Best Bet
NBA Eastern Conference Finals: Milwaukee at Philadelphia
6 p.m., NBC
SPORTS EDITOR: JEFF SMITH Smittside@aol.com
Duck men pumped up for NCAAs at Hayward
■ Oregon is sitting pretty with
a small but proven contingent
and the home field advantage
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
The NCAA Championship meet has
not been kind to the Oregon men’s track
and field team lately. The once mighty
* Ducks have been seen at the bottom of
the NCAA scoreboard: 65th place...
Oregon... 2 points.
The slump may be
over, though. Oregon
head coach Martin
Smith has revamped
the Ducks program
with big-name talent
from a mix of in-state
and international ath
letes.
If everything goes according to plan
this week, Oregon will place 15th with
17 points, a far cry from the five-point
performance last year and the two-point
performance in 1999.
The Ducks feel they have an ace up
their sleeve. With the NCAA Champi
onships taking place right here in Eu
gene, the athletes will have a large
crowd on their side while competing on
familiar facilities.
“I can imagine the whole stadium
filled with green Duck fans cheering me
on,” said Oregon’s Santiago Lorenzo,
the fourth-ranked decathlete. “It’s really
going to help me a lot.”
One of Oregon’s biggest threats is
sophomore John Stiegeler, who is the fa
vorite to win the javelin.
“Throwing at home definitely has its
advantages,” said Stiegeler, who was
dubbed “Javelin John” by faithful Hay
ward fans earlier this season. “It’s al
ways fun competing at home. I’m an in
ternal person but when you get the
crowd going, you get an extra spark.”
The bulk of Oregon’s points are ex
pected to come from Stiegeler and
Lorenzo, but the Ducks have other
threats elsewhere. In only his second
meet of the season, redshirt freshman
Jason Hartmann posted an NCAA pro
vision mark in the 10,000 meters in a
time of 28 minutes, 56 seconds, which
has remained the seventh-best mark in
the nation for two months. Now, Hart
mann is rested and ready for a strong
performance.
A big surprise could come from jun
Turn to Men’s, page 12A
Emerald
Oregon’s “Javelin John” Stiegeler is a big reason why the Ducks could make some noise at the NCAA Championships,
Quartet of women hold Oregon’s NCAA title hopes
Jon House Emerald
Sophomore Mary Etter, ranked 10th nationally in the discus, is one of four Ducks qualified for the NCAA Championships.
■ Four Ducks will shoot for
All-American status at this week’s
four-day NCAA Championships
By Peter Hockaday
Oregon Daily Emerald
Theoretically, the Oregon women’s
track and field team could score up to 38
points at this week’s NCAA Champi
onships. That point total would put
them somewhere near
fifth- or sixth-place na
tionally.
If that happened,
there would be much
celebration in Track
town, U.S. A.
Instead, if every
thing goes according to the national
plan, the Ducks are more likely to score
around 15 points and end up near 15th
or 20th in the country at the meet that
they will host.
So the Ducks will instead focus on in
dividual goals. Oregon has four athletes
entered into the four-day champi
onships: freshman Sarah Malone in the
javelin, junior Niki Reed in the pole
vault, sophomore Mary Etter in the dis
cus and sophomore Charyl Weingarten
in the javelin.
“We’re very strong in the field events
this year and we’d like to have a good
showing in front of our hometown fans,”
Oregon head coach Tom Heinonen said.
“We’ve made some strides, and we’ll
certainly be motivated this week. It’s an
opportunity for us to showcase what
we’ve got.”
Of those four Oregon athletes, Malone,
Reed and Etter have the best chances to
win national titles. Malone is ranked sec
ond nationally in the javelin, while Reed
and Etter both rank 10th in their events.
However, Reed has the same season-best
jump as the fifth-ranked jumper and only
lies in 10th because of a complicated se
ries of tie-breakers.
Turn to Women’s, page 12A
Despite victory in court. Martin’s ride will be rough
fOUT IN
_LEFT FIELD
ADAM JUDE
I have a hard enough time finishing a
round of golf using my healthy legs. I
can’t imagine having to do it with a dis
ability.
Which makes my admiration for Eugene’s
Casey Martin even greater.
Martin suffers from a rare citculatory dis
order in his right leg, making it painful to
walk, especially for four hours on an 18-hole
golf course. But after a three-and-a-half-year
struggle, he can now rest easy knowing he
can ride with the rest of the pack.
Citing the 1990 Disabilities Act, the
Supreme Court ruled Tiiesday that Martin
can use a golf cart in between shots. The deci
sion came after the PGA appealed two lower
court rulings, which also sided with Martin’s
original lawsuit, filed in 1997.
The PGA argued that the fatigue of walking
from shot to shot was part of golf and Martin
would have an unfair advantage with a cart.
There were no hard feelings on either side,
however. PGA Tour commissioner Tim
Finchem woke Martin in his Eugene home
early Tuesday morning to inform him of the
ruling and congratulate him.
“My instant reaction was relief,” Martin told
ESPN.com. “Relief that it was over and I can
put all this behind me. There is no guarantee
that golf will be in my future forever, but I will
always be able to look back and realize that I
prevailed in this. That means a lot. ”
Martin, a former teammate of Tiger Woods
and member of the 1994 NCAA champi
onship team at Stanford, said he hopes the
court’s decision will create more opportuni
ties for other disabled athletes.
“I think in the future this opens some
doors for people,” Martin told the Associated
Press.
The controversy has sparked much debate,
including how other forms of disability will
be interpreted.
“In Casey’s particular case, there’s no
doubt about his disability,” said PGA Tour
player Hal Sutton. “This is not about Casey
Martin. It’s about the possibilities it opens
up. The next person’s disabilities — it might
not be as clear.”
If not physically, the victory will surely
help Martin’s psyche, now that he can put
the stress of the court’s decision behind him.
But the story is far from over for Martin
and he is the first to admit it. He failed to re
tain his PGA Tour card at the end of last year
and is now trying to regain his admittance to
the big show in the Buy.com Tour.
“Even though this is one big hurdle that
I’ve cleared, there are still others,” Martin
said. “The lifestyle is trying at times, to say
the least. So yes, this is a big win for me, but
it’s not the end ofthe line. The end ofthe sto
ry is certainly not written.”
Martin will no doubt feel the pressure
from his co-workers on the tour, some proba
bly wishing they could ride around the
course, too. But you can bet that Martin
would give them the cart for one of their
healthy right legs.
Regardless, Martin has to be given credit for
his fight and support for this next endeavor.
Congrats, Casey. Go get ’em.
Adam Jude is a sports reporter for the Emerald. He can
be reached at ajude34@yahoo.com.