Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 9, 2001)
Wednesday Best Bet MLB: Seattle at Boston 4 p.m., Fox Sports Net SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com Kimata earns Oregon’s fourth Pac-10 award Junior transfer Simon Kimata earns Oregon’s fourth Pac-10 Player of the Week award of the season a record performance in the 800 By Robbie McCailum Oregon Daily Emerald Two months ago, Oregon’s Simon Kimata was in a boot cast. A month ago, Kimata didn’t think he could break the two-minute barrier in the 800-meters, a time he easily surpassed in high school. Now the Nyeri, Kenya, native is back to his old form and is ranked fourth nationally. Kimata completed a successful rehabilitation from an Achilles stress fracture last weekend at the Texas Invitational. Kimata won the 800-meters in a sea sonal best time of 1 minute, 47 seconds to auto matically qualify for the NCAA Championships. Kimata broke the three-year-old track record at Mike Myers Stadium. For his efforts, Kimata earned the Pacific-10 Conference’s Athlete of the Week award. The jun ior college transfer owns the top mark in the con ference by a half-second. The 1:47.92 mark is the eighth fastest in school history, behind Scott Daggatt in 1974. Kimata is the third Duck to capture the Athlete of the Week this season. He joins junior John Stiegeler, who has received the honor twice this year, and junior Santiago Lorenzo on the Pac-10 awards list. The road to recovery has been marked by major improvements for Kimata. His first race in more than two years came at the April 4-7 Texas Relays, where Kimata ran the anchor leg on Oregon’s sprint medley relay team. Kimata surprised even himself with a 1:55 performance. At the Washing ton Dual meet on April 14, Kimata earned another seasonal best at 1:50, followed by a run of 1:49 to win the Oregon Invitational two weeks later. While Kimata has a trip to the NCAA Champi onships all but clinched, he is still cautious to wards his injury. “I can still feel my Achilles when I really push it,” Kimata said. “Up until now, the goal has just been to win and to stay healthy. I haven’t really fo cused on time much. I’m very pleased though.” Invading the record books Some unexpected athletes have snuck into the Oregon record books this season. In addition to Micah Harris tying the school record in the 110 meter hurdles and Stiegeler being only six feet away from the javelin record, four others have made it into Oregon’s top-10 list. Sophomore Terry Ellis is now tied-for-fifth on the 110 hurdle list with Don Wright at 14.04. Red shirt freshman Jason Hartmann needed only one race to make it onto the top-10 list in the 10,000 meters in a time of 28:56. Sophomore Foluso Akiradewo sneaked onto the all-time triple jump list by two inches with a leap of 50 feet, six inches and freshman Adam Jenkins is 10th on the javelin list with a toss of 218-5. Inching closer to spots in the Oregon record book are freshman Trevor Woods in the pole vault, junior John Bello in the shot put and sopho more Sarnie Parker in the 100-meters. Form charts If the NCAA Championships were held today, Oregon would score 24 points and place ninth (based off of last year’s scoring). Oregon would re ceive big points with Stiegeler’s win in the javelin and fourth-place finishes by Kimata in the 800 and Lorenzo in the decathlon. Other points would come from redshirt fresh man Hartmann in the 10,000 meters and junior Jason Boness in the high jump. The Ducks have NCAA provisional qualifiers in three other events but are not expected to score. Oregon placed 44th last year at the NCAAs and 65th in 1999. The Ducks haven’t finished higher than fifth since 1992. Oregon’s NCAA qualifiers will look forward to competing at Hayward Field for the nationals, May 30 through June 2. KIMATA Jon House Emerald Freshman Anissa Meashintubby is 4-1 in the circle this season. The Ducks host Portland State at 2 p.m. today for a doubleheader at Howe Field. Oregon seeking revenge against PSU ON TAP: Who: Oregon softball vs. Portland State When: Doubleheader begins at 2 p.m. Where: Howe Field ■To make up for PSU’s April 13 sweep, the Ducks will have to stop Portland State slugger Kiauna Anderson, who brought in two home runs that fateful day By Adam Jude Oregon Daily Emerald Of all the shutouts, demolitions, strikeouts, two-hitters and other embarrassments that the Oregon softball team has faced in this forgettable season, the most devastating has to be getting swept in a doubleheader by in-state rival Port land State on April 3. Heading into their final five games of the sea son, however, the Ducks (27-36 overall, 1-17 Pa cific-10 Conference) — who swept the Vikings last year — can at least salvage a series split with the Vikings with a doubleheader sweep today, be ginning at 2 p.m. at Howe Field. “It’s been a long season and I don’t want to go out on a bad note,” sophomore pitcher/outfielder Andrea Vidlund said. “There’s not much we can do at this point. We just want to have fun and get through this as a team.” Flashback to early April. On the first of the month, the Ducks split a doubleheader with Arizona State to open Pac-10 play with a motivating 1-2 start (after also losing to then-No. 2 Arizona) and went into the non-conference matchup in Portland with a shot of confidence. Turn to Softball, page 12 Kenyon, Sullivan eager for Pac-10s ■ For Oregon’s two heptathletes, the Pac-10s offer tough competition this weekend, and both Ducks are confident they’ll meet the conference heat By Peter Hockaday Oregon Daily Emerald As junior Jenny Kenyon practiced Tuesday for the javelin throw — an event she will participate in this Sun day in Berkeley, Calif. — she asked sen ior all-American Karis Howell for some advice about her release. You see, Kenyon is not really a javelin thrower. Nor is she a high jumper or a long jumper. But Kenyon will compete in all those events at the Pacific-10 Conference Championship heptathlon this weekend. This weekend’s heptathlon will kick off the Pac-10 Championships a week early in Berkeley. Oregon will send two representatives — Kenyon and fresh man Ann Sullivan — to face some of the nation’s best heptathletes. The ath letes compete in the 100-meter hurdles, shot put and high jump Saturday, then the 200, 800, javelin and long jump Sunday. Kenyon and Sullivan have both en dured injuries this season, but both say they are ready to get the Ducks off to a fast start at the Pac-10 Championships. “They’re both a little banged up,” Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said. “Jenny was scheduled to compete in the Steve Scott [Invitational last weekend], but we didn’t even take her down there.” The athletes said that if they do well, it could be a sign of things to come, as the rest of the team will travel down to Berkeley next weekend for the league tourney. “I think it can set the tone for the rest of the team,” Kenyon said. “Ann and I can get those points. We both compete hard.” While Kenyon said she is strong in the 200 and the shot put, Sullivan is a hurdler by nature, and cites the 100 hurdles and 200 as her strongest events. Tu rn to Women, page 8 ((I think it can set the tone for the rest of the team. Ann and I can get those points. We both compete hard. Jenny Kenyon Oregon heptathlete _n
