Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald.com
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
Best bet
NBA Playoffs:
Lakers at San Antonio, Game 2
6:30 p.mv TNT
Wednesday, May 7,2003
Heinonen
runs from
past, future
Erik Heinonen will run this weekend.
Whatever. I’ll run this weekend. You’ll
run this weekend. My 80-year-old aunt
will run this weekend. This is Track
Town, for crying out loud. Someday
they’re going to hire traffic cops to direct
all the runners.
But Heinonen’s
run at the Cardinal
Qualifier is worth
watching. Because
the redshirt fresh
man hasn’t run
since 2001. Be
cause back then,
he was a super
stud and could yet
be a super-stud as
a Duck.
Because he’s
tried this before,
this comeback, and fallen flat.
But this weekend is different. Maybe
because his dad, legendary track coach
Tom Heinonen, is once again embracing
track for track as he heads for retire
ment. Or because Erik’s just a little old
er and a little wiser. Or because if he gets
one more ticky-taek injury, they’ll devote
an Erik Heinonen wing at the new
Springfield hospital.
Peter
Hockaday
Two minutes for
crosschecking
Erik Heinonen will run this weekend.
Watch out.
“I’m nervous and anxious,”
Heinonen said. “I’d say I’m more nerv
ous than anxious.”
Back in the day, Heinonen wasn’t of
ten nervous about racing because he was
king of the preps. Galling him a “phe
nom” would be like calling Michael Jor
dan a “basketball player.”
The recipe was perfect. He was from
Track Town. His dad was a well-respect
ed distance coach who helped build Eu
gene’s running legacy. He was — still is
— coat-hanger wirey. He was a self-pro
claimed “track geek,” a surprisingly nec
essary ingredient in becoming a distance
runner.
By his junior year, he was starring in
cross country and track. He finished fifth
that year at the national high school
cross country championships, right up
there with big names like Alan Webb,
who went on to break the high school
mile record at the Prefontaine Classic.
In his last year at South Eugene, he
reached the peak of his high school ca
reer with a shocker at the Stanford Invi
tational. He ran the 10,000-meters in 31
minutes, 26.05 seconds and led the na
tion’s high schoolers in the event. He
signed to come to Oregon because, well,
that’s what you do when your dad coach
es a school to three national titles.
Then his body started breaking down
like an old Chevy.
“I may have been overzealous in my
training because I wanted to prove that
what I’d done wasn’t a fluke,” Heinonen
said. “I made some sacrifices, just push
ing my body, pushing the envelope and
risking going too far. That’s not the best
way to do things.”
He suffered a strained calf. A bout of
bursitis in his hip. A problem with his
achilles. Every time, he came back too
early from one injury, and that led to the
next one.
He calls himself his own worst
Turn to Hockaday, page 12
Ducks anticipate NCAA berth
Oregon has three conference games
remaining before learning its regional
destination and opponent Sunday
Softball notes
Mindi Rice
Sports Reporter
For the first time since the 2000 season,
the Ducks are looking to the upcoming an
nouncement of the NCAA regional brackets
with anticipation.
After wrapping up regular-season play with a
doubleheader against Stanford, No. 18 Oregon
will wait until Sunday evening to learn its re
gional destination.
“Knowing that they can’t put two teams from
the same conference at a regional is wonderful,”
head coach Kathy Arendsen said.
Eight locations were selected by the NCAA Di
vision I Softball Committee to host a regional
tournament, with each location hosting eight
teams. Only one Pacific-10 Conference school
— No. 1 Arizona — was selected as a host school
for regionals.
The other regional hosts selected were No. 3
Texas, No. 6 Cal State Fullerton, No. 11 Nebraska,
No. 14 Michigan, No. 16 Alabama, No. 25 Florida
and unranked Fresno State. Host schools are not
guaranteed a bid to the tournament.
“I’d rather take on the Texases and Okla
homas. As good as they are, I’d rather go take on
those than these guys any day,” Arendsen said
of the Pac-10.
The Ducks won four preseason games
against teams currently ranked in the top 25.
They also hold an 8-10 Pac-10 record, with six
of those wins against teams ranked ahead of
Oregon in current polls.
Games at all eight regionals are scheduled for
May 15-18. The tournament will be played in a
double-elimination format.
The 64 teams are selected two ways. Twenty
six teams receive an automatic berth from their
conference as season champions. The other 38
teams are chosen by an at-large selection.
This is the first time the field was expanded to
64 teams as well as the first time regional sites
were announced prior to team selection.
Oregon will find out its fate Sunday at 7 p.m.,
when first-round pairings are announced.
Oregon Stale secures
winning record
Unranked Oregon State guaranteed itself a
winning record when it upset then-No. 4 Wash
ington on Friday. The 4-2 win in Seattle gave the
Beavers their 31st victory of the season and only
their second-ever victory at Washington.
Adam Amato Emerald
Lindsey Kontra and the Ducks will find out which regional site they're headed for when it's announced Sunday.
Despite Friday’s victory, the Beavers remain State is also the only team in the conference
eighth in the Pac-10 with an overall record of not ranked in either top-25 poll.
31-27 and a conference record of 4-14. Oregon Turn to Softball, page 13
Panova named Pac-10 Player of the Year
Daria Ranova won
both the indoor
and outdoor
individual Pac-10
Championships
this season.
Adam Amato Emerald
Manuel Kost and Courtney Nagle are also honored
as the Pac-10’s yearly awards are announced
Tennis
Mindi Rice
Sports Reporter
Three NCAA Championship-bound Ducks were given postsea
son honors by Pacific-10 Conference tennis coaches Tuesday.
Sophomore Daria Panova was named Pac-10 Women’s Tennis
Player of the Year, while teammate and doubles partner Courtney
Nagle was selected as an All-Pac-10 honorable mention.
Sophomore Manuel Kost earned a spot on the men’s
second team.
Panova won Oregon’s first Player of the Year award for ten
nis since 1988.
“It’s a great honor for her and the program,” women’s head
coach Nils Schyllander said. “She’s proven throughout the
whole year why she’s deserving of the award.”
The Moscow, Russia, native swept the Pac-10 singles titles
this year, winning the indoor and outdoor championships.
Turn to Tennis, page 14