Sports Editor
Peter Hockaday
peterhockaday@dailyemerald .com
_ Friday, May 9,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Sports
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NBA Playoffs:
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Duck scouting party heads to Pac-lOs
MEN: Santiago Lorenzo and two other
decathletes try to bring back a bushel
of points from the Pac-10 decathlon
Men’s track and field
Peter Hockaday
Sports Editor
Warning: This will sound cocky. But in the
half-cocked world of track and field, it almost
makes sense.
Santiago Lorenzo says if he finishes all 10
events at the Pacific-10 Conference Champi
onships decathlon this weekend, he’ll take the
Pac-10 crown.
“There’s no doubt that if I finish I will win it,”
he said.
Before you discount Lorenzo as another ego
maniac athlete, consider that he’s probably right.
Lorenzo is a former NCAA Champion among
boys in the decathlon field. As the athletes
compete in 10 events over two days in Los An
geles, he’s the only one who has consistent
marks in all of those events. He’s got the expe
rience; he’s got the skill. And he’s got a season
best that’s almost 700 points better than his
nearest competitor.
Not that Lorenzo will take it easy on the rest
of the boys this weekend.
“You don’t want to fall into whether it’s easy
or not because then you get relaxed, then you
can make mistakes,” Lorenzo said. “You’ve got
to just stay focused and finish.”
The main reason Lorenzo is back in NCAA
champion-caliber form is his consistency. Just
ask him what his best events are.
“Maybe my pole vault, and my javelin’s pretty
good. And my 1,500 isn’t bad,” Lorenzo said.
“I’m getting to the point where all my events
are evened out.”
Lorenzo, along with fellow Ducks Andy
Young and Jason Slye, will kick off the Pac-10
decathlon at 2 p.m. Saturday on USG’s home
track, Cromwell Field. Saturday’s events in
clude the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put,
high jump and 400. The athletes will conclude
Sunday with the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault,
javelin and the decathlon’s traditional final
event, the 1,500.
The decathlon Ducks will be able to score
Oregon’s first points in the Pac-10 Champi
onships. The rest of the team will head down to
Los Angeles next Saturday.
And the decathlon Ducks will have a
chance to score bunches of points. Behind
Lorenzo, Young is ranked fifth in the confer
ence and Slye, who finished fifth at last year’s
Pac-lOs, is currently ranked eighth in the
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Santiago Lorenzo thinks he simply has to finish in orderto win the Pac-10 decathlon in Los Angeles this weekend.
conference. The top eight finishers from each
event score points.
Young will be Oregon’s “X” factor. Lorenzo
says he’s got talent to pull off an upset of high
er-ranked Pac-10 decathletes.
But while Young might be slightly better than
Slye, the latter has more experience. Slye is a
senior, and Young is a redshirt sophomore.
“Andy’s going to be really tense; it’s going
to be our job to calm him down,” Lorenzo
said. “Before the Texas Relays he was
freaking out a month beforehand. And he
didn’t even know if he was going to go or not.
Jason, in that sense, is better because he’s
been there.”
The Ducks should benefit from the sheer
number of green-and-yellow jerseys making the
Turn to Men's, page 10A
WOMEN: Abby Andrus has
the opportunity to contest
for a Pac-10 title against the
nation’s leading heptathlete
Women’s track and field
Jesse Thomas
Sports Reporter
On the 26-foot ladder known as the
national heptathlon rankings, junior
transfer Abby Andrus stands directly in
the middle.
Andrus ranks 13th nationally and
can continue her way up at the
Pacific-10 Conference Championships
heptathlon this weekend. She’ll try to
earn one of the 26-28 spots the NCAA
usually selects.
In the conference, the Peoria,
Ariz., native ranks second with a sea
son best of 5,152 points, an NCAA
provisional mark.
For Andrus, first place seems almost
out of reach as Washington State’s
Ellannee Richardson leads the nation
with her score of 5,701.
“Ellannee is an amazing athlete,
and I’m not about to say I’m going to
go after her, but I just want to do the
best I can do,” Andrus said. “I’d like
to finish second; I think that’s a very
realistic goal for me.”
Even the second spot will be con
tested as two other competitors have
crested the NCAA provisional stan
dard of 5,000 points — Stanford’s
Lillian Bush (5,129) and Washington
State freshman Diana Pickier (5,120).
Andrus competed in her first
decathlon as a Duck in late March.
The former national junior college
runner-up transferred from Paradise
Valley J.G., where she had a previous
best of 4,903 in 2002.
The 22-year-old has made her
presence felt all over at Oregon as
she leads the team in the 100 hurdles
at 14 seconds, and 400 hurdles
(59.90), which rank her seventh and
sixth all-time at Oregon.
Andrus, who owns the sixth best all
time heptathlon mark at Oregon, is
looking forward to the competition
which begins Saturday.
“It’s always good to compete with
people who are better than you and
Turn to Women's, page 10A
Mark McCambridge Emerald
First baseman Alyssa Laux was named to the Verizon Academic All-District team Thursday. Laux
and four fellow seniors will be honored Saturday in their final home game.
Softball takes on Bay teams
in season’s final homestand
The Ducks close their regular season with
a game against California on Friday and a
doubleheader Saturday against Stanford
Softball
Mindi Rice
Sports Reporter
For five Oregon seniors, there are two days and
three games left at their home of Howe Field.
For 18 teammates and three coaches, there are
three games left in the No. 18 Ducks’ regular season.
Three chances for Oregon (30-16 overall, 8-10
Pac-10) to finish in the top half of the Pacifie-10
Conference for the first time since 1990.
“It was unanimous we’d finish last (in the pre
season poll),” head coach Kathy Arendsen.
“We’re not going to finish last. We could finish as
high as third. In this conference, that is a eham
pionship-level accomplishment.”
Oregon hosts No. 5 California at 2 p.m. Friday
before a doubleheader against No. 14 Stanford at
noon Saturday.
The Ducks have lost three games to California
(40-16, 9-9) this season. The Golden Bears are
the defending Women’s College World Series
champions after finishing fourth in the Pac-10
last season.
“We beat Cal, and it ties us (with Cal) for
third in the Pac-10,” Arendsen said. “That
would leave Arizona as the only team in the Pac
10 we didn’t beat.”
Stanford (36-23, 5-13) lost this season’s early
matchup with the Ducks, 3-2, in a 10-inning thriller.
Catcher Jenn Poore hit a two-run home run in the
second inning. Poore later scored the winning run on
a single by first baseman Alyssa Laux.
Oregon returns to Howe Field with a confidence
Turn to Softball, page 12A