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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 7, 2001)
Monday NHL Playoffs: Best Bet New Jersey at Toronto 4 p.m., ESPN SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com Men let good times roll in Texas and California ■ Men’s track and field snags four individual titles and gets three runner-ups at Texas and Stanford By Robbie McCallum Oregon Daily Emerald With championship competitions less than a month away for the Oregon men’s track and field team, the Ducks are nearing peak performance. This weekend in Texas and Califor nia, Oregon got a little higher up on the peak. The Ducks split up for trips to Austin, Texas, and Stanford, Calif., to hunt for more Pacific-10 and NCAA qualifying marks. At the Texas Invitational, junior transfer Simon Kimata continued his triumphant recovery from a stress frac ture by winning the 800 meters with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1 minute, 47.9 seconds. The mark is Oregon’s fourth automatic mark of the season. Another junior transfer, Micah Har ris, won the 110 hurdles and tied the Oregon school record in the process. Harris’ mark of 13.79 seconds equaled former NCAA qualifier Bob Gray’s time. Following Harris to the line in the 110 hurdles were sophomore Terry El lis, who finished third with a time of 14.04, freshman Jake Garlick, 15th with a 14.71, and sophomore decath lete Jason Slye, 22nd with a 15.42. The sprinting corps received an un expected boost from sophomore Samie Parker in the 100 and 200 meters. Park er, also a football player, qualified for the Pac-10 Championships with a per sonal best time of 10.59 in the 100. Parker also collected the team’s fastest mark this season in the 200, but fell just short of a Pac-10 mark, placing 20th with a 21.44. Sophomore Foluso Akinradewo suc cessfully returned to action and won the triple jump with a leap of 49-9 3/4. The Fresno, Calif., native missed two meets because of a hamstring injury. The throws were a strong area for the Ducks in Texas. Sophomore John Stiegeler picked up Oregon’s third win of the meet, capturing the javelin title with a toss of 240-3. It was his third competition past the 240-foot mark. Stiegeler, the national leader in the javelin, paced Oregon freshmen Adam Jenkins (fifth, 197-8) and Nick Bakke (eighth, 189-7). The shot put competition also fea tured three Ducks in the event’s top eight finishers. Junior John Bello placed fourth (57-4 1/4), followed by junior Rian Ingrim (sixth, 55-1) and Turn to Men’s, page 12 Adam Amato Emerald Junior Micah Harris, right, led the men’s team in Texas this weekend with a school-record run in the 110-meter hurdles. UO drops three more Pac-10 games ■The Oregon softball squad drops three straight conference games to No. 2 UCLA and No. 12 Washington By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald A confidence-boosting, double header sweep Thursday didn’t do much for the Oregon softball team as it went back to the harsh reality of the Pacific-10 Conference this weekend. After terrorizing UC-Riverside on Thursday, the Ducks (27-36 overall, 1-17 Pac-10) were dealt three straight blows by UCLA and Wash ington while travel ing more than 2,300 miles. Most recently, after catching an evening flight from Los Angeles, Ore gon was swept in a two-game series in Seattle against the 12th-ranked Huskies. Connie McMurren (8-17) pitched a complete game for the Ducks Sunday, but gave up six runs on 10 hits in a 6-2 loss. Senior first baseman Triawn Custer continued her hot streak, finishing the game 2-for-3 with both of Oregon’s runs.. “We actually swung the bats well today,” head coach Rick Gamez said. “But they had a couple key hits that we weren’t able to get on our end. We left too many runners on base.” But for the second straight day, freshman pitcher Tia Bollinger — the conference leader with a 32-5 record — shut down the Ducks, allowing seven hits and two runs in six innings SOFTBALL R. Ashley Smith Emerald Junior Kristi Hall dives back to second base in a game earlier this season. The Ducks dropped three straight games to No. 2 UCLA and No. 12 Washington this weekend. of work. The Huskies (36-19, 10-8) swept Oregon this season; Bollinger picked up all three wins. Saturday was a day to forget for the Ducks. Lisa Wangler (5-10) surrendered nine runs in the second inning and the Ducks could only muster two hits in an 11-0 defeat. Lynsey Haij and Andrea Vidlund had Oregon’s only hits. “We were plagued by errors and couldn’t seem to get our offense go ing,” Gamez said. "We just weren’t mentally tough.” Against No. 2 UCLA (53-4,13-4) on Friday, the Ducks had momentum go ing into the fourth inning and clung to the hope of an upset. Vidlund’s three-run bomb in the first inning gave Oregon an early lead, which Vidlund added to in the fourth after a base hit and a run scored. Turn to Softball, page 12 Macdonald, ‘Mo’ highlight weekend ■The Ducks were lukewarm at the Cardinal Invitational, but Eri Macdonald and Maureen Morrison saved the team’s performance By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald On a lukewarm weekend for the Oregon women’s track and field team, Eri Macdonald and Maureen “Mo” Morrison saved the Ducks from embarrassment in California. Macdonald shone at the Cardinal Invitational Friday and ran a personal best time in the 800 meters to become the sec ond Oregon runner to make the NCAA provisional list. Her time of 2 minutes, 7.08 seconds met the NCAA provisional time by almost a half second. Morrison kept her improvement steady in the hammer throw, tossing the hammer 186 feet, 6 inches at the Steve Scott Invita tional Sunday. The throw was a personal record and landed the senior on the NCAA provisional list for the first time in her career. Morrison also upped her sea son best in the discus, throwing 159-9 in the event to finish second. Other than the performances of Morrison and Macdonald, the Ducks had a disappointing weekend. Sophomore Mary Etter and senior Hanna Smedstad were the only athletes besides Morrison and Macdonald to score season bests. Etter threw the shot put 47-11 3/4, more than a foot beyond her previous season best. Smedstad ran a 16:52.95 in the 5,000, which was nearly 10 seconds faster than her previous season best. Both those marks, however, merely improved on old Pacif ic-10 Conference marks for both athletes. Smedstad missed the NCAA provisional list by five seconds, while Etter threw a foot short in the shot put. " The javelin unit performed well at the Steve Scott on Sun day, although they didn’t score very high marks. The team of freshman Sarah Malone, sophomore Charyl Weingarten and senior Sara Dinsmore swept the top three spots. Malone fin Tu rn to Women’s, page 12 •
