems began a
five-game series against on
Monday.
Eugene entered that series 3
3 after splitting its opening se
ries at Salem-Keizer, winning
its home opener against the
Volcanoes on Thursday, then
avoiding a three-game sweep
at the hands of Portland on
Sunday. The Rockies lead the
Northwest League’s South Di
vision with a 4-2 record.
“This club is playing very
well,” Saul
said before
Sunday’s
game.
“There’s a lot
of good life
on the club.
They’re battlers. The last
three games we’ve come back
and had the tying or winning
runs on base, which is a good
sign that they don’t quit. If I
go into battle, I want every
one of my troops fighting for
me. I don’t want them going
against me.”
The other two returning
Ems are designated hitter and
occasional leftfielder Greg
Strickland and third baseman
Manny Sanchez, who hit a
two-run homer in the bottom
of the seventh inning to knot
the score at 4-4 on Sunday.
Saul said although he
would rather finish 0-76 and
have a few of his players reach
the major leagues than win the
title and have none advance to
a higher level of the minor
Turn to EMS, Page 9A
Injuries haunt Ducks at the USA Track and Field Championships
Sudden chest
pain forced
Micah Davis to
drop from
third to 12th
place
By Mirjam Swanson
Freelance Reporter
Three Oregon athletes competed in the
USA Track and Field Championships in
New Orleans last weekend, but health con
cerns held back two of the University’s best.
Junior Micah Davis made his first appear
ance at the USA Championships on Friday,
finishing 12th in the first of two opening
rounds in the steeplechase. Davis, an All
American in the event last season, was
slowed by chest pain which forced him to
fall from third place to the back of the pack
almost instantly, according to the Oregon
athletic department. Davis finished the race
in 9 minutes, 13.13 seconds.
“It was so weird,” Davis said in a released
statement. “I was feeling great running with
the leader, then I got this
really weird spasm in my
upper chest, and it hit me
like a ton of bricks. After
ward, I wasn’t fatigued or
tired, it just felt like some
one stabbed me. Even the
weather wasn’t bad — it
had settled down to a breezy 75 to 80 degrees
— nothing intense. That’s the slowest time
I’ve ever run but at the same time the best I
felt going into the race. ”
Davis’ time was particularly disappoint
ing considering he had run 8 minutes, 47
second or faster in each of his previous six
races during the year and two weeks earlier
had finished fourth at the NCAA champi
onships.
“We went through at 71-second laps for
the first three laps, which I’ve done before
and it felt so easy,” Davis said. “Then within
the span of 200 meters, I dropped back nine
places and almost stepped off the track, but I
never have done that before and I didn’t
want to start, no matter how much it hurt.”
Turn to INJURIES, Page 8A
DAVIS