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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 11, 1999)
Ibesdav May 11,1999 r Best Bet NBA Playoffs Houston vs. LA Lakers 7:30 p.m.. TNT Oregon Track and Field Weather continues to hamper home meets : - :{ ' :i 'V :-f ■■■■■■.■ ■» ■ ■ ..-1. . i A-....-.,, .i. . -.4. Heidi Fisk, shown here throwing the discus, set a new school record of 183 feet, 6 inches in the hammer throw last Saturday at the Pepsi Team Invitational! Smith puts the T in Oregon men’s team Men’s Track Notes Allison Ross I‘ f there was any question that the Ore gon men’s track and field program was headed in a new direction, that . question was answered this weekend. The Pepsi Invitational, Oregon’s last scored meet of the regular season, was any thing but a team meet. The Duck’s didn’t even come close to defeating Nebraska or Washington, but, hey, there were 10 season bests recorded on the day. That’s the direction first year head coach Martin Smith wants to take the program, steering it away from dual meets and more toward individual performances. It’s not a bad plan, just one that is going to take some getting used to by the fans. Oregon could have used junior Steve Fein on Saturday. But when Fein failed to qualify in the 5,000 meters at the Oregon In vitational on May 1, things changed. “Now we’re going to have to figure out a time when Steve can qualify,” Smith said after that meet. “It’s going to be a chal lenge.” The time for Fein to qualify was Satur day — not at Hayward Field, but at Cobb Track and Angell Field at the Stanford Invi tational. It was a judgment call by Smith, and it paid off as Fein did post an automat ic-qualifying time (13 minutes, 43.40 sec onds) for the NCAA Championships and the U.S.A. Championships — not to men tion the fact that Fein ran the fastest 5,000 for Oregon since Jim Hill ran a 13:34.5 in 1984. It would be hard to argue that Smith made a bad decision. There was no 5,000 competi tion at the Pepsi Invitational, and Oregon will benefit from having Fein in the postseason. Turn to MEN’S TRACK, Page 9 FEIN Only one thing has been con sistent throughout the Ore gon women’s track and field team’s home meets this sea son: the weather. Cold temperatures, strong winds and pouring rains have hampered perfor mances in each of the meets. During last Saturday’s Pepsi Team Invitational at Hayward Field, the wind blew fiercly enough to momentrarily halt all action. If anyone is getting tired of the weather, that person is Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen. He has said before that weather is usually not a factor in athletics because it affects everyone, but in an individual sport like track and field, team vs. team competition rarely matters. “I sound like a broken record,” Heinonen said after the Pepsi Invita tional. “We com peted hard. I thought people raced really hard and that the meet Women’s Thick Notes Scott Pesznecker was very competitive. We got some pret ty good marks for the weather, which was really spotty.” Oregon spent much of the season look ing forward to this final, three-meet homestand, anticipating the opportuni ty to post high marks in front of the home crowd. The final meet of the homestand is the Oregon Twilight, set for Saturday. For the past two meets, the enthusias tic homecrowd has shown up. Unfortu nately, so has the hometown weather. Breaking the record again and again and again Wouldn’t it be cool to set a new school record? If the answer to that is yes, then it would be great being Oregon thrower Heidi Fisk. At the Pepsi Invitational, Fisk broke her previous school record of 177 feet, 9 inches in the hammer throw. And then she broke it again — and then once more. The record now sits at 183-6, an im provement of six feet. “It’s nice to get over the 180 mark; it’s been haunting me for a while,” Fisk said. “I know now that I can do it, and I know I’ve got more in me.” Her record was an NCAA-provisional mark, but Fisk said it would most likely not get her into the NCAA meet in Turn to WOMEN’S TRACK, Page 9 Club Sports Baseball falls shorts in bid for regionals Cinderella almost made it to the dance. The Oregon Club Sports baseball team headed into the Pacific Northwest Championships this past weekend in Bend with aspirations of qualifying for regionals, but it fell just short, finishing third in its five-team division. Oregon, the fifth seed, began the weekend thinking that the top three teams advanced to regionals. But at the tour nament’s conclusion, the Ducks discovered only the top two teams qualified. “What a horribly disappointing way to end the season,” player-coach Ryan Williams said. The weekend that began with bright hopes also got start ed in a bright way as Oregon beat No. 2 seed Western Wash ington, 5-2, Saturday. Both the Ducks’ defense and offense were stellar. Shanti Perry got the offense started in the first inning with a double and then scored on a single by J.B. Hayes to give Oregon the early lead. The Ducks added one more in the fourth on a Luis Perez double. Western Washington bounced back to tie in the sixth, and the game stayed that way until the extra in nings, where Oregon took control in the eighth. Duck Tim Bogner’s two-run double highlighted a three-run inning. The star of the game was Tony Pur cell, who pitched all eight innings and gave up only six hits. “Tony was outstanding,” Williams said. “Overall, his per formance was the main reason that we got the win.” The win guaranteed the team of at least finishing third and set up a game against No. 1 Central Oregon Sunday. J Central Oregon put the Ducks in their place with a 13-3 shellacking. The Ducks took on Humboldt State next. The teams were meeting for the eighth time this season, with Humboldt State leading the season series, 6-1. Although Oregon didn’t know it at the time, the winner of the game automatically advanced to regionals. PitcherChris Cohendet started the game but was given a rude awakening as Humboldt State pitcher Clayton Sheri dan hit a three-run home run in the top of the first. In the bottom half of the inning, Boone McGuckin hit a single that drove in one, and almost two, as Hayes was thrown out at home plate. The Ducks picked up one run in the sixth to pull within 6 5 heading into the seventh. Purcell came on to relieve Cohendet and ran into trouble Turn to CLUB SPORTS, Page 9
