Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
Wednesday, April 2,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
MLB: Seattle at Oakland
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Track time: Ducks try for Pac-10 titles
MEN: Two former NCAA champions
return to anchor a team that’s trying
to improve on last year’s second-place
finish at the Pac-10 Championships
Men’s track and field
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Well, there’s always track season.
Last year, the pressure was on the Oregon
men’s track and field team to finish the series of
Pacific-10 Conference titles started by the foot
ball and men’s basketball teams.
This year, the track team is the only squad left
with a chance to win a Pac-10 title.
But of any of Oregon’s major sports, the men’s
track squad has perhaps the best chance to win
that Pac-10 crown, and the Ducks could even
compete for a national championship.
That’s what happens when you return two for
mer NCAA champions to a team that finished
second at Pac-lOs in 2002. Decathlete Santiago
Lorenzo and javelin thrower John Stiegeler, both
individual national champions in 2001 who both
redshirted last season with injuries, join 2002
Pac-10 champions Adam Kriz (hammer) and
Brandon Holliday (400-meter hurdles), as well
as 2002 Pac-10 runners-up Jason Hartmann
(10,000) and Foluso Akinradewo (triple jump).
And then there’s the new talent. The biggest
recruit was Jordan Kent, son of Oregon basket
ball head coach Ernie Kent. The younger Kent is
a multi-event threat, as he won a total of eight
Oregon 4A high school titles in the 100,200,400
and long jump. Travis Anderson, a Colorado high
school champion in the 400, already holds the
top Duck times in the 200 and 400 this season.
Erik Heinonen, son of women’s head coach Tom
Heinonen, was once the top-ranked high school
er in the 10,000 and should make an impact in
the distance events.
Several Ducks will be in action this week at
the Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium in
Austin, Texas. Lorenzo will compete in his first
full decathlon of the season, starting today, and
he will be joined in the event by fellow Ducks
Gabe LeMay and Andy Young.
Thursday, more Oregon athletes will enter the
fray as the Ducks’ 4x800 relay team will take on
a deep, talented field. Holliday and Eric Mitchum
will compete in the 400 hurdles, and Jason Slye
will compete in the pole vaulting “B” section.
The meet is the first of four for the men be
Emerald
John Stiegeler is one of two 2001 NCAA Champions returning to the Oregon track and field team this spring.
fore the Pac-10 Championships in Los Angeles
May 17-18. After the Texas Relays, it’s all home
cookin’ for the Ducks as they come back to
Hayward Field for the Pepsi Team Invitational,
the Oregon Invitational and the Oregon Twi
light meets.
All those meets, including the Pac-10 Cham
pionships, lead up to the NCAA West Regionals
in late May. In a year of change and rebirth, the
NCAA West Regional is perhaps the most mono
lithic example of freshness.
In previous years, athletes attempted to hit
marks that would either qualify them automati
cally or put them on a provisional list to make
the NCAA Championships. Depending on how
many athletes qualified automatically for each
event, a certain amount of athletes (different for
Turn to Men's, page 12
WOMEN: Oregon looks to have
its best season in years with
a veteran squad and a coach
who could go out with a bang
Women’s track and field
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
The heart of track season is finally
upon us in Track Town USA.
The season has crept up on Oregon
like a ghost in the night with the Texas
Relays beginning today.
The Oregon women’s track and field
team is going full steam ahead with
records already being broken. The Ducks
have a long list of senior athletes who will
anchor Oregon’s veteran squad in the
jumps and throws.
The team, which includes six return
ing NCAA participants and three Pac-10
runners-up from last season, has already
begun to propel the excitement that is
Oregon track and field.
It will be a season to remember as
legendary head coach Tom Heinonen is
set to leave his final mark on the pro
gram, as the men’s and women’s teams
will merge in 2004.
Heinonen is wrapping up an unprece
dented career in his 27th season as the
only head coach to win multiple NCAA
titles in track and field and cross country,
along with many other career highlights.
Eight of Oregon’s 11 athletes compet
ing in Texas are seniors, with the veteran
leadership of the squad primarily in the
jumps and throws.
The throwing duo of seniors Mary Et
ter and Jordan Sauvage will lead Ore
gon at Mike A. Myers Stadium and, the
Ducks hope, to a solid regional perform
ance in May.
Etter anchors the team as a two-time
All-American and four-time Pac-10
scorer in her final season. The Washing
ton native ranks in the top five all-time
at Oregon in the hammer, discus and
shot put.
Etter has posted season bests of 169
feet, 7 inches in the discus and 167-8 in
the hammer, yet both marks are almost
Turn to Women's, page 14
Mark McCambridge Emerald
USC's Carson Palmer (3) is expected to go near or at the top of this season's NFL Draft
QBs leave for NFL Draft,
leave Pac-10 teams reeling
Three of last season’s top teams look
to replace star quarterbacks as spring
practices begin around the conference
Spring football notes
Hank Hager
Sports Reporter
With the year of the quarterback over in the Pa
cific-10 Conference, it is time for a few teams to find
their signal-caller of the future.
California, USC and Washington State head into
spring practice looking to replace some of the con
ference’s best. Kyle Boiler of California and Carson
Palmer of USC are expected to be selected in the
first round or possibly No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft
in April.
The Pac-lO’s Co-Offensive Player of the Year, Ja
son Gesser, is also expected to be taken in the draft,
although not as high.
“We have to find out who the quarterback is going
to be,” first-year Washington State head coach Bill
Doba said. “I think Matt Kegel is our leading guy. He
has been here four years and he has worked his tail
off, and he has been loyal to this program.”
Kegel heads into spring camp as the No. 1 signal
caller as the Cougars opened practices Tuesday. For
the Golden Bears and Trojans, it doesn’t look to be
as easy as they approach the midway point through
practices.
USC head coach Pete Carroll is auditioning four
players for the top spot. Midway through the team’s
workouts, junior Matt Cassell leads the group in the
race. But transfer Brandon Hance, from Purdue, is
right on his heels.
“They’re real close,” Carroll told the Los Angeles
Daily News about the four. “This is a huge week for
them. I hope to (name a starter) but I’ve got to see
what happens.” *
At Cal, the situation is a bit more dire. While the
Cougars and Trojans both have quarterbacks who
have seen game action — Kegel and Hance — the
Golden Bears entered spring practice in mid-March
with a group of relative unknowns.
California head coach Jeff Tedford said Reggie
Robertson and Richard Schwartz will get most of the
snaps, although he does not expect to name a starter
until fall practices start.
“No one really has the experience to really have
ownership at that position at all,” he said. “It’s
Turn to Football, page 13