Duck wrestlers head to NCAA Tournament
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Casey Hunt (top) is one of three Ducks who will head to the NCAA Championships next week.
Oregon sends three wrestlers to the NCAA
Tournament after finishing fifth in the Pac-10
Wrestling
Mindi Rice
Freelance Sports Reporter
Three Ducks will represent Oregon wrestling in
Kansas City, Mo., this week as a senior, a redshirt
junior and a sophomore each compete in the NCAA
Championships for the second time in their careers.
“All three of our guys are capable of placing,” head
coach Chuck Kearney said. “They’ve met the com
petition and beaten some of the guys they will need
to beat.”
Senior Casey Hunt will compete in his second
consecutive national tournament after finishing
third in the 141 weight class at the Pacific-10 Con
ference Tournament.
“Casey’s coming in with an ‘everything to gain’ at
titude,” Kearney said. “He’s the kind of guy that can
be real dangerous in a national tournament.”
Hunt finished the season with a 14-9 overall
record, including three wins by major decision and
three victories by pinning his opponent.
Hunt won his first match in the Pac-10 tourna
ment but lost a 3-1 decision to the eventual confer
ence champion.
Hunt also won his first match of the consolation
bracket to send him into the match for third place.
Battling Cal State-Fullerton’s Juan Mora, Hunt won a
13-10 decision to take third place and earn an un
contested berth in the national tournament.
Jason Harless, a redshirt junior, also makes his
second appearance in the NCAA Championships
after finishing fifth in the Pac-10 at 133. Harless
earned one of two wild-card berths into the na
tional tournament.
Harless is still battling back from a knee injury
he suffered during the dual meet season. During
the regular season, Harless finished with a 15-11
record, earning the No. 1 seed coming into the
Pac-10 Tournament.
Harless won his first match by major decision, but
lost to Arizona State’s Mike Simpson in a 4-0 deci
sion. Simpson went on to win the Pac-10 title at 133.
In the consolation bracket, Harless lost his first
match and faced Stanford’s Brad Metzler for fifth
place. Harless won the match by tiebreaker, and
then was voted to one of two NCAA wild-card
berths by the coaches. He also earned a wild-card
last year and finished the NCAA Tournament with
a 1-2 record.
Sophomore Shane Webster, No. 11 in the nation
at 174, will make the NCAAs as the No. 2 wrestler
from the Pac-10.
Webster finished the regular season with a 26-4
record, his only losses during the season and in
the Pac-10 Tournament coming at the hands of
ranked opponents.
During the Pac-10 Tournament, Webster domi
nated two opponents with major decisions before
losing a 3-1 decision to Arizona State’s Curtis Owen
in the 174 title match.
Last season, Webster finished third in the Pac-10
then went 1-2 at the NCAA Tournament.
During the dual season, Oregon competed against
No. 1 Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Nebraska,
three national powerhouses who all feature top
wrestlers in the NCAA Tournament.
The three wrestlers begin competition on Thurs
day in the first rounds of the national tournament.
This is the second time in 16 seasons that the Ducks
have had as few as three NCAA qualifiers.
Mindi Rice is a freelance writer for the Emerald.
No break for some
UO Club athletes
Several Duck teams will be
in action during spring break
Jon Roetman
Freelance Sports Reporter
Spring break will not be full of
relaxation for several club sports
teams.
Crew, cycling and women’s
water polo will all be keeping
busy while most of the student
body is taking a breather.
Crew will depart for San Diego
on Friday for spring training. The
Ducks will take part in two-a-day
practices from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and
2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Mission Bay.
“I can’t wait,” student coordina
tor Sarah Higginbotham said. “We
get to go down where the sun is
shining. It’s absolutely beautiful.”
The Ducks will travel by van,
towing their eight and four-per
son shells. After a one-night-stop
in the Bay Area, the Ducks will
"! can't wait We get to
go down where the sun
is shining. It's
absolutely beautiful
Sarah Higginbotham
student coordinator
head to the Marine Corps
Recruitment Depot, where they
will stay for the remainder of the
trip. There is a possibility the
Ducks will scrimmage against
California-San Diego.
Right after crew heads for the
Golden State, club cycling will
start the Northwest Collegiate
Cycling Conference season
Saturday in Corvallis with the
Oregon State Omnium.
“(An omnium) is kind of like
NASCAR for bikes,” student coor
dinator Brad Ritter said.
The following weekend, the
Ducks will host the Oregon
Omnium.
The same weekend, the
women’s club water polo team
will participate in a tournament
at Gal Poly.
“It’s going to be a good experi
ence,” head coach Jeff Lee said.
“We’ll go against some good
teams.”
The tournament will be for
experience only as the Ducks
work toward the national tourna
ment. They finished first in
Northwest Regional Seeding
Tournament last weekend. The
Ducks defeated rival Washington
11-2 and had only seven goals
scored on them during the entire
tournament.
“Our defense was key,” Lee
said.
The men’s club volleyball team
won’t be doing anything over the
break, but put on an impressive
show last weekend by winning the
first tournament it ever hosted.
The Ducks won the Northwest
Collegiate Classic, which featured
Washington, Washington State,
Western Washington, Oregon
State, Lane Community College
and Oregon. The Ducks defeated
the LCC Titans in the champi
onship game 25-17 and 25-19.
“It was definitely a learning
experience,” student coordinator
Levi McClain said. “We were pret
ty impressed with how it went.”
The Ducks have a goal of hosting
next year’s regional tournament at
McArthur Court. They also placed
third in a tournament at
Washington State and second in a
tournament in Walla Walla, Wash.
jon Roetman is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
Men's
continued from page 15A
play in the NCAA Tournament.”
The Ducks, who beat Arizona
State and UCLA by one point
each to get to the title game,
opened Saturday’s contest with
eight straight points and led 14-4
at the 15:46 mark. But USG re
sponded with a 15-0 run to make
the game close.
“All of (the tournament games)
were battles, this one was no dif
ferent,” Johnson said. “We wanted
to leave everything on the court,
and that’s what we did.”
The teams remained dead
locked until Oregon opened the
second half with a 10-2 run to take
a 47-37 lead with 17:01 left in the
game. The Ducks pushed the lead
to as many as 15 points with 8:37
left, but USG employed a full-court
press that flustered Oregon’s nor
mally sure-handed guards. The
tactic was reminiscent of what
Oregon did to UCLA on Friday, as
the Trojans forced the Ducks into
turnovers and bad shots. USG cap
italized, and fought its way to
within four points, at 70-66. But
the Ducks dominated the final two
and a half minutes, the Trojans
missed several shots, and Oregon
came out with the win.
“We knew were going to get it
done,” Ridnour said. “They did
make a run at us and we got
tired, but we were able to get
some key stops.”
After three games in three
nights, the Ducks were all tired for
Saturday’s game.
“My legs felt like weights at the
beginning of the second half,”
Johnson said. “I was like, ‘Legs,
don’t do this to me now. We got 20
minutes to go.’”
Oregon got to the title game
with late-game heroics Thursday
and Friday. Against eighth-seeded
Aaam Amato tmeraid
Ian Crosswhite (left) and Andre Joseph (middle) block UCLA's Ryan Walcott
UCLA on Friday, Jackson hit a
three-pointer with 17 seconds left
to propel the Ducks to a 75-74
win. In Thursday’s game against
Arizona State, Ridnour hit a run
ning lay-up with 3.3 seconds left
to lift Oregon to the 83-82 win.
The title was the first for the
Ducks.
Contact the sports editor
at peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
Track
continued from page 15A
throw, finishing 15th. Kriz
matched his pre-meet seeding of
15th with a toss of 64-9 1/4, which
was his third-best mark ever.
Kriz couldn’t be disappointed af
ter having another breakthrough
season. He outdistanced his pre
season best of 61-7 1/2. The fifth
year senior, along with the other
four competitors, now looks for
ward to the outdoor season.
Contact the sports reporter
at jessethomas@dailyemerald.com.