Wednesday
April 21,1999
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V
Arriaga proves
No. 6 is No. 1
As the No. 6
singles
player,
senior
Miguel
Arriaga has
transformed
from a
skinny
freshman
into the
men’s tennis
team’s most
consistent
winner
By Mirjam Swanson
Oregon Daily Emerald
Four years ago it would have been hard
to believe that the skinny freshman from
Mexico would become one of the most suc
cessful tennis players in Oregon history.
Miguel Arriaga arrived in Eugene as the
pride of Toluca. He was the best tennis
player in a city where tennis is the second
most-revered sport, following soccer.
But at a frail 127 pounds, Arriaga found
himself in a situation at Oregon that easily
could have overwhelmed him.
He had never lifted weights before join
ing the Ducks. He barely spoke English. He
was strictly a serve-and-volley player in a
conference dominated by power. And he
found himself part of a program that was in
the midst of major transition.
Arriaga’s freshman season in 1995 was
also the first for head coach Chris Russell,
who was concocting a schedule unlike any
that Oregon had ever seen. The Ducks were
going to compete against the nation’s best,
taking on the Pacific-10 Conference powers
they hadn’t faced in the past.
With all that was going on, Arriaga need
ed unwavering focus if he wanted to make
things work.
That wasn’t a problem.
“He always has been very responsible
and very goal-oriented,” said Carlos Navar
ro, a teammate and fellow senior. “He
knows what he wants, and he does it.”
Arriaga wanted to end his career with the
Ducks on a high note. He’s heading into the
Pac-10 Championships on Thursday with
Turn to Arriaga, Page 8A
Scott Bamett/Emerald
“He’s found
a way to
blend his
craftiness
and his
acquired
physical
strength to
be
successful”
Chris Russell
UO head coach
Senior Miguel
Arriaga of Toluca,
Mexico, practices for
the Pac-10
individual
Championships.
Track and footbal I fast friends
Men’s Track
Notes
Allison
Ross
While Oregon football
may be the top dog on
campus, some mem
bers of the football team have
never been shy about showing
off their track skills.
The Oregon men’s track team
said farewell last season to leg
endary track coach Bill Dellinger,
who led the Ducks to five NCAA
titles and 17 conference titles.
Five years ago, football head
coach Mike Bellotti arrived at
Oregon and quickly united with
Dellinger to combine, in a sense,
football and track.
As each coach went through
the recruiting process, they
would alert the other about ath
letes who were interested in
participating in both sports.
And it was a perfect collabora
tion —Oregon football players
Pat Johnson, Ronnie Harris, La
Mont Woods and Dino Philyaw
are in Oregon’s record books for
their track performances.
Johnson holds Oregon’s
record in the 200 meters (20.39
seconds), ranks third in the 100
(10.26) and second in the 400
(45.48). Harris is 10th overall
in the 100, eighth in the 400
and was part of a four-man
crew in 1991 that ran the
fastest 4x100 relay in 10 years.
This season, as the Oregon
track program welcomed a new
coach, Martin Smith, many
things were changing—but
the alliance with Bellotti
stayed the same.
“Before the season started, I
got together with Martin to plan
spring football around the big
meets of the track season,” Bel
lotti said. “I started doing this
when I came to Oregon because
I wanted to create a bridge be
tween football and track.”
Only two football players are
currently participating in track
—comerback Jermaine
Hanspard and offensive line
man John Bello.
Hanspard has run in two
meets for Oregon. He finished
sixth in the 100 at the Stanford
Invitational on March 27-28
with a season-best time of
10.85. The following week at
the Washington State dual meet
in Pullman, Wash., Hanspard
led Oregon in the 200 with his
season-best time of 22.13.
Although many of the Ore
gon football players who com
pete in track are primarily run
ners, Bello is having a
successful season as a thrower.
At the Mt. San Antonio Col
lege relays last week, Bello im
proved his personal record in
the discus to 169 feet, 5 inches, a
mark which also qualified him
for the Pacific-10 Conference
meet.
Turn to MEN, Page 9A
Season shaped by the big three
In the week before the
Ducks opened their out
door season at the Oregon
Preview on March 13, head
coach Tom Heinonen called
the upcoming event a step
ping stone to the following
week’s Stanford Invitational.
Although he did not know
it, Heinonen’s statement
would go on to summarize the
first half of Oregon’s season,
which has been a stepping
stone toward postseason
events.
The recent Mt. San Antonio
College Relays in Walnut,
Calif., gave the Ducks’ top
three competitors a taste of
multi-day competition, a key
characteristic of the NCAA
and Pacific-10 Conference
meets.
Those three competitors —
Marie Davis, Kaarin Knudson
and Karina Elstrom — have
captured multiple NCAA pro
visional marks and are bound
for the NCAA Championships
in Boise, Idaho, on June 2-5.
Oregon’s next meet will be
the Drake Relays this Friday
and Saturday in Des Moines,
Iowa.
Back down to Tracktown
The Ducks’ best perfor
mances of the season could
still be yet to come, as Oregon
will close its regular season at
Hayward Field with a three
meet home stand.
Both the Oregon Preview
and the Hayward Relays were
high-energy track meets, and
if the closing home meets fol
low the pattern, any one of
them could set the stage for
more NCAA provisional
marks.
Look for Hilary Holly and
Heidi Fisk to break the NCAA
barriers in the upcoming
meets. Neither Holly or Fisk
have ever had an NCAA berth.
Holly set a new lifetime
best at the Hayward Relays by
jumping 19 feet, 6 inches. At
the Mt. SAC Relays, Holly
also ran a season-best 12.14
seconds in the 100 meters.
Fisk has not yet fully recov
ered from an ankle injury that
occurred at Stanford earlier
this season, but she has
shown obvious signs of im
provement. Fisk shattered the
school record in the hammer
Friday at the Pomona Invita
tional near Los Angeles, with
a mark of 177-9.
The first of the final home
meets of the season is the Ore
gon Invitational on May 1, the
second meet is the Pepsi
Team Invitational on May 8
and the final meet is the Ore
gon Twilight on May 15.
Turn to WOMEN, Page 9A
Women’s Track
Notes
Scott
Pesznecker