Monday
Best Bet
MLB: Texas at Seattle
7 p.m., Fox Sports Net
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Tom Patterson Emerald
Niki Reed punched her ticket to the NCAA Championships with a school record pole vault leap of 13-51/4.
Tom Patterson Emerald
Ross Krempley raises his arms in triumph as he completes the 4x400 relay victory and meet win for Oregon.
UO track scores sweep over Huskies at Dual
■The women beat Washington in the
only dual meet of the season thanks
to their solid throwers
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
- -Not only did the Oregon women’s track
and field team beat Washington in the
teams’ dual meet Saturday at Hayward
Field, but they won with a little flourish.
After all, it was the throwing events that
carried the Ducks all afternoon. The clinch
ing victory was, fittingly, Mary Etter’s toss of
43 feet, five 3/4-inches in the discus.
The Ducks dominated the Huskies Satur
day and won the Washington Dual by 23
points, 88-65. Oregon won nine of the 18
events, but swept the pole vault, discus and
hammer events to notch the team victory in
the Ducks’ only head-to-head competition of
the year.
“We wanted to win the meet, and it’s great
for our team to win a dual meet,” Oregon
head coach Tom Heinonen said. “Even bet
ter than that, we got lots of good marks, with
solid competition.”
Oregon’s most impressive single score was
Niki Reed’s pole vault of 13-5 1/4, which tied
her own school record and put her second on
the NCAA list. It was the
Ducks’ first NCAA automat
ic mark of the year, meaning
Reed is the first Oregon ath
lete to have her ticket
punched for the NCAA
Championships at Hayward
Field later this season.
“It feels great,” Reed said about equaling
her record. “I’m really excited for nationals
here. I’ve got big plans for nationals.”
Vaulters Holly Speight, Kirsten Riley and
Karina Elstrom finished second through
Turn to Women’s, page 9A
■ Bolstered by their field events, the
Duck men outlast the Huskies at the
Washington Dual
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
As Ross Krempley sprinted toward the fin
ish line of the 4x400 relay, the Hayward Field
public address announcer proclaimed, “The
sun has returned to the Willamette Valley,
and so have the Ducks as they win the relay
and the event.”
The final race of the day proved to be icing
on the cake for the Oregon men’s track and
field team, who had captured the necessary
82 points in its previous run to overtake the
Washington Huskies in the 93rd edition of
the Washington Dual.
Oregon’s almost six-second advantage
over Washington in the last relay event pro
pelled the Ducks to the 87-75 victory in front
of 2,678 fans at Hayward Field.
“We showed the ability to improve and I
was real pleased with the steps we took,”
Oregon head coach Martin Smith said. “It’s
just real different than a big invitation. It en
gages every kid to be a part of the team and to
contribute to the chance of the team doing
well. It helps bring a team together. ”
Indeed, the players,
whether they competed in
the field or on the track, were
united as one. On this Satur
day afternoon, the Ducks
spoke not of gaining qualify
ing marks for later competi
tions, but of earning enough
overall points that day to beat their Northwest
Pacific-10 Conference rival Huskies.
“It’s always real exciting and this dual
meet with Washington has a great history,”
said Santiago Lorenzo, who battled through a
Turn to Men’s, page 10A
Jon House Emerald
Shortstop Kate Peterson can’t hang on to a throw as Oregon State’s Brooke Rutschman slides into
second base. Centerfielder Lisa Wangler looks on in the background.
Ducks sink below .500 mark
■After sweeping San Jose State Friday, the
Ducks were swept by Civil War foe Oregon
State Saturday
By Adam Jude
Oregon Daily Emerald
The weekend stafted out hot. The sun was shin
ing, the birds were chirping and the Oregon soft
ball team was poised to turn
around its lingering season.
And, if only for a day, hope
was in Oregon’s dugout.
The Ducks swept San Jose
State in a Friday doubleheader,
outscoring the Spartans 13-2, to
climb above the .500 mark and
roll into Saturday’s Civil War
doubleheader with a touch of confidence.
But when the No. 16 Beavers strolled onto Howe
Field, the mood changed. From the time sopho
more Lisa Wangler threw her first pitch just after 12
p.m. until the Ducks finished tarping the field four
hours later, the momentum belonged to the black
and orange.
It was like football quarterback Joey Harrington
getting drilled all over again.
SOFTBALL
Oregon State (32-15 overall, 2-5 Pacific-10 Confer
ence) used a seven-run third inning to win the first
game 8-0, and sent junior pitcher Connie McMurren
home early in an 11-2 romp in the late game.
The Beavers have now won seven straight Civil
War contests,
“We don’t have that mental edge right now. We
just haven’t figured it out,” said Oregon head coach
Rick Gamez, who is now 25-26 overall and 1-7 in
the Pac-10. “We need more focus, more fight, espe
cially in the Pac-10. There’s no possible way we can
expect to compete like this. ”
Three Oregon errors proved costly in the third in
ning of the first game. Wangler loaded the bases after
an error and two singles and gave up an RBI single to
Oregon State first baseman Steph Adams, scoring two
runs. In 2 2/3 innings, Wangler was responsible for
seven runs—three unearned—while walking four.
She suffered the loss to fall to 5-7 on the year.
“We had one bad inning in the first game that was - -
the turning point of the entire day,” Gamez said. “It’s
tough to try to come back after an inning like that. ”
In game one, Oregon State pitcher Crystal Draper
allowed just two hits — including a two-out double
off the bat of Missy Coe in the bottom of the seventh
— and struck out eight in the complete-game
Turn to Softball, page 10A