Monday
Best Bet
High School Basketball: Roundball Classic
6 p.m., ESPN2
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
UO men’s track scores high marks in Texas
Harris, Bello
and Woods join
the Oregon
NCAA qualifier
club with wind
aided marks
in Texas
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
Athletes at Oregon are used to deal
ing with the elements when competing.
The Oregon men’s track and field team
took a break from the cold rain of Eu
gene for the high winds and muggy
temperatures of Austin, Tex.
Several Ducks recorded solid marks
despite high winds at the Clyde Little
field Texas Relays. Three Ducks earned
NCAA provisional qualifying marks to
bring the Oregon total to five.
Junior transfer Micah Harris led the
Ducks on the track. The former junior
college All-American placed third in
the 110 meter hurdles, earning an
NCAA qualifying mark in only his third
race in a Duck uniform. Harris’ time of
13.8 seconds moves him to second on
the all-time school record book.
“I got out strong, and everything con
tinued to go great from there,” Harris
said. “Coming in, we had been focus
ing on this meet for a while so I was
ready to put it on the line. I just tried to
stay relaxed and focused, get out fast
and continue to push through the line.”
On Friday, redshirt junior John Bello
came from behind to win the shot put
on his final throw. The Alta Loma,
Calif., native trailed Purdue’s Nick
Swathwood with one attempt remain
ing. Bello then tossed a personal best 59
feet, nine and 3/4 inches to edge Swath
wood by a mere nine inches. Bello now
ranks ninth nationally.
Bello faced less favorable winds in
the discus competition, but still man
Turn to Men's track, page 10
Emerald
junior Micah Harris now ranks second on the all-time school record list for the 110-meter hur
Stranded: Oregon softball loses sixth consecutive
R. Ashley Smith Emerald
Sophomore Lisa Wangler tallied the loss in the Ducks’ 8-0 besting by No. 4 Stanford Friday, after giving up seven runs on seven hits.
■ UO senior Triawn Custer’s record-breaking
day is overshadowed by a 9-4 loss to No. 5
Cal on Sunday
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
Another bad hop just leaped up and hit the Oregon soft
ball team in the face... well, make that three bad hops.
Already in the midst of a three-game losing streak head
ing into the weekend, the Ducks (23-24 overall, 1-5 Pacif
ic-10 Conference) dropped three more games to two Pac
10 foes.
In Berkeley Sunday, the Ducks put
some runs on the board, but committed
three errors in a 9-4 loss to No. 5 Cali
fornia.
Senior Triawn Custer’s record-break
ing home run — the 34th of her career,
the most ever by a Duck — scored jun
ior Missy Coe and cut the Bears’ lead to
3-2 in the fourth inning.
But sophomore Andrea Vidlund got into trouble in the
bottom of the fourth, giving up four runs, including a two
run homer by Cal’s Veronica Nelson, her 14th of the sea
“I’m happy with the way we battled,” head coach Rick
Gamez said. “I’m sure Triawn would have wanted the
win, but that’s a great accomplishment for her.”
Vidlund, who tallied the loss, was relieved by Connie
McMurren with just one out in the fourth. At the plate,
Vidlund hit a two-run home run in the sixth to provide the
eventual final score.
Cal’s Nicole DiSalvio (15-1) picked up the win, allow
ing five hits in six innings and striking out eight. The Ducks
Turn to Softball, page 10
Little-used players shine in first football scrimmage
■The Ducks partake in their first
scrimmage of the season with the
starters serving as mostly spectators
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Quarterback Joey Harrington completed
three out of his four passes for 42 yards.
Tailback Maurice Morris ran five yards in
his only carry.
Looking at the numbers of those two, one
thing’s clear about the Ore
gon football team’s first
scrimmage of the spring: It
was a chance for the re
serves to strut their stuff.
The Ducks ended their
opening week of spring
practice Saturday afternoon with a one-hour
scrimmage inside the friendly confines of the
Moshofsky Center. Leading the way amongst
the back-ups were quarterback Jason Fife and
tailback Ryan Shaw.
When asked for his overall assessment of
the scrimmage, head coach Mike Bellotti de
scribed it as being “okay.”
“We did not plan to play our acknowledged
starters a great deal,” Bellotti said. “We want
ed to give them a little bit of work but the ma
jority of time spent live this spring will be
with our twos and threes to determine who
has gotten better, who has elevated their game
and should be playing for us. ”
Fife took a major step in securing the No. 2
quarterback position behind Harrington by
competing seven of 11 passes for 119 yards.
Among those completions were a 13-yard
touchdown pass to receiver Paris Warren and a
15-yard scoring dart to tight end Willie Walden.
“Jason Fife got an extended opportunity
and I thought did some good things,” Bellotti
said. “He improved today.”
Two other quarterbacks also received some
playing time with freshman Chris Lombardo
having a solid 3-for-4< outing for 60 yards.
Lombardo also threw for two scores,
a 25-yard touchdown pass to receiver Cy Ale
man and a 30-yard scoring strike to Gary
Daniels. Redshirt freshman quarterback Scott
Vossmeyer was incomplete on all three of his
pass attempts.
As for the running game, Shaw led all rush
ers with 33 yards on four carries, while Voss
meyer was the second-highest with 10 yards
on two quarterback sneaks. Onterrio Smith,
the hyped transfer tailback from Tennessee,
was held to seven yards on four carries.
Warren led all receivers with two catches
for 49 yards, while Keith Allen hauled in
three passes for 46 yards.
Defensively, Bellotti pointed out the play
of defensive end Quinn Dorsey and line
backer Wesly Mallard.
Of course, perfection is hard to come by
during the first week of spring ball and Bel
lotti was quick to point out the areas that the
Ducks need to improve upon.
“We need to do a better job on first downs
— both sides of the ball,” Bellotti said. “If we
win the battle of first downs, we have a
chance to win the series or the possessions
battle. But we can’t give up big plays and it
doesn’t matter if it’s first string, second or
third string, I’m not tolerant of people walking
into the end zone against us.
“I think we need to work a lot on commu
nication, and that’s coaches-to-players and
players-to-players in terms of making sure we
understand what we’re doing and where our
help is,” Bellotti said.
The Ducks will be back to work this week
with practices today, Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday. The spring workouts conclude April
28 with the annual Spring Game at Hillsboro
Stadium near Portland.
Note: Bellotti announced the signing of
another prep player Saturday, defensive
back Cory Larsen of Gresham High. Larsen
was the Mt. Hood Conference defensive
player of the year last fall.